GIPHY

Web Services & Applications / People's Voice Winner

GIPHY

Web Services & Applications

People's Voice Winner

We’re excited about the democratization of aligning artist talent with legit, paying opportunities. Not only does this help support a growing, global community of creatives, but helps inject new and diverse thinking into the creative being commissioned. - GIPHY Team

Q: Can you describe your project and the concept behind it?

A: For years, our homepage has been a hub for visual expression, realtime moments in culture, and some of the best artist work on the internet. This past year, we wanted to further our support of the artist community and help connect them to freelance work. This led to the launch of the “Hire Me” button for Artists, prominently visible throughout the site to help connect available artists to paying work from brands and beyond.

Q: Tell us about your initial moodboard, wireframe, or prototype. How did things change throughout the process?

Q: What influenced your chosen technical approach, and how did it go beyond past methods?

A: Our approach was very simple: continue listening to our users and champion them. Artists were looking for paying opportunities, and brands were looking for ways to easily commission them. This feedback helped us build a more comprehensive feature set that included the Hire Me button, a seamless 1:1 communication stream for Artists and Brands, a redesigned Artist Directory, and account features making it easier for artists to get involved.

When did you experience a breakthrough or an "a-ha" moment during this project?

It all started with the realization that so many independent artists were struggling to find work due to the pandemic. GIPHY brings so much joy to people’s conversations and the Artist community is an incredibly huge part of that. We wanted to give them some additional platform support by trying to connect them to paying work.

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Q: What web technologies, tools, and resources did you use to develop this?

A: Our front end leverages React, TypeScript and Styled Components, while our back end is Python Django supported by Scala Microservices all running on AWS via dockerized containers on Kubernetes. In particular, the Django admin allowed us to rapidly prototype our updated artist onboarding flow without having to commit front end and design resources.

Q: How did you balance your own creative ideas and technical capabilities with a fair representation of the client’s brand?

A: In a way, we had three different clients: artists, brands, and other partners/users who might be interested in hiring artists for one-off opportunities. We focused on the core user needs & behaviors of each user type, then looked at the intersections between all those things.

Q: How did the final product meet or exceed your expectations?

A: Since the launch, we’ve had nearly 1,000 GIPHY Artists turn this feature on, we’ve made 80 different freelance connections, and had three large scale partner launches with HBO Max, I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter, and the United Nations Human Rights Office.

Q: Why is this an exciting time to create new digital experiences? How does your team fit into this?

A: We’re excited about the democratization of aligning artist talent with legit, paying opportunities. Not only does this help support a growing, global community of creatives, but helps inject new and diverse thinking into the creative being commissioned. And it's not just brands — this use case extends to non-profits looking to commission value-centric content, small businesses in need of one-off projects, and other paid creative collaborations.