School of Visual Arts - critique

First impression: Open page and whoa! There’s a lot going on here. From the little snippets of color in the background to the big bold swath of red down the right hand side of the main page. My first thought was this is entirely too much. But, consider the mission of this page: the home page of a school of visual thought and art. Should that kind of a school have a simple home page or should that school’s page include a variety of thoughts and ideas as well as colors and shapes?

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www.schoolofvisualarts.edu

This is the home page of the School of Visual Arts in New York City. While the site has many links inside for current students, the main purpose of the site is to serve as the initial contact potential undergraduate and graduate students have with the school. As such, the site needs to be both informative and easy to navigate, as well as show off some of the creative thought that goes on at the school. The main page and several of the subsequent inside pages showcase student artwork in the slideshows in the main section of the page. Pages are divided into two main sections: the mosaic background and the central display space.

First, there is the background. Instead of choosing a solid color for the background, the designers have chosen instead to use various sized swatches of color and simple drawings that when put together form a kind of mosaic. On the main page, this background is a combination of several different color palettes: taupes and tans, blues, reds and greens. Subsequent inside pages pull one of those palettes and the backgrounds there become a palette of the shades and tints of a single color. For example, the undergraduate page pulls the taupes and yellows, the graduate page the blues, the continuing education page the greens. By doing so, the backgrounds help define a main color for each section.

When first opening the site, the mosaic took me by surprise and I thought it might be too much visual clutter for the page. After considering the mosaic, I rather like it. This type of background also serves as an indicator that this is a creative site where many different colors, shapes and sizes come together to form one larger body, the background, or symbolically, the different departments and schools come together to form the entire School of Visual Arts. There is not one simple color, not one size, not one single image, nor is there one simple way to define the various arts that are taught, learned and created at this school. The background is a significant indicator of the creativity at this school and does so successfully.

Moving into the page and away from the mosaic background, the main display space on the page is divided into several blocked areas, each of which is a different color. The display space has a Mondrian feel to it. This display space is built on a 7-column grid that is divided into a 1-4-2 space. The school’s name runs vertically in a light purple in a simple serif font in the bright yellow first column. A taupe banner runs from columns 2-7 and contains the main navigation tools to the inside pages: Undergraduate, Graduate, Continuing Education, Admissions and Student Art. Rolling over each of these sections, the name is highlighted in the color of the background of those inside sections. For example, roll over Graduate and the word is highlighted in blue, the same color as the graduate page’s mosaic background. This banner space also includes a search option and a drop down menu to find more specific information such as a map, merchandise, tuition and fees.

The center of this main display space occupies columns 2-5 and is subdivided horizontally into three sections. These three sections showcase a rotating set of images, each of which serves as a kind of ad for a different section inside the site. There are “ads” for undergraduate art, graduate photography, undergraduate interior design, admissions information and so on. Each section of this display space has arrows in the right side corners. Clicking on one of the arrows expands the 1/3 of the display space ad into 2/3 of the space and gives each of the ads more room to play. This is quite an inventive way to let the different departments all have their turn on the main display space. It’s also very user-friendly, as the visitor does not necessarily need to navigate inside the site to see the types of artwork and information contained inside. The ads are also clever in that each of them functions in the 1/3 space as well as in the 2/3 space. Furthermore, these ads include a great deal of student artwork. This treatment is a smart way to show the visitor the caliber and types of artwork created at this institution.

Columns 6-7 are another vertical space; this time in a bright bold bluish-red, that, upon further navigation of the site, I would say is one of the school’s brand colors. The information in this space does not appear to change. Bright yellow, all caps, sans serif words highlight SVA events, news, catalog, a student spotlight and an application link.

The very bottom of this Mondrian display space is another taupe bar that spans columns 2-7 and contains the basic vital information of physical address, telephone numbers and a contact us link.

The display space uses the colors that are the main colors of the main inside pages’ mosaic backgrounds: taupe and yellow, red and blue. This home page succeeds in developing a strong palette of colors that are repeated throughout the site. The information a likely visitor would seek is easy to locate and use. The initial reaction of sensory overload was quickly replaced with an understanding and appreciation for the visual power the mosaic background brings to the site of the School of Visual Arts.