Intro
This portfolio brings together selected website design and branding work by Thaddeus Pope, including both independent projects and work led in senior in-house roles within larger organisations. Some projects were commissioned directly, while others were designed, built, and developed by me as part of broader institutional responsibilities. Taken together, they reflect the kind of work I aim to produce for clients: clear, well-structured websites and supporting visual direction shaped around the real needs of a business or organisation.
Because websites often evolve over time, some of the projects featured here are no longer live in their original form or have since been redeveloped. For that reason, this page focuses not only on what was built, but also on the role I played, the problems the work needed to solve, and the outcomes it was designed to support.
The following projects were carried out by Thaddeus Pope in senior in-house roles and were not commissioned from TADO Visuals. From 2014 to 2023, I worked in-house at IAFOR, a Japan-based academic events organisation and publisher. The projects below reflect work carried out across that period.
IAFOR Conference Website Network
Context
Work carried out by Thaddeus Pope while serving as Director of Visual Communications at IAFOR.
Overview
One of the most substantial projects I led at IAFOR was the redesign and restructuring of the organisation’s conference website network. The task was to take an existing WordPress site and turn it into a WordPress Multisite architecture capable of supporting a large and evolving portfolio of conference event websites under a unified system.
At launch, the new structure included 40 conference subdomains, each built as a distinct event website within the wider network. The system was designed so that new conferences could be launched efficiently as the organisation developed, while individual event sites could still carry their own branding, content, and visual identity. Because the organisation’s conference portfolio changed over time, with some events held annually and others held only once, the architecture needed to support both continuity and change without becoming difficult to manage.
My Role
As Director of Visual Communications, I was the senior staff member responsible for leading this area of the organisation’s work. The role was broad and demanding, covering website design across front-end and back-end systems, copywriting, UX design, SEO implementation, photography and video production, graphic and publication design, and the management of mailing lists and social channels.
I led the design, branding, UX, visual communications, and front-end implementation of the system, assigning work to junior team members where needed and working with specialist collaborators and another senior staff member to ensure cohesion between the front-end and back-end systems.
What the Project Needed to Solve
The organisation needed a website structure that could support a large and changing conference network without relying on a growing number of separate WordPress installs. It also needed to maintain consistency and accuracy across its websites while still allowing each event to be branded and developed individually.
A further challenge was that past conferences, publications, reports, journals, programmes, videos, and associated materials should not simply disappear into neglected archives. The system needed to make these materials searchable, useful, and connected to the organisation’s wider digital presence.
What I Designed and Implemented
The multisite structure used shared templates, reusable content systems, and centrally managed fields so that common information could be updated more efficiently, while individual event websites could still be developed according to the needs of each conference and its organising committee.
The architecture also allowed the organisation’s main site to function more clearly as a central hub, while conference websites operated as distinct destinations within the same wider network. New conferences could be launched with far greater ease, and existing sites could be maintained, expanded, archived, or retired without rebuilding the system from scratch.
For each conference website, I also designed the event logo, the printed conference programme, and the slides used for online keynote and featured presentation sessions. Beyond the websites themselves, my role included creating the on-site branded presence through printed and screen-based materials such as pop-up banners, backdrops, flyers, slideshows, and video content. The aim was to ensure that branding remained clearly identifiable as IAFOR across websites, printed materials, and on-site outputs, while still allowing each conference to have its own recognisable visual identity.
Search, UX, and Archival Value
A key part of the architecture was that it did not treat past events and publications as dead material. The structure allowed event and publication content to be archived in a searchable and connected way, turning the network into a long-term repository of conference information, academic publications, reports, journals, programmes, videos, and associated materials rather than a set of temporary event sites.
UX and SEO were implemented across the network through clearer site structure, improved navigability, integrated sign-up points, social-media feeds, RSS, and archive access. This helped make the organisation’s digital presence more useful both to current visitors and to those looking for past material.
Wider Digital Ecosystem
The website network also connected to a broader visual and digital system. During my time in the role, I set up and segmented a 40,000+ Mailchimp mailing list connected to the website network, designed event-specific email templates, and integrated sign-ups, feeds, and social-media channels into the wider ecosystem.
This helped create a more coherent and centrally manageable digital presence spanning websites, archived materials, journals, programmes, reports, video, mailing lists, social channels, and print outputs.
Outcome
The result was a scalable and far more coherent conference website network that made it easier to launch new events, maintain consistency across the organisation’s digital presence, support individual conference branding, and preserve past material as searchable long-term resources.
Why It Matters
This project is one of the clearest examples of the kind of website work I value most: not only designing pages, but building systems that can grow, adapt, remain usable over time, and support a wider organisation more effectively.
THINK – The Academic Platform
Context
Work carried out by Thaddeus Pope while serving as Director of Visual Communications at IAFOR.
Overview
THINK was an online academic magazine platform created to publish interdisciplinary research and ideas drawn from IAFOR’s international conferences. It was conceived as a publishing environment through which selected research could be made freely available to a global academic audience in a clearer and more engaging format.
My Role
I designed and built the THINK website, including the design of its logo and the selection of its colour palette, typography, and wider visual identity. The copywriting was handled by others, but the platform’s structure, presentation, and overall design were my responsibility.
What the Project Needed to Do
THINK needed to function not as a standard conference website, but as a publishing platform with a distinct editorial identity of its own. It had to support a wide range of content types while making academic and interdisciplinary work more approachable, readable, and visually coherent.
What I Designed and Built
The platform was designed to accommodate a varied editorial format, including research papers, long-form journalism, opinion pieces, creative writing, interviews, podcasts, video, and photography. It needed to feel distinct from the organisation’s conference network while still fitting within the wider institutional ecosystem.
The project therefore combined editorial layout thinking, publication-oriented website design, logo design, typographic direction, and colour-system development in a way that was closer to magazine publishing than standard event-site production.
Outcome
THINK became a clearer and more deliberate editorial platform through which interdisciplinary research and ideas could be surfaced and shared more widely. It stands out in my portfolio as an example of publication-oriented website design shaped around reading, discovery, editorial identity, and content depth rather than only event promotion or registration.
IAFOR Documentary Photography Award
Context
Work carried out by Thaddeus Pope while serving as Director of Visual Communications at IAFOR.
Overview
Alongside my web and visual communications work at IAFOR, I founded a documentary photography award for emerging documentary photographers and photojournalists. The project brought together website design, submission workflow, private judging infrastructure, branding, sponsorship, and communications.
My Role
I established the award as its Founding Creative Director, built the public-facing award website, and designed the digital workflow that allowed entrants to upload work for consideration. I also created a private judging website through which the judges reviewed submissions and selected winners.
The award launched with Dr Paul Lowe of VII Photo Agency as its Founding Judge. It was also supported by high-profile sponsors and partners including World Press Photo and the British Journal of Photography, and I was responsible not only for securing those sponsorships, but also for maintaining relationships with the sponsoring organisations.
What the Project Needed to Do
The award needed to function both as a public-facing platform and as a secure internal judging environment. It also needed its own visual identity and communications structure distinct from the wider organisation.
What I Designed and Built
I designed the website and submission flow, built the private judging environment, and developed the supporting branding, mailing-list structure, and social-media presence associated with the award. The project required a balance between public presentation, ease of entry, and a practical backend process for judging and selection.
Outcome
The result was a branded award platform with a complete submission and judging workflow, supported by its own visual identity, sponsor relationships, and communications channels. It remains a strong example of process-led website work, where the site had to support a specific operational purpose rather than simply present static information.
Kansai Resilience Forum
Context
Work carried out by Thaddeus Pope while serving as Director of Visual Communications at IAFOR.
Overview
The Kansai Resilience Forum was a high-level one-day forum held in Kobe, Japan, organised by the Government of Japan in collaboration with IAFOR, with The Wall Street Journal as a media partner and additional support from major institutional partners.
My Role
For this project, I designed and built the event website, created the forum logo, and designed the associated printed and on-site materials, including posters, pop-up banners, the printed forum programme, and the stage backdrop.
What the Project Needed to Do
The project needed a visual identity that could work coherently across the website, printed materials, and the event environment itself. Because the forum involved high-level public, academic, and institutional stakeholders, the work needed to be clear, authoritative, and consistent across formats.
Outcome
This project is a strong example of integrated visual communications work across digital and print. It shows how I approach a project that requires not only a website, but a complete system of event identity and on-site materials designed to function together.
The following project was designed and built independently by Thaddeus Pope / TADO Visuals.
THADPOPE.COM
Overview
thadpope.com is my personal documentary photography website and the strongest current example of my own independent website design work. It is a large and evolving archive of documentary photography, long-form journalistic essays, and accompanying photo essays.
Why It Matters
The site is a good example of how I design from scratch for a body of work that depends equally on image and text. Rather than functioning only as a gallery or only as a writing platform, it is built to support both visual and editorial depth.
What It Demonstrates
For photographers, artists, writers, and others whose work depends on both presentation and substance, the site shows how a large archive can be structured so that it remains readable, navigable, and visually coherent over time. It is included here because it represents the kind of custom archive-rich website that some clients may specifically want for their own practice.
Additional Independent Projects
Other independent website work has included the design, build, and maintenance of websites for a range of small businesses, studios, and sports organisations, including multiple e-commerce websites using WooCommerce.
Booking
If you are looking for a website that is clear, well structured, and shaped around the real needs of your business or organisation, please get in touch via the contact page or by email at info@tadovisuals.com.