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tstrassberger.com is a portfolio website for
Thaddeus Strassberger, a New York-based scenic and lighting designer.
The website features Strassberger’s creations for the opera
and provides his résumé, headshot and biography for
potential international collaborators. The intended audience includes
local and international theatrical employers and the artist’s
colleagues. The site takes advantage of its audience’s familiarity
with using the Internet for communication during the challenging
task of producing operas on a tight schedule and at low cost.
Professors Rawden and Girardi gave
their class a straightforward and minimally-structured assignment:
“to identify a need for a website then design it.” For
tstrassberger.com, Kangas looked beyond the classroom and addressed
a real-life client’s need to showcase his scenic design portfolio.
Kangas displayed Strassberger’s
multiple-scene set designs through a series of documentary photographs
and captions. She built the website primarily in HTML but used Macromedia’s
Flash to create simple photographic sequences of operas and plays.
The use of Flash is restrained, focusing on an ability to generate
smooth and localized navigation while minimizing its animation effects.
Captions written by Strassberger that describe the dramatic context
of each shot accompany the images.
After establishing the navigational
structure, Kangas experimented with five alternative visual concepts.
She finally adopted a minimalist dark blue background so that Strassberger’s
set designs glowed on the screen. The overall design communicates
the concept that Strassberger literally lights up the stage with
his talent.
tstrassberger.com successfully
unites the ancient art of theatrical design with contemporary design
approaches for the Internet.  |
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