Misk Art Institute

“We could picture their lines animating in and out of the screen, breathing life to the pages as the user navigates through the art week’s activations”

Creating a website to navigate the different touchpoints of a week long art event

Every year, Misk Art Institute hosts a week-long event with a variety of activities from talks and panel discussions to exhibits, performances and education sessions. This year was no different, and for it, they asked us to create a new website to act as a hub for all the information, and a portal through which users can register for the variety of happenings that week. 

Background

The concept was to create a space within their current website that felt like its own site, taking a different approach to their branding but keeping it consistent and familiar with the general feel in the rest of the pages. After being given instructions to create a non-scroll landing page, and the limitations of working within their existing grid structure, top navigation and footer.

We tackled the layout and design of this website mobile first, identifying the necessary content flow for the user to complete the various tasks at different stages of their journey. Firstly, in order to establish a clear distinction from the rest of the website, we decided on a look and feel that inverted their colors, using white, purple and yellow over a black background. Additionally, instead of extending their main menu to show the internal tabs, we created a static hovering menu for easy navigation and access to the registration form.


We also wanted to re-imagine the use of their shapes on the page, so we injected them primarily as little animated details at the headers and as separators. So we chose a few of them and created SVG animations to ensure they remained responsive. We also used their custom Art Week icons in the custom sticky menu to reinforce them as visual cues.

The experience

The Outcome

For the home page, we decided to storyboard and animate a quick video that showed all the key information from the first impression of the site. The rest of the pages use a clear and simple grid structure that enables the user to view and filter through the different available activities with ease. 

The final outcome was also adapted for mobile, in both English and Arabic

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Crafting the Misk Art Week Website

boldExperiences

Alwaleed Philantrophies

Crafting an experience in the metaverse that works towards a bigger cause of tolerance and understanding between cultures.

We wanted to test the limits of an intangible space like the metaverse, and its ability to bring a deeper meaning and a sense of tangibility to a philanthropic organization with a big cause

Alwaleed Philanthropies is a non-profit organization that works on projects and campaigns with the sole purpose of creating a positive impact on humanity worldwide. With one of their key areas of impact being “Bridging Cultures”, they wanted to take advantage of World Tolerance Day to reach a wider audience by being the first Philanthropy to exist in the metaverse. 

On November 16, we launched their curated space, titled A Boundless Journey, on Decentraland. The end result is a journey through an 8 floor space, which takes users through an interactive exhibit of cultural and artistic projects from a variety of their partners.

AlWaleed Philanthropies’ mission is to create impact beyond borders, irrespective of gender, race or religion. With that in mind, we felt that the Metaverse, a decentralized place that is designed to reach a public beyond reach, was the perfect place to host a virtual exhibit that would reflect the power of art and culture as a tool of empowerment and integration. 

We started by identifying the core drivers of the brand being in the metaverse, and the key messages they wanted to communicate. With that we crafted a manifesto as a guiding pillar for the experiences they want to host in their Decentraland space. We then curated 8 pieces inspired by Islamic cultures from all around the world, from woodwork crafted by local Saudi artisans, to unique sound pieces inspired by the patterns on Islamic carpets.

The idea

With their partners on board, providing us the content necessary for each project piece, we moved onto curating the space and planning the user’s experience. After a lot of research into the Do’s and Don'ts of Decentraland (heads up, stairs are a no-go), and spending a lot of time experiencing other event spaces on the platform, we began with planning our own.

With the help of an architectural designer, we were inspired by the concept of interwoven pieces, the pieces being brought together through curved ramps as if they are weavings. We knew the elements we had to incorporate -including the main floor where the users need to be introduced to the brand and purpose of the experience- and with the help of an architect, we sketched multiple iterations of the space, ultimately choosing one and developing it to the final version. 

The Process

We then tackled each room separately, after laying out the available content and any additional content we could produce for each - we asked to produce interviews and photoshoots for a few of the rooms. 
We wanted to take advantage of the physics-defying aspects of Decentraland, so we decided to bring the pieces to life by augmenting and animating them, creating a unique feel in each room, complemented by specific audio tracks for each.

This project was truly a challenge, and its process took a lot of back and forth. Although we had known the limitations of the space, calculating the amount of textures, materials and usable triangles we could work with, we still needed to figure out how to work to optimize them. We also needed to adjust the space to be user friendly, and create intrigue through a quest-like game that pushed the users to explore the entire space, collecting Value Words in order to unlock a custom POAP - an incentive we knew would work on many visitors.

The Obstacles

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Boundless Journey (Metaverse)

the bold group

Progress and tradition don’t contradict. We wanted to prove that culture and identity can thrive even on an abstract and futuristic concept like the Metaverse

Early in 2022, the world was so busy talking about the Metaverse. A new concept that is promising to change the way we use the internet and interact with each other.
As a creative technology hub, we couldn’t sit still and be passive. We wanted to actively participate in all the buzz, going beyond the boundaries of what we’re comfortable crafting, taking it as an opportunity to learn and experiment with this new medium. Our ultimate goal was to gain a better understanding of how the Metaverse can serve our client brands and be a touchpoint in their holistic experience.

Our idea was to bring a sense of familiarity to an unfamiliar place. The Saudi national day celebrations are all about uniquely cultural and traditional activities, and we wanted to mirror these festivities that take place in the real world, in the virtual one, in the most authentic and playful way possible.

The Idea

The entire experience is meant to represent us as people and culture, so we aimed to reflect our hospitality and traditions.

The national day is a day of unity. We wanted to symbolize that with a big palm tree, which represents our nation, placed at the center of the space, acting like an anchor, with the functionality of being an elevator to the top floors. Around it, a dancing squad (Orda) can be seen performing as car parades blasting Saudi music circled the main centerpiece, users could hop-on to these cars for a joy ride, or launch fireworks into the sky.


We wanted to seize the opportunity to create the first Saudi traditional attire on the metaverse and display them as collectable NFTs for visitors to collect and wear to celebrate the Saudi cultural identity in this virtual space.

The space also featured a photo gallery to give our international audience a glimpse into our culture, people and nature.

We wanted our participation to leave a lasting print in this virtual space, so we published the Saudi attire as wearables in Decentraland for free so our audience could enjoy them wherever they go.

Leaving a permanent mark

What started with a simple press release and microsite to promote the space, turned out to be a massive success.

Our event was positively received in Saudi and all over the world, with thousands of people talking about it and creating content to spread the news even further.


The Results

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Saudi National Day on the Metaverse

How can we make sure our audience feels like they have a role to play, and are an integral part to the success of our work? 

We need to truly promote collectivism through digital activism.

Crafting a website that promotes a ripple effect of positive change.


Alwaleed Philanthropies is a non-profit organization that works on projects and campaigns with the sole purpose of creating a positive impact on humanity worldwide. With their ethos being “Together, for good” we wanted to turn their website into an accessible platform where people could take part in digital activism.


The challenge: Despite not directly offering funding or volunteering opportunities, AP wanted the website to be a space where users could interact with AP’s projects and campaigns in whatever capacity they could.

The Execution

We began by analyzing the data from the previous version of their website to identify key traffic areas, user pain points and opportunities. We discovered that social media was the main driver of traffic on the website, with drop-off exceeding 83%, meaning users were enticed to explore the rest of the site. 

Moreover, their old website didn’t give their campaigns and focus impact areas justice, and most significantly, wasn’t delivering the brand message in a way that was powerful and inspiring. We needed to deconstruct and reconstruct their content in a way that kept people engaged and curious, optimizing their journey through the site.

We made it a goal to design for 3 key opportunities:
    1. Longer engagement time by cross-linking
    2. Clearer flow and ease of use through better
         content hierarchy
    3. A brighter brand by taking advantage of their
         brand uplift and beautiful visual library

So from their new brand colors and circular element, we abstracted a moving gradient that acts as an element of dynamism and differentiation. We wanted to bring the user’s interactions alive with its movement on hover, and use it as an element of highlight to direct the attention of our users into the places they should focus on. The conception of the gradient was subtly influenced by the idea of change and transformation, which we felt supplemented their call for positive change beautifully.

By creating both a user experience as well as a design that inspired those who desired to explore the site, we managed to achieve spectacular results.

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A Corporate Website for a Global NGO

Majid Al Futtaim

The Main message will become the point of promotion of the product with influencer marketing. The term itself is very engaging in Arabic, it sounds like someone is on a challenge to dazzle the world, and it served as the inspiration for many influencers based and organic videos circulating on social media. 

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Share Loyalty Program launch campaign

boldComms

Shi Lounge

Shi Lounge is a high-end hookah lounge in Riyadh that provides an authentic experience for the shisha lovers community.

From different types and flavors of shishas, food, and drinks to experience and music, Shi lounge provides an authentic oriental experience for the locals, expatriates, and visitors.

The logo illustrates the word Shi in Arabic calligraphy and has a smooth character representing the shisha smoke.

Identity

We wanted the brand to represent an elevated lounge that pays tribute to the history of hookah in the oriental and Arabic world, particularly, and celebrates their cultural rituals when having hookah.

We took old oriental and Arabic countries stamps as an inspiration, and we recreated them using historical archive pictures of people using shisha (hookah, nargile..).

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A hookah lover's hub

boldBrands

Warsha 29

"Warsha 29" is a series of interactive workshops to train participants on creative expression in various ways. The workshop's main objective is to help participants prepare and learn to find inspiration, plan the novel, and create real characters with new identities, motives, and desires.

The workshop provides exercises on how to use dialogue and narration and their motives and connotations, highlighting the importance of research, imagination, and other details about the novel's world.

Our team took inspiration from the number of Arabic alphabetical letters and used “29” in the name and logo to reflect the identity the client wanted to showcase.

We used grungy textured images inspired by nature, giving the brand a spirit of literature and poetry and setting a mood for storytelling and narration.

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Unleash the writer in you

Siwar

We wanted to create a simplified shopping experience that maximized customizability and convenience, all while encouraging an entirely new consumer behavior to the Saudi public

Siwar is a new brand of frozen meals, conceived and made in Saudi Arabia, using fresh ingredients and a Shock Freeze Technology to preserve the nostalgic flavor of home made dishes, without any added preservatives. Regardless of how good that may sound, there is an undeniable negative stigma attached to frozen meals in this region. So, our mission was to really sell them as a new consumer behavior by driving first time trials. With the tagline being Love at First Bite, our challenge was to convince the world that Siwar was as delicious as it was convenient. We needed to convince the world that Siwar was, without a doubt, good in every way.

The website, from content to experience, was designed for optimal customer acquisition.
We started by optimizing the content, basing our decisions on benchmarks in the food industry, we crafted a brand angle while finding the brand’s tonality along the way. We needed to not only highlight the product benefits and unique selling points, but also be confident in the way we say it. Witty words and mouth watering images of the freshly made dishes were key here: It's true what they say, you eat with your eyes first.

 Execution

The first version of the Siwar site created two independent purchasing routes: shop & weekly plans were separate tabs, which created a system that didn’t necessarily encourage one over the other. It was important for us to create a more cohesive e-commerce experience by removing all barriers, and driving users to subscribe to the service. We did this by emphasizing the minimum order for free shipping, and potential savings via subscription, and most importantly, by incorporating the subscription option into the user flow, encouraging “custom bundling” options when users hit a number of items in their cart. 


Challenge: Make it desirable

From the website, we drove people to download the app via download links & QR codes, and a free meal which in turn worked to increase acquisition, while the mobile app was mostly designed to maximize customer retention. Through push notifications, and customized emails, our goal moved on to establish customer relationships & loyalty.






The result is a simple website that emphasizes a simple and straightforward user flow. Analytics show an increase in brand visibility due to improved SEO, thanks to the content uplift and restructuring. Finally, the joint purchasing model displayed an increase in users opting for weekly subscriptions instead of single purchases.


Misk Art Institute _

Crafting the Misk Art Week Website

Misk Art Institute _

Crafting the Misk Art Week Website

Alwaleed Philantrophies _

Boundless Journey (Metaverse)

Alwaleed Philantrophies _

Boundless Journey (Metaverse)

the bold group _

Saudi National Day on the Metaverse

the bold group _

Saudi National Day on the Metaverse

Alwaleed Philantrophies _

A Corporate Website for a Global NGO

Alwaleed Philantrophies _

A Corporate Website for a Global NGO

Majid Al Futtaim _

Share Loyalty Program launch campaign

Majid Al Futtaim _

Share Loyalty Program launch campaign

Shi Lounge _

A hookah lover's hub

Shi Lounge _

A hookah lover's hub

Warsha 29 _

Unleash the writer in you

Warsha 29 _

Unleash the writer in you

Siwar _

Siwar E-Commerce Platform

Siwar _

Siwar E-Commerce Platform