Digital experience for the Tiger Woods brands

As part of larger business strategy and rebranding project I lead the UX and visual design of the massive digital presence for Tiger Woods. When we began we found 7 unique domains all with their own look and feel, different technical requirements, with no meaningful interconnections between them.

My job was two fold. First, untangle the page navigation and build a new approach to moving users through content and between properties. Second, design a new visual world that will flex across all the sub-brand sites while amplifying the existing content.

Services

UX design
Design strategy
Brand design

Agency

Sub Rosa

Contributors

Devon McGarth
Jesse Brattengeier
Cameron Browning
Ellie Lammer

Untangling the brand journey

Over the years Mr. Woods' ambition and vision spawned six independent entities that touched across lifestyles and audiences. The web properties ranged from his professional site capturing his sports legacy, a tournament brand with ongoing events, a Florida based restaurant brand, a scholarship focus charitable foundation, a golf course design company, and a holding company that housed all the Tiger Woods branded entities. The new umbrella company, TGR, would be the unified presence that linked all pieces together, while allowing each a unique expression.

Each entity had its own site with no meaningful connective tissue helping the user tap into the wealth content. Each site was also platformed separately with very different UX and content requirements. The good news, the client had little bureaucracy that would prevent wholesale redesign. The bad news, there was over ten years of content that needed to be assessed and accounted for in the new site architecture.

tigerwoods.com
The baseline URL lives as a splash and move page. Drop users into the collected world of TRG branded house.

Tiger - the player
Housed under the main URL this is the area to highlight the man, the athlete, the business man. Very personality driven this area required the most content planning and migration.

TRG Ventures
Geared to investors this site lays out the portfolio of brands. The presentation establishes a well diversified and brand rich ecosystem. A secondary audience is job seekers looking to find a place inside the larger family of brands.

Tiger Woods Foundation
Inside this charitable educational foundation lives 3 “subbrand” educational approaches or schools. Each of these “subbrands” needs to spotlight individual student achievement in a serialized and lightweight format. The audience for this property includes, potencial students and families, educators, school leaders, and donors. There was also a requirement for crossover journeys with the TRG Live brand to connect the foundation mission with fundraising events.

TGR Live
Promoting and facilitating events, this site requires the most dynamic content. Event info, ticket purchasing, news feeds, staff and volunteer registration. The total number of events per year were not high, but this web property was the beating heart of both the sales funnel and the day of content.

TGR Design
Course design is big business for TGR. The TGR Design site lifts up not only the best-in-class course but also the world-class talent Mr. Woods has assembled.

The Woods
Mr. Woods’ expanding restaurant brand is based in Jupiter Florida. The site sells the fun and accessible atmosphere alongside the elevated food and beverage offering.

The Look and feel that brings it all together

Offering up distinct editorial approaches is critical in the design direction phase. The brand mark and colors had been established, but that is often only 10% of the puzzle. Putting the brand vision to work always expands the mind and new avenues of opportunity arise. The feel of the two proposed options quit different but based on who Tiger Woods is and how the master brand frames his world. One option offers up an energetic color and photo driven editorial style that is very much connected to contemporary and accessible publication design. The other is a more formal and classic option. The white space, type hierarchy, restrained color accents, and small details elevate to an aspirate emotional space.