A view of the arts

The founders of Arts Vista are as compelled by data as they are imbued with a love of the arts. They wanted to build a new source of engagement sharing high quality arts events that allowed visitors to sample a variety of potential venues and productions before attending anything.

Arts Vista was born to respond to a specific need and a very compelling set of data.

Presenting the concept

The first incarnation of Arts Vista had a smaller audience — aimed at would be investors we designed a preliminary interface to convey the essence of the experience in a way that sparked it’s value. Combined with an informative and detailed investor pack, covering projections and roll-out strategy, this was Arts Vista’s first step on it’s way to market.

The eye of the beholder

Our prime prospect is a patron, a spectator of the arts. We needed to find an aesthetic that would feel comfortable to use and suiting to the space, but still hold it’s own as belonging to an innovator in this most historic and elegant genre.

Taking inspiration from galleries, cinema and opera houses we choose a noir palette that would harmonise with the vibrant imagery of the arts. With the addition of two established yet contemporary typefaces an identity system emerged that felt classic yet at home on the web.

The Symbol

An obvious direction? We hope so… Five hundred or so flourishes later we had selected an “AV” that would become the mark of Arts Vista. With limitless variations of it’s application, we have a strong accent to all AV communication, a key feature to the Arts Vista identity as we begin to build a strong and recognised brand.

Going to the arts

Browse – discover – attend – share opinion, repeat.

With the abundance of second rate arts ‘discovery’ portals available to patrons in todays information market, we created a responsive experience that would make it easy to search or browse arts productions and venues, providing instant viewing using video which helps people identify which productions suit their tastes.

The home for arts events? Absolutely, but community is a huge part of this, with the boomer population yearning for a home for their interests, we built a set of familiar features that would feel natural to this existing arts community.

One last but significant tweak

Originally we had a sentence written in the first person, with which the user could filter their search results – “show me Opera events in Vancouver this weekend” – filtering the type of event, the location and the time. We loved it! But unfortunately when tested with the target audience people didn’t really get how it worked and gravitated past it… So after much soul searching we arrived at the icon selector concept, with a couple of dropdowns – simplicity always wins in the end. There is something to be said for familiar function in an area where we constantly try to innovate.

Grand aspirations

Strategy is to build critical mass in a select market and grow organically from there. Arts Vista hired community engagement specialists and aligned themselves with key people in the arts to build relationships and interest from day 1. At launch, Arts Vista hosted over 200 productions from 30 different arts producers in Vancouver, with plans to move to Toronto very quickly.