About
A pile of Billboard magazine covers from across the chart's history

Billboard Charts

Redesign with Pentagram

In 2012, Pentagram was redesigning Billboard, a music authority since 1894.

As the Billboard Charts presented their own design challenges, Michael Bierut's team brought me in to own the redesign of the entire chart system.

A century-old institution

Billboard chart in the 1940s
1940s
Billboard chart in the 1950s
1950s
Billboard chart in the 1960s
1960s
Billboard chart in the 1970s
1970s
Billboard chart in the 1980s
1980s
Billboard chart in the 1990s
1990s
Billboard chart in the 2000s
2000s
Billboard chart in the 2010s
2010s — Here we are!
Hot 100 print spread showing inline imagery inside select rows, a left-to-right ramp of previous positions, and Digital Gainer / Sales Gainer red flags

Upgrades

I introduced new features into the chart system:

  • Typography tuned for scannability.
  • Heatmap layer showing each song's week-over-week shift in position.
  • Photo and blurb slots inside table rows — injecting narrative and matching the magazine's aesthetic.
  • Badge system that flags patterns of movement up and down the rankings.
Detail of a Hot 100 row featuring a 'God's Dead' editorial blurb and accompanying photography
Hot 100 chart spread
Billboard chart system on mobile web

The chart system was extended across Billboard's digital properties by Area17.

I design and build systems, end to end.

From strategyTo pixels

Pigeons: Beacon, NY

Robots: llms.txt