WEB DESIGN + DEVELOPMENT PROJECT
CONNECTING THREADS
Fashioning Identity in a Global World
An online cultural anthropology exhibition with La Guardia Community College x Bard Graduate Center in New York.
OVERVIEW
In the fall of 2019, cultural anthropology students from LaGuardia Community College selected and studied objects of clothing and fashion to which they felt in some way connected. The artifacts they chose span the globe from Bangladesh and Tibet to Colombia and the U.S. Originally conceived as a physical exhibition at Bard Graduate Center Gallery to be designed and installed by LaGuardia students, this exhibition has instead come to life in this online version during an extraordinary time of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Connecting Threads invites the viewer to enter into the social lives of these objects. Though we are unable to form and build upon these relationships in person, still we are able to connect. The exhibition may be virtual (and our connecting threads may be fiber-optic), but the connections remain very real.
ROLE
Web Developer
Design Ideation, Project Management
TIMELINE
2020 & 2021
TEAM
Jocelyn Lau, Juliana Fagua Ariasesse,
Madison Williams, Jesse Merandy
CLIENT
CUNY LaGuardia Community College in Long Island City
Bard Graduate Center Gallery
FEATURED ON
LaGuardia Community College Institutional Archives
Bard Graduate Center
PHYSICAL TO DIGITAL
Originally conceived as a physical exhibition at Bard Graduate Center Gallery to be designed and installed by LaGuardia students, this exhibition has instead come to life in this online version during an extraordinary time of the COVID-19 pandemic. After the move to distance learning for both CUNY and Bard Graduate Center in March 2020, leaders of the project from both institutions made the decision to continue with the exhibition online. Thanks to the many LaGuardia and BGC staff and students who persisted to make Connecting Threads possible.
TIMELINE
We had 2 months to design and develop a website for the online exhibition. We divided the process into 7 phases for a team of 3 people including a designer, web developer, and content editor. We also met with the professor and students online to discuss project scope, concepts and content throughout the build process.
SITEMAP + IDEATE
The students provided us with their content which included images, text, audio and video files, and mapped out how it would organized on the site.
We ideated on design principles to follow to best showcase the student's work digitally.
1
Simplicity
Information should be presented with clarity, systematically, and simplicity to highlight each of the curated objects by the students, as well as for the site visitor to navigate the content with ease.
2
Thematic
The concept of the project title, Connecting Threads, should be playfully interwoven into the design of the site. Themes of textile objects, thread, sewing, and connectedness are integral to the content.
3
Graphic
Creative use of typography and design elements should be used to highlight and accompany the unique selection of objects on the online exhibition.
DESIGN + DEVELOPEMENT + CONTENT BUILD
Web designs were produced by the designer, and I worked on translating the design in web development. At Bard Graduate Center, the online exhibition sites are built on Wordpress, so we installed the Avada theme as the interface for the content management system, and customized the theme in development. The site was built with HTML, CSS, and Javascript.
FINAL PRESENTATION
Connecting Threads website was successfully launched on the exhibition opening day via on Zoom in May 2020 to over 70 plus people in attendance including the professors, students, and staff at LaGuardia Community College, the Director, Dean, students, and staff at Bard Graduate Center, and to the public who registered for the event. The professors and students presented their work via screenshare by navigating the website to reveal their curated objects. The public was invited to explore the site further after the presentation.
The collaboration between the two institutions was well received, and the Connecting Threads project has continued to blossom in 2021 with a new student cohort. Our team recently completed and launched part 2 of the project in May 2021 via Zoom. Elements in the design were updated while keeping to the identity of the principle theme. The website was built on Wordpress again but this time we installed Semplice as the content management system which offers more options with animation and fluidity of the site.
Case studies
