I was brought as part of the visioning team mandated to develop a brand new Web presence for the NFB's (National Filmboard of Canada) animation activities across the country. My role was Web specialist and my responsibilities included navigation, page and information design issues.

This was to be more than a promotional site for new and old NFB animated films. It was to be THE reference for Auteur Animation in Canada, a place where users could view complete animated films and clips, as well as going behind the scenes to explore the many facets of the creative process. It wasn't to be limited to NFB films, but sought to welcome the national community of animation artists and their work as an integral part of the site.

Working with the Executive Producer and Project Leader, we created the master plan for a site that was to be built in stages on a five year plan. It was a highly conceptual, creative and stimulating process that culminated in the creation of a series of Web Architecture Flow Charts that described in detail the various sections of the complete version of the site (see document 2, below). This was brought to the community for feedback and the results were overwhelmingly positive.

A modest but rich first iteration of the site was launched in early 2002 (see www.nfb.ca/animation/html/en/). I was a design consultant for this version and articulated the handmade aesthetic with designer Marie-Hélène Robert. We used the old animation light-tables as a motif. I also was responsible for creating the Animation Museum main page template. The graphic look comes directly from master animator Chris Hinton's intentionally-archaic registration system used in his film Flux (NFB 2002).

It is yet to be seen if our five-year master-plan will be followed, but for me it is inconsequential. The experience of designing such a rich and creative site took me to new heights in the process of imagining complex, but highly usable, Web applications.

Below are a series of related documents.