A Design Film Festival Microsite (2024)
Contribution
Lead Visual Designer, Interaction Designer, Prototyping
Type
Interaction Design, Visual Design
Client
A Design Film Festival
Team
Natalie Van Grol, Lauren Mok, Sylvia Zhang
OVERVIEW
Founded by creative lab, Anonymous, A Design Film Festival looks at design and its subculture through the lens of film. With different themes and films screened every year, the festival targets both industry insiders and general viewers, giving them a glimpse of various design practices, stories, and processes.
This project was completed as a visual and interaction design study for a senior-level design course. Within a span of 3 weeks, I explored the work of graphic designers, Karel Martens and Ellen Lupton and through this inspiration, I experimented with posters to create a visual identity and art direction. 2 weeks were then spent on creating an expressive microsite for the festival.
OBJECTIVES
The 2014 edition of the festival looks into the question of "Is it art or design?" with the idea of scale being seen as a frame of reference that recognizes the entire spectrum of creative work. To boost engagement and connection with the festival, our microsite enhances the post-show experience in order to leave visitors feeling enriched and eager to return.
FRAMING
Ranging from graphic design to kustom kulture, the films revolve around several different creative disciplines to spotlight them to both the general public and those within the field. As a small independent film festival, my team decided to scope this microsite down by focusing on supporting the audience to reflect on what defines art and design through the breakdown of films screened at the festival.
HOW MIGHT WE
make visitors reflect on the festival theme of "on a scale of art to design" and engage more with these design sub-cultures?
PROJECT OUTCOME
THE PROCESS
Experimenting and Early Renditions
To gain graphic design experience, I made over 40+ posters in a span of 3 weeks, really playing around with graphic, type, and space. Inspired by Martens' use of layered colours, shapes, and textures, I explored the interplay of overlapping elements to peak curiosity, inviting viewers to inspect things more closely.
Combining Design Principles and Qualities
Initial graphic iterations demonstrated how complex layering and pushing type to the edge can create a dynamic composition. As I dived further in this direction, I found that using transparency offered more visual interest than traditional layering. I experimented with transparent textures and distorted images, ultimately focusing on how transparency could be pushed to create depth, with scale providing a contrasting element.
Finalizing the Art Direction
In line with it being a film festival, the final look focuses on images being treated in greyscale or outlined; emphasizing transparencies, scale, and texture in order to invoke a distinct film effect. 2 typefaces are used in all of the compositions. Hanken Grotesk, a thinner font that is clean and legible to provide further balance to the designs. Furthermore, Kode Mono is utilized for its unique monospace characteristics, aimed to offer intriguing justaposition to Hanken Grotesk.
Other assets were made to showcase how this art direction would be applied to the festival through a tablecloth, program schedule, and wayfinding.
Iterating Different Microsites That Play With Function and Expression
Transitioning from physical to digital, my team explored various ways we wanted to promote the film festival. Line 1 and 2 targeted the pre-show experience with the intention of garnering more ticket sales, whereas, line 3 being the most expressive site, targeted the post-show experience.
Ultimately, for our final microsite we went with line 3 to advance into fully prototyping because of its stronger content approach which goes beyond film consumption by allowing users to discuss what they think and then put that out into the world. This level of creating aspirational value led to a more meaningful festival experience.
User Flow for the Final Site
By curating exclusive content that offers deeper insights into the film's subject, it enables attendees to create and share personalized film recap cards. This allows them to share their own thoughts on art vs design, giving them another experience beyond simply watching a film.
Within the final microsite, I helped prototype the film recap pages which was more content driven as it contains interviews and further information that helps dissect the creative work the film showcases. These pages play a critical role in users obtaining the information needed to determine how it connects to both art and design.
The Final Microsite Up Close
Re-defining Art & Design
The loading screen sets the tone for the website by engaging visitors to define what art and design is in relation to the screened films. A load-in animation of images helps spark curiosity in drawing users into the content.
Art vs. Design
Interviews with the creators featured in the films encourage viewers to shift perspectives between art and design. The background context provided about each film helps visitors gain deeper insights, helping them make more informed interpretations.
Seeing Past the Film
Additional creative works from the artists featured in the films allows visitors to deep dive into their influences and sub-culture in order to further reflect on the spectrum of art to design.
Reflecting on the Film
The recap card encourages active participation from visitors to share their thoughts on a specific film and where they place it on a scale from art to design.
Recap Card in Context
These cards can be shared on social media platforms to not only promote the festival, but also opens up the floor for further discourse on the topic.
REFLECTION
Translating from Analog to Digital
This project pushed my graphic design skills to the next level with the amount of experimenting and iterations I made before we chose my finalized poster and assets as our art direction for the microsite. While I've prototyped other interfaces in the past, this was the first time where I gained the opportunity to produce more expressive interactions. Moreover, I learned to make sure content was upfront and not challenging to uncover which was difficult at the beginning stages of transferring print designs to web. Overall, I am very proud of what my team was able to achieve and through the countless hours spent on this project, I believe it has shaped me into a better designer.
