Aaron Five studies in systems, strategy, and editorial execution.
Work that shows how I think, not just what I shipped. Each one is a decision made inside a real constraint — applicant experience, communications scale, institutional narrative, donor trust, or brand voice — and a system built to hold the decision together past launch.
Bluepathways — a portal built as a system, not a page.
One interface, two audiences — applicants and counselors — running on one source of truth in Slate. Centralized status, segmented workflows, and a real-time triage view. Shipped without a dedicated dev team or added budget. The constraint shaped the architecture.
A modular email system that replaced one-off builds.
Stopped building emails, started building the parts emails are made from. Component library — header, hero, content blocks, CTA modules, legal — each version-controlled and brand-enforced. Campaigns became configuration, not construction. Brand drift became a solved problem.
UD Online Odyssey — institutional communication under pressure.
An asynchronous, interactive narrative built at the beginning of the pandemic to carry a high-touch recruitment cycle when every in-person touchpoint disappeared overnight. Designed to behave like a product, not a press release — and to scale without losing voice.
Giving campaigns designed as communications architecture.
Cor Challenge and annual-giving work reframed from creative-asset delivery into a full donor comms operating model. Segmented cadence, stewardship loop, and an editorial tone that closed the loop between story and action — in service of board-visible giving outcomes.
Editorial & media — the discipline behind the brand.
Published reporting, feature writing, and magazine work that predates and grounds the institutional voice layer. A Mark Cuban print profile, investigative reporting, and the editorial muscle memory that shows up in every later CRM, comms, and campaign decision.
There’s more where this came from.
Process snapshots, editorial artifacts, campaign cuts, system notes, and applied-AI experiments. The library is filterable, and it’s built so broader work doesn’t get buried.
Enter the library →