Client
Harry Ransom Center
Year
2026
Location
Texas
(USA)
Role
Digital direction,
Prototyping,
Workshops,
UX / UI
Category
Archives,
Exhibitions,
Library,
Research
The Harry Ransom center, part of the university of Texas, maintains a vast library of literary materials spanning hundreds of years. Championing scholarship of literacy and cinema, the center emphasises on education and storytelling.
The Center holds materials ranging from antiquity to contemporary, such as the first photograph ever taken (Niepce Heliograph), the first letter-pressed publication in Europe (Gutenberg Bible) and archival materials of actors, directors and writers (such as Robert De Niro's archive).
The Center approached us to reimagine and integrate their vast collections with a new digital identity. This previously consisted of over ten separate platforms and inconsistent brand experiences, causing a disconnect with existing patrons and struggling to reach new audiences.
Acting as the lead for their new digital direction, I produced information architecture with site maps and diagrams, conceptualised thier new digital branding system, crafted interactive prototypes and specified for development, testing and iterating during production.
Approach
The template architecture focuses on high impact headers, clearly structured grids and layouts, and intuitive navigation.
Identity
Utilising unique animations, interactions and colour palette to portray a responsive digital experience, building on their pre-existing branding by Pentagram.
Visit
The banner features a video demontrating the physical space while content is modularised into key information as anchor tabs for quick accessibility in the secondary navigation.
Responsive
Fluid layout design for all devices.
What's on
Housing the center's ongoing exhibitions and events with filtering by date, type of event and subject.
Colour palette
Celebrating the brand's colourful expression, palette combinations can be applied across the platform, while maintaning a consistent identity through visual components.
Modular system
The design features a modular system enabling staff to build dynamic content for the center's services and offerings.
