Revolutionary Trail of NYC
BRANDING | WEBSITE | PRINT & DIGITAL COLLATERAL
Partnering with The Gotham Center (CUNY), we developed a multimedia, self-guided walking tour designed to bring New York City’s American Revolution history to life on the streets. The resulting digital ecosystem seamlessly translates vast institutional research into an immersive, highly interactive, and mobile-first consumer experience and test a proof-of-concept for future app iterations .
The Creative Challenge
The Gotham Center possessed an immense wealth of historical research and content but faced a classic academic hurdle: how to make dense archival data compelling for the general public on the move.
The challenge was to architect a system that could compress heavy, long-form historical narratives into a crisp, bite-sized mobile experience without compromising scholarly integrity, bridging the gap between deep education and effortless urban exploration.
Brand Identity & Logo
While the team had preliminary branding inspired by historical home colors, the identity needed to be formalized and refined to thrive on modern digital screens. We engineered a custom logo that honors the historical weight of the content, while carefully balancing the final typography choices and color palette to ensure the brand felt both historically authentic and exceptionally friendly for mobile web environments.
Website Design & Build
To make a walking tour successful, the web interface had to function flawlessly as a mobile app proof-of-concept. We strategically organized a massive volume of research into two distinct tracks: an abbreviated version optimized for immediate street-level consumption, and a long-form version housed in a digital library for deeper post-tour reading. To maximize usability on the go, the user interface prioritizes high-touch mobile UX features, including:
Easy-Tap Controls: Large, intuitive forward and backward icons to move fluidly between historic stops.
Geographic Integration: Direct Google Maps links embedded at each stop for effortless, on-the-go city navigation.
Truncated Layouts: Text blocks limited by "continue reading" toggles to reduce continuous scrolling fatigue.
Persistent Stop Menu: A flexible navigation menu on every page, allowing users to jump directly to points of interest or experience the tour in their own custom order.
Digital & Print Collateral
To build public traction and capture users right on the pavement, we launched a cohesive print and digital campaign across New York City.
On the print side, we leveraged a strategic exhibition partnership with the New York City Fire Museum, designing custom promotional posters and physical brochures distributed directly on-site.
Simultaneously, we deployed high-visibility digital marketing campaigns via automated Link NYC street kiosks, creating a series of four animated ads packed with compelling historical hooks and integrated QR codes to seamlessly transition passing pedestrians straight into the mobile tour experience.
