HBO
Overview
HBO Black Art: Extending a Documentary Into an Interactive Cultural Archive. Designing a digital companion experience for HBO’s Black Art: In the Absence of Light, transforming the documentary’s network of artists, institutions, and cultural spaces into an explorable web archive. The experience allows audiences to move beyond the film and discover the people, places, and stories shaping contemporary Black art.
Client
HBO
Role
UI/UX, Interaction & Motion Designer
Impact
Extended the documentary into an interactive discovery platform, giving audiences a structured way to explore artists, institutions, and cultural context beyond the film.
Global Footprint
United States • Artists • Institutions • Cultural Spaces
Turning a Documentary Into Something Audiences Can Continue Exploring. The film introduces a broad network of artists, galleries, institutions, and cultural spaces. The digital experience reorganizes that material into a visual archive, allowing audiences to browse relationships and discover stories at their own pace rather than following a fixed linear narrative.
Visual Discovery
Uses an image-led grid to surface people, places, and institutions as interconnected entry points into the archive.
Nonlinear Exploration
Lets users move freely between categories and stories instead of forcing a single editorial path.
Organizing a Dense Cultural Network Without Losing Its Humanity. The experience balances a large volume of archival material with clear categories for artists, institutions, and Black art spaces. Consistent cards, filtering, and detail views create structure without making the content feel database-driven, keeping individual voices and stories at the center.
Clear Categorization
Separates artists, institutions, and cultural spaces into recognizable pathways while maintaining one consistent visual system.
Story-Level Detail
Moves from broad archive browsing into focused profiles and location stories, giving each subject room for deeper context.
Preserving the Film’s Editorial Tone Across the Web. The interface uses restrained typography, generous white space, monochrome structure, and selective imagery to stay visually aligned with the documentary while giving digital content room to breathe. Subtle motion and transitions help the archive feel alive without competing with the work being presented.
Restrained Visual System
Keeps the interface intentionally quiet so artwork, photography, and editorial content remain the focus.
Subtle Motion
Uses transitions and animated browsing states to add rhythm and continuity without overwhelming the content.
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