Columbia University School of the Arts Showcasing the spirit of a diverse artistic community.

01 Hero Columbia University Website School Of Art

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Columbia School of the Arts is a graduate school of acclaimed students, faculty and alumni in New York City. The school is comprised of four robust departments offering degrees in film, theatre, sound arts, visual arts, and writing. We collaborated with the School to envision a website that would inspire engagement across disciplines by bringing its talented artists to the forefront.

This project is one of three completed in partnership with Columbia University, including the Manhattanville and Lenfest Center for the Arts websites.

02 Home Columbia University Website School Of Art

Section 1.Maintaining consistency within complexity.

The School houses a complex ecosystem of departments, programs and artists. Each group has a unique identity and set of design needs necessary to showcase its resources and talent. When we researched students, faculty and alumni, we found the user experience lacked the clarity and consistency needed to logically navigate the varied content. Furthermore, while audiences found the website helpful, they rarely returned. There was an opportunity to highlight more dynamic content; turning the website into a destination for timely articles, events and exhibits.

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Section 2.The School comes to life.

Working alongside users and stakeholders, we designed a system of templates and modules to account for the variety of content needs in a way that maintained brand and user experience consistency. The flexibility of the system enabled each department to demonstrate its identity, while remaining grounded in clear navigational tools to orient the users.

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In addition to bringing news and events to the forefront, we included a variety of ways to showcase student, faculty and alumni profiles, projects and portfolios. The resulting website enables the School to engage existing students and alumni, while showcasing the vibrancy of the community for prospective students without distracting from key admission information and calls-to-action.

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