The Huntington
A website that expresses the modern perspectives of this historic cultural refuge
San Marino, California, USA
- Digital expression of a new brand
- Headless application built upon an existing CMS
- Disparate collections presented together for the first time
- Seamless DAMS integration
The Huntington, a world-renowned cultural and educational institution, provides transformative experiences for a community of the curious.
Founded in 1919 by Henry E. and Arabella Huntington, it supports research and promotes public engagement through its expansive library, art, and botanical collections. By cultivating dynamic scholarship, creating innovative programs for students and lifelong learners, and sharing its extraordinary resources, The Huntington invites us all on a journey of discovery, insight, and connection.
Nestled in the buzzing urban landscape of greater Los Angeles, The Huntington is a safe haven of natural beauty, inspiring cultural collections, and immense community spirit. A testament to those who have taken care of this special place over the years, the Huntington is a must-visit on LA’s longlist of world-class experiences.
Building a better online world for audiences
Introducing The Huntington brand online
Cogapp designed and built a new website to reintroduce The Huntington to local audiences and the Huntington’s worldwide community. The new website is the first digital expression of The Huntington’s new brand, developed by BASE Design in conjunction with the Huntington’s incredible team. Cogapp accepted the challenge of bringing the brand to life online. Working closely with our colleagues in San Marino we crafted an experience that captures the sense of space and natural beauty of The Huntington.
Working collaboratively over a six-month timeline, we partnered closely with The Huntington’s internal teams to design, build, and launch a site that represents a foundational shift in how the institution connects with the public online.
Design that works for its stakeholders
Through an intensive exploratory process we experimented and iterated our way to the online expression of the brand that can be seen today. Over a period of 8 weeks we took the new brand and pushed it to its limits. Following this initial phase we refined our ideas and tailored them to the exacting requirements of the organisation.
Not only does the site look great but we have enabled stakeholders to deliver timely content in ways that until now were not possible. Rather than simply uploading images and text in promotional areas of the site, we have enabled the Huntington team to take over various aspects of the site including the site logo itself and colourways. Marketing campaigns can be integrated into the fabric of the site and take over the page to provide a level of impact that would otherwise be impossible.
In short, the new design works both aesthetically and operationally, empowering content producers to show off the organisation and its programmes in the best possible light.
Sustainable delivery
Building upon the Huntington's existing Drupal content management system, Cogapp reimagined how the Huntington presented itself online. Driven by the existing CMS Cogapp layered a modern, performant Next.js front-end on top. Building with the future in mind, this headless approach encourages further integration of the organisation's core digital infrastructure from ticketing to membership. Being lucky enough to partner with a client team who are thinking about the long-term ensures that planning is efficient and effective with sustainability always a key consideration.
Since delivery we have built upon the work completed for launch with many improvements, both for editors and website visitors. For example, we've introduced a comprehensive workflow system to support the Huntington's plans for distributed content authorship.
One Huntington
Having successfully explored the world of the Huntington as part of our project to prototype a unified search experience across the organisation's eclectic collections, we undertook the task of representing this special place to the public online.
Accessible and performant across all device types, the new site encourages visitors to explore each aspect of The Huntington independently but crucially leads audiences to appreciate the links and connections that may not be immediately obvious; these connections are key to understanding the vibrant place that The Huntington is.
The library, art museum, and botanical gardens are all represented and framed beautifully but presented as a coherent whole. As well as checking out information on events, ticketing, and membership, visitors can dig deep into each area of life at The Huntington.
Collections unified for the first time
Previously the organisation's collections were delivered via distinct ‘portals’ with the ability to search across these world-class collections being limited. Building on the significant effort of a collections prototype project, visitors can now enjoy these collections as they should be viewed, as a single entity with links between the objects themselves. Curatorial staff from across the organisation can express the stories behind the collections.
Curators continue to use their tried and tested object management workflows whether these objects are works of art, books from the library or indeed living objects, the plants from the botanical collection. All edits, additions and retractions that are made in the source systems (of which there are as many as six!) are automatically harvested into a search index for the new website.
The new online collection presents all the images and data the Huntington wishes to publish online, while maintaining the integrity, security, and privacy of the various internal collections management systems and making best use of the organisation's new digital asset management system.
Wrangling the various types of metadata (art, library, archival, botanical) and the distinct ways of consuming this information is no mean feat. We are proud to offer a world-class resource that delivers a user-friendly, aesthetically excellent, and engaging experience for all users.
Building a better online world for our clients
Given the distance between our Brighton (UK) and San Marino (US) teams, we adopted a fully collaborative and timezone-friendly approach to delivery. Using shared project management tools, overlapping work hours, and regular video workshops, we were able to move quickly and effectively through discovery, design, and development phases.
Agile methodologies enabled us to adapt to feedback in real time, prioritise key milestones, and incrementally build towards a robust and performant launch.
As with all sites the launch is just the start. We continue to collaborate with the team in San Marino and have many exciting plans and ideas to layer on top of the solid foundations we have built together.
The Huntington website
Find out more
We’d love to speak with you about our work, please get in touch.