2008 Sundance Film Festival
Since its founding in 1978, the Sundance Film Festival has emerged as not only the premiere showcase of independent films, but of the many talented filmmakers and aspiring artists. Vaulting the likes of Blood Simple and Jim Jarmusch into the mainstream, Sundance has established itself as one of American cinema’s true institutions.
A flexible framework
With a theme of “Film Takes Place” for 2008, Sundance contacted Happy Cog to design the corresponding Festival website. In researching the event, its dedicated staff, and the countless volunteers who tirelessly support it, Happy Cog designed a site that strongly underscored the importance of place in film. By quite literally framing the design with photographs of the landscape around Sundance, Happy Cog placed the Festival’s theme front and center, creating a compelling and accessible design that felt, well, appropriately cinematic.
The Special Features
To complement the creative direction, Happy Cog created a custom XHTML/CSS framework, which easily snapped into the various applications that encompassed Sundance’s online experience.
Furthermore, Happy Cog ensured that the framework allowed the Festival staff to create additional themes on the fly, enabling them to update the site’s “skin” with new event photos as they emerged from the Festival.
Responsibilities
User interface design, CSS/XHTML template development, JavaScript development. Launched December 2007.