Building a sustainable digital hub

2025

AIR's purpose pivoted after our first year and hosting our first conference. Instead of being very academic-focused, we wanted to move towards becoming an arts-based collective. The new site reflects this, with the focus on multimedia projects created not just by AIR, but our affiliates and community as well. Publications have been reframed as "Dispatches" and have become a space for us to explore different forms of writing based projects.

As the individual leading digital operations, the overhaul of the website was also a challenge for myself to make it easy to maintain for the rest of the team. I've set up Payload CMS that approved users can log into and add content to the website, decentralizing the responsibility.

When redesigning the website, I kept this question in mind: How can we redesign the AIR website to better serve the needs of the community?

Reflections

The design balances professionalism, whimsy, academic, and community-oriented elements in a way that feels cohesive. Something I'm still working with is the language of the copy. I want to be intentional with the tone and make it engaging and accessible to a non-academic audience.

The site is still a work in progress, but I believe that the direction is reflective of the new mission and values of the collective.