From the Nominator

In spring 2023, California Institute of the Arts marketing and communications team set out to design and build an entirely new website to replace one that was outdated, sprawling, inefficient, and built on an obscure platform that was no longer supported. CalArts is a community of artists, and as such, we knew that involving the entire community in the process—through presentations, surveys, regular progress updates, and feedback opportunities—would be critical to its success. Clearly identifying prospective students and their families as our primary audience helped drive the content strategy and determine the goals of the site, which we knew would not be effective if it tried to be all things to all people. Our North Star goal was to create a site that reinforces CalArts's position as a premier visual and performing arts institution and helps prospective students understand if CalArts is right for them. With this in mind, we set out to create a digital experience as inspiring as it is informative, flexible enough to showcase the breadth of our schools and programs, and put student, faculty, and alumni work and experiences front and center. We approached the project with a long-term vision—the site is built for high impact on the front end and low maintenance on the back end, with flexibility to incorporate integrations and functionality that we envision adding in the future. Various measurement tools—heat maps, Google analytics, etc.—will enable us to track user behavior and measure performance regularly, so we can adjust content strategy and structure accordingly.

From the Judges

The CalArts team clearly defined their process, goals, and outcomes, starting with engaging their community and leveraging arts students and faculty, which resulted in an innovative and authentic experience. The layout, design, and video elements are fresh, joyful, and youthful without feeling cluttered, and the copywriting adds the right amount of "pixie dust." They were able to balance the design, content, and user experience with a clear visual hierarchy that is easy to navigate and accessible.