Insight

The Royal College of Art is the world’s most prestigious art school, both for the talent it attracts and its fundamentally different way of thinking.

But its website didn’t reflect this radical ethos. The homepage was chaotic, and the content didn’t effectively guide current and prospective students to what they were looking for.

As a result, engagement was down, and degree applicants were put off from the beginning by the confusing digital experience.

Approach

We redesigned the RCA website over a period of 4 months. Their positioning statement of ‘Radical Traditionalism’ inspired our modular approach, and we designed a suite of building blocks to construct pages.

The site is open and minimal, exposing grid lines as a nod to traditional typography. The largely monochrome palette uses oversized black and white panels to divide content. The site opens up the width of the canvas, creating new breakpoints for optimal display on all screens.