Case: Willem de Kooning Academy
Graduation Catalogue: a unique online showcase for every graduate!
For the Willem de Kooning Academy we created a platform within one month! All of the graduation work from the graduates comes together: the Graduation Catalogue! We made sure that each graduate got a unique online subsite within a multisite. Personal, distinctive, original. Every year, the Willem de Kooning Academy can upload the student data of the alumni of that year in one go, after which all student accounts are created automatically.
Read on to see exactly how we handled this!
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Graduating in 2020? Unfortunately that will be a little different than previous years. Keeping a distance remains the norm, so also for graduates of the Willem de Kooning Academy and the Piet Zwart Institute. But of course they do want to show their graduation work! How can they do that without a “live” exhibition? Online of course!
The Willem de Kooning Academy is a leading international academy for Bachelor’s and Master’s programmes in media, art, design, leisure and education. They asked us to develop a distinct online platform for them, where their graduates could present themselves and their work to the world. A unique environment for everyone!
A place of their own for every student
In the midst of the Covid-19 crisis, the realisation of a better, sustainable, but above all digital form of presentation for the Willem de Kooning Academy was more necessary than ever. This became the platform where their new talents could exhibit their graduation project.
But how do you give about 400 students a unique, distinct place of their own with the right online tools in a very short time? We had some ideas!
The project: Bringing all the graduation work together in one place
For the Willem de Kooning Academy it was important that each graduate was given an own environment. An environment in which the graduation work is presented, but in which the graduate can also show other work and tell more about his or her working method and background. A unique digital cv! On this graduation platform all the student’s work comes together. The visitor can search from 1 central point through all the work of other graduates via disciplines and specific graduation programmes.
The approach: Creating all student accounts automatically in one go, every year
We only had a short period of time, so we started defining a MVP (Minimum Viable Product). We determined what the most important things were to be able to offer as an environment before the summer holidays.
We then started to develop a suitable design. The platform had to be attractive for students to work with!
We also drew up a content migration plan. This makes it possible to reuse the platform every year. All student data of alumni can now be uploaded in one go every year and this way all student accounts are created automatically.
The solution: A graduation subsite for every student
In order to gather all the graduates’ work in one place, we set up a multisite. One main site, containing several subsites. Each student got their own subsite with an account, shielded from the other subsites. This allowed everyone to do their own thing, without stumbling upon each others work!
We developed an import script for the migration plan. And very cool: all graduates received an automated welcome message with access to their own graduation subsite while their data was importing!
“I think it’s great to see that every student can build their own portfolio. There are quite a few possibilities to design their own showcase as unique as possible, but at the same time stay within the style of Willem de Kooning Academy. There are already more than 200 portfolios made by the students, nice!”
The result: Every showcase presented in their own unique way
We are proud of what we have achieved! An online alternative for the presentations of all showcases, on time: the Graduation Catalogue. Each graduate can now design his/her subsite in their own unique way.
They decide for themselves what their subsite looks like, this way they can distinguish themselves from each other. There are lots of possibilities to do so. By colour, structure or content, you name it.
The possibility of continuing to use and expand this platform for the long term has always been kept in mind during development.
Challenges we have tackled
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