HBO MAX
Audio Experience
When Silence Speaks Louder Than Spectacle
Partnership
Huffpost
Sector
Entertainment • Luxery • Products
Concept
Black Lives Matter movement dominated every screen, every street, every conversation. The question wasn't whether America was paying attention. It was: how do you launch a show about being Black in America before the nation clicks to the next story?
HBO Max needed to introduce the series, Between the World and Me, a statement on being Black in America, to an audience overwhelmed by information but starving for truth.
I rejected spectacle. Instead, I proposed creating a stripped-down digital experience on HuffPost that did something radical: it listened.
Seven painted portraits. Seven voices. Seven personal stories about being Black in America. Each figure waiting quietly on a minimal page design. Click a button. Hear what they have to say.
That's it. That's the entire activation.
Strategy
By eliminating every distraction, we forced the audience to do something they rarely do online: stop scrolling and truly listen.
Role
Associate Creative Director: Strategy & Layout
Recognition
Webby nomination: Brand Service
Results
Pages Views
3M
in 7 days. Goals exceeded during the year's most competitive media week of Thanksgiving.
Visual Language
Where a photograph captures a moment, a painted portrait elevates a person to witness—stripping away the clinical "produced" feel to reveal only gaze, presence, and undeniable humanity. I chose art over documentation because these voices don't belong to just this moment; they belong to the entire continuum of Black survival, resistance, and truth.
Design System
Each element we stripped away was an acknowledgment that nothing—no brand element, no clever UI flourish, no engagement metric—was more important than the person speaking.
These testimonies are heavy. The white space between the portrait and the edge of the screen creates psychological breathing room—a visual exhale that allows the weight of what you're hearing to settle without feeling claustrophobic.
Sometimes, the most powerful creative solution is knowing what not to design.
Credits
Executive Creative Director
Producer
Design UX
Copy Editor
Illustrator
Brian Lightbody
Blair Rayner
Brad Mead
Jess Dickerson
El' Cesart
LinkedIn
Info@duanebruton.com
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