Research Log,  Uncategorized

The Role of Web and App Design in Promoting Cultural events

November 3, 2023

In this modern and contemporary age it is essential that brands are becoming more digitally integrated to fit in with the current way that the online world is moving forward. Customers and consumers are conforming ever more to the ease that is learning about important events through the use of social media and online promotions, therefore companies must follow this path in order to reach the widest audience possible.

Brand Identity

In order to foster creativity and community within digital marketing it’s important to use a wide scope of promotion techniques across various platforms to target a wide group of people. Advertising on social media allows you to broaden your brand as well as the community and how they interact with the event. Through this you can receive real-time feedback from the public and therefore enhance the creativity of your trademark image. It is also important to brainstorm within a diverse setting so you can create innovative ideas and design a well thought-out, cohesive brand image.

Creating a significant brand identity for your event is extremely important as for if it is to be a successful brand it needs to be as recognisable as possible to a wide audience so that whenever they are to see a product that is related to it they know instantly what it has been designed for. Constructing a successful brand identity can also set your idea apart from other similar events that are produced so that yours can stand out and look unique.

Other Festival/Cultural Events

Festival X is an annual electronic dance music festival held in Australia that highlights modern electronic pop artists in a line-up that spans over a couple days. Their brand identity heavily relates to the type of music they promote with an up-beat, bright house style and modern typefaces that seems appropriate for an electronic music festival. The website itself follows a simple but effective layout in order to promote their event and have it be recognised through multiple forms of media (social media, posters etc.)

Layout – The layout of this website is very simple yet informative at the same time. The line-up for the festival is right at the top of the page making it easy to find which is practical as this is arguably the most important information a viewer would want to know visiting a festival’s website. Moving down the page there is an interactive video that highlights key moments at the festival which gives a quick overview of what happens without making the viewer click through various pages to find it. The simplistic design of the homepage almost resembles the responsive layout of a mobile phone, due to the large images that take up a lot of room on the page as well large, readable text and the lack of a navigation bar and instead opting for a burger menu. This may be as a result of online traffic coming from a majority of mobile phones over desktops and designers wanting to cater to an audience that are more used to seeing a small screen size.

Colour – The main colour palate consists of muted neon purples, pinks and blues giving a very welcoming and friendly appearance and makes sense to be promoting electronic dance music. As its only a simple palate it doesn’t confuse the viewers eye and look overwhelming. It would also makes it easier to create a consistent brand style and image with limited colours so it can spread across all social media and other platforms.

Grid Systems

When promoting cultural events using web design it’s crucial that we follow a grid system to arrange certain assets on the page as it can be a great blue-print to organising the text, images, navigation bar etc. in order to create an engaging website for the user’s experience.

Here I have looked at various other festival’s website homepage to see how a grid system would apply to a professional design. The majority of them conform to the rules where the main image and navigation bars sit nicely between the pre-determined columns. The Reading and Leeds festival homepage takes a slightly different approach where they have broken the constraints slightly by placing iconography outside of the grid layout to create a more dynamic feel to the design, however this still works as they have used their text and important information still sits within the borders to maintain that visual hierarchy.



Interactivity

Event websites can increase traffic and engagement by incorporating interactive elements onto the page as it keeps viewers attention for longer then a simple call to action button and can also provide information and data at a quicker rate. This website for a festival celebrating black culture merges interactivity well within their website as something simple such as a little gif in the corner of the screen that focuses on what happens at the event. Hair iconography also surrounds the gif which links back to the brans core message as well as making it look aesthetically appealing.

I also included a screenshot of their TikTok page which was linked on their website that further creates a sense of community as all different types of people can be brought together through a common interest. It is also important for big events to diversify through social media as it is one of the most effective forms of promotion as people can view it and then easily spready it by word of mouth to others.

References:

  • N/A (2023) Visual Identity. Available online: https://outreachmonks.com/visual-identity/ [Accessed 03/11/23]
  • Live Nation (2019) Festival X. Available online: https://www.festivalx.com.au/ [Accessed 03/11/23]
  • CURLYTREATS (2023) CurlyTreats Festival 2023. Accessed online: https://curlytreats.co.uk/ [Accessed 03/11/23]
  • Reading and Leeds (2023) Reading Festival 2023. Available online: https://www.readingfestival.com/?_ga=2.32088638.1481474331.1699270962-671259756.1699270962 [Accessed 04/11/23]
  • Glastonbury Festival (1997) Glastonbury Festival of Contemporary Performing Arts. Available online: https://www.glastonburyfestivals.co.uk/ [Accessed 04/11/23]
  • Latitude (2023) Latitude Festival. Available online: https://www.latitudefestival.com/ [Accessed 04/11/23]