cara rearick
Systems Thinking
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Big Scale
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Visual Craft
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Systems Thinking 〰️ Big Scale 〰️ Visual Craft 〰️
I turn complex product chaos into experiences that feel effortless.
Before product design, I was an editorial art director at People, Cosmopolitan, and HGTV Magazine. It all started with an internship at Harper’s Bazaar, which ignited a lifelong obsession with styling, pacing, and visual storytelling. Today, I use my editorial experience to bring visual clarity and order to complex products.
Pre-pandemic life at Hearst: My daughter, visiting my office for the morning, helps by clearing off the mini wall for the next month. Meanwhile, I am making last-minute layout adjustments before shipping the Jan/Feb issue of HGTV Magazine.
Products are only as strong as the teams building them. I bring the energy, optimism, and human connection that keep teams inspired, while holding an unapologetically high bar for execution.
A peek into some chaos I’ve untangled…
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Leading the post-GA optimization of Yahoo Mail
Anyone can launch a redesign, but navigating the aftermath at massive scale requires serious resilience. This is a story about data-informed humility and strategic fast-follows.
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Migrating to a universal design system post-redesign
How we transitioned a highly customized, fresh product UI to a new global corporate standard without stripping its identity.
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Restoring legacy user confidence through change with Settings IA
When a core product undergoes a massive transformation, user dissatisfaction is inevitable. But Settings alone, can’t be a personalization solution for everything.
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Art directing an editorial illustration system across desktop and mobile
How a collaborative sprint with an illustrator and content designer turned neglected, sterile empty states into an unexpected canvas for brand personality.