Rootstein Hopkins Foundation
A website and brochure marking fifty years since its formation for an organisation that had touched and moulded the lives of many creative minds. Working with Moving Brands we created an experience that would mark the occasion and go on to win gold at the European Design Award for “Best promotional site“.
Role: Visual, UX and interaction design | Agency: Moving Brands
Challenge
The Foundation was set up in 1990 as an act of philanthropy by Rick Hopkins and his wife Adel Rootstein. Their legacy was grand and reached all corners of the creative world. From sponsoring young artists through college to buying and preserving theatre archives.
To mark their legacy we (I was working with Moving Brands at the time as a senior designer) were engaged to devise a way in which these records could be documented and displayed in a unique digital experience.
The design was inspired by the way that a film of oil sits on water.
Approach
We needed to show all the case studies in an intuitive layout without overwhelming the user. We also would explore time as a factor, as these donations ran over the course of many years.
I created a system where the foundations record would be plotted against a graph. X would represent time and Y would show us the types of case studies at that point. We would also need to categorise these projects by type.
I developed an interface with a visually pleasing and tactile feel influenced by an artists palette and the behaviour of oil sitting on water. This engaged with the user to explore the many case study records whilst maintaining an intuitive and fun experience.
The three steps of interaction. The user explores and filters the top level U, the user makes their selection and finally the case-study information is surfaced.
Part of the challenge was categorising the hundreds of case studies into organised categories.
Result
The site was launched at an event to celebrate Rootstein Hopkin Foundation’s 50 year anniversary. The site was complimented by an A5 concertina handout printed on GF Smith paper and with foil block highlights. Later that year the project picked up a Gold at the European Design Award for “Best Digital Promotion Site“.
