ThreeWalls is a Black-led nonprofit organization that celebrates diversity and inclusion through the lens of Black feminist practices. Threewalls fosters contemporary art practices that respond to lived experiences while connecting segregated communities, people, and experiences.
The Challenge
The ThreeWalls team came to us looking for a website refresh that would allow them to showcase, display, and archive community artists and their creations in an organic and fluid way, while remaining accessible to all peoples. The ThreeWalls team also desired a streamlined backend that would allow them to more easily update content, add artists, and display artist portfolios.
The Strategy
Our website design and development team developed a two-pronged approach that would not only simplify the process of adding new content on the backend, but would also build in brand elements of creativity, energy, and organic motion.
This collaborative approach generated the following action plan
- Choose a palette of striking, vibrant colors that will energize users and highlight the artists and their creations.
- Incorporate white space as well as flowing shapes and irregular image frames to create a sense of dynamic creativity.
- Add animation to section backgrounds to emphasize the organic nature of the artists.
- Create custom post types and taxonomies for artists, selected media, exhibitions, and programs to facilitate content update.
- Build a library of drag-and-drop content blocks to allow for future customization.
The Results
ThreeWall’s new site is a leap forward in showcasing artists! Through the use of an innovative horizontal scrollbar in place of a standard slider or carousel, each artist’s individual journey receives a turn in the spotlight. By showcasing the artists’ unique stories and backgrounds in this way, ThreeWalls is better able to connect people with communities and the struggles they share.
Furthermore, the site refresh focuses the user towards getting involved with ThreeWall’s current and upcoming fellowship programs. Threewall’s emphasis is on supporting artists,creating a space with programming for artists to thrive.
Finally, the vibrantly–colored design, flowing shapes, and animated backgrounds create a striking visual identity that not only fits ThreeWalls’ unique brand, but also energizes the user and sparks creativity within the user. From page to page, images are framed in dynamic shapes, content sections are separated by flowing wave-like forms, and background gradients shift through several hues creating a sense of organic vitality and energy that draws the user in.