The North East Folklore Archive (nefa.net)
The NEFA website was an interesting project.
How do you create a site based around thousands of archived images and information and yet make it professional and contemporary in it’s look?
The design
Quite often with archival sites the results are unprofessional and homespun. This isn’t surprising as sites of this nature are done on a limited budget and maintained by enthusiasts. The remit here was to counter that perception whilst at the same time produce a layout which could, and frequently does, require updating using a simple layout with easy to reach information. The site link is below and it contains hours of reading content.
The images we had available all told their own stories – this huge area covers land and sea, work and play. The images are a true unvarnished snapshot into the heritage of the area. So we made visual stories. We tinted images, juxtaposed them, zoomed in, grained them, cleaned them up all to create narratives. We took our time and produced something contemporary which celebrates the past rather than rails against it.