“What struck me about this site is that it’s both fun and easy to explore. It’s packed full of original style that expresses the collection at MICA.” —juror Jason White
“Succeeds in a simple experience that’s nonetheless as eclectic and playful as its content.” —juror Erika Tarte
Overview: When Globe Poster Printing Corporation, one of the most prolific and influential printing operations of the 20th century, closed up shop in 2011, the Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA) became the new home for Globe’s wealth of wood types, letterpress cuts, posters and ephemera. With the goal of celebrating and preserving Globe’s work for future generations, Globe and MICA worked with Baltimore, Maryland–based digital creative studio Drexler to build a digital archive of the printing company’s iconic pieces.
• The site’s navigational structure prioritizes the story of Globe and its new home at MICA.
• Drexler shot one opening video and four ambient clips for the site.
• The front end is driven by HTML, JavaScript and Sass.
Comments by Daniel Givens and Michael McNeive:
From concept to completion, how long did the project take to produce? “Globe/MICA originally approached us in 2012 to design the site. The project stalled several times due to MICA’s massive archiving effort. During the downtime, we initiated a few redesigns. As we got closer to launch, we overhauled the code to bring it in line with our current practices. The site soft-launched in late 2016 and officially launched on February 22, 2017.”
What is the project’s core feature? “The exciting, vibrant and diverse collection, which not only shows off the beautiful posters that Globe made, but also the parts that made Globe really quirky and unique. It was our job to capture the often loud and over-the-top visual language of Globe and present it in a clean and detailed way. Whether it’s the initial scroll on key pages that reference ‘curtains’ being pulled back on a stage, the touches of video or the various scroll animations on the collection landing page, we pay homage to printing and the visual language of Globe without taking away from the content on the page.”
What software, back-end technology and programming languages were used? “This project was built on WordPress and customized to best manage the unique content. One of the main goals of the site is to grow its Globe archive. As web technologies continue to advance, we’ll work closely with the Globe team to create thoughtful features and updates that suit the content. We also have visions of developing a WordPress-based digital archive platform that archivists can use.”
