Literary Arts invites some of the world’s most renowned writers to Portland while simultaneously celebrating and supporting our local literary community. Together, we created a platform that encourages readers and writers across generations to find their story
Table of Contents
Back in the Fall of 2017, we embarked on a research project with Literary Arts and their constituents in order to understand their wants and empathize with their frustrations. As we poured through the feedback, it became clear that we needed to shift from a focus on the organizational structure to an emphasis on the people involved. This manifested in a completely redesigned website that evolved the conversation from a me to a we approach.
This insight allowed us to drastically alter the way that Literary Arts not only communicates through their website, but also reimagined their conversations everywhere print material to newsletters. To do this, we utilized a variety of languages (graphics, words, colors, and structure) that ensure Literary Arts now speaks directly to readers and writers across generations.
Turning the Page
In our discovery phase, we found that 80% of website visitors were looking for events, which makes sense given that Literary Arts puts on the regions most well-known and loved Literary Events—Portland Book Festival, our city-wide Youth Poetry Slam, Portland Arts & Lectures, etc.—and yet finding them was a difficulty of epic proportions. Not anymore! We took a proactive, events focused approach and created a platform that allows visitors to find event based on their interest and see the extent of excitement that is Literary Arts.
Finally, we wanted to focus on the diversity of people and programs at Literary Arts which lead to a vibrant, photo forward approach.
