The College’s first digital Viewbook is honored as a “People’s Voice” favorite.
SVA’s Digital Viewbook won a Webby Award in the category of School/University and is a Webby Honoree in the Best Use Of Animation or Motion Graphics category. We caught up with Eric Corriel, digital strategy director, to ask him a few questions.
What was the inspiration for this project?
SVA has a long history of creating a great printed Viewbook, typically redesigned every year or two. In this most recent iteration, Brian E. Smith, design director, and I put our heads together to think about how we could make an engaging and faithful digital version. The printed book is typically around 200 pages and we were aiming for a 60-second digital experience, so we had a lot of thinking to do!
The front and back cover of SVA's printed Viewbook
This seems like a hard thing to build—how does one create something like this?
It is! The first thing you need is strong institutional support. Fortunately, Gail Anderson, creative director, and Matthew Farina, director of admissions, were willing to take the risk of building something new.
Next, you need a good team. The Visual Arts Press, SVA’s in-house design studio, is a small but talented group with a wide range of skills. Brian led Mark Maltais, art director, and Anthony Carhuayo, senior designer, through multiple design iterations to develop the look and feel of the experience. This was a natural fit because they’re the trio that designs the printed Viewbook.
Declan Van Welie, lead web designer and developer, and I guided and shaped the design process through the lens of responsive parallax web design. Alumnus Josh Weingart (BFA 2019 Design) put all the pieces together by building interactive prototypes.
You have been building websites for a long time—any advice to our students studying interaction design?
Always try to find opportunities to develop your own creative voice. Err on the side of design that’s too adventurous, too wild and crazy. Dialing it back is easy; never needing to isn’t much fun!
A still image from start.sva.edu
Congratulations, you and your team have won a Webby! Now what?
We’re going to Disneyland! But I think we’ll wait until after the pandemic . . .
The final animation sequence of our Digital Viewbook. Visit start.sva.edu to see it in its native format.