BASIC/DEPT®

Patagonia
Footprint
Chronicles

Corporate Social Responsibility / People's Voice Winner
BASIC/DEPT®

Corporate Social Responsibility

"The biggest a-ha moment was when we asked ourselves how working through a corporate responsibility section could move the needle by compelling people to make a change." BASIC/DEPT®

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

A: Footprint Chronicles was the re-imagination and reintegration of Patagonia's purpose for existing as a more integrated message throughout their digital experience. We aimed to better communicate how and why Patagonia does business the way that it does, clarify how that showed up in the products people love, and invite other brands and consumers to participate in that mission.

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

A: Our initial ideas were very organic — they really focused in on core concepts that aligned with the ambition for FPC. It was about creating harmony, calmness, which is something that truly felt like Patagonia. Our message and structure was focused on being as bold and declarative as Yvon Chouinard himself was in his ambition to build a company that could change the world through business. Thus, our ideas needed to be provocative and unafraid.

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

A: In order to help our designers achieve their vision, we developed a lightweight and performant framework that would allow us to compose multiple layers of images, videos, color schemes, texts and dynamically-generated, animated masks in a 2D canvas to create an organic and immersive experience.

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

The biggest a-ha moment was when we asked ourselves how working through a corporate responsibility section could move the needle by compelling people to make a change. We realized it was table stakes to create a section of the site talking about their ambitions as a brand. We ultimately found a way to connect their supply chain information to individual products — encouraging viewers to explore how Patagonia made clothes, and why they do so.


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

A: The front-end code was produced using Visual Studio Code and modern HTML5, CSS and JavaScript. Parts of the layout are generated in a 2D canvas using multiple composition layers and dynamically-generated masks.

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

A: Brand first. Our approach has never been to come up with the idea first, then back a brand into it. It's about building compelling concepts that feel natural to who they are. A natural extension of what a brand represents in culture at every touchpoint — especially digital. Our technical capabilities are merely a means to delivering new interesting experiences, deeper connection and more effective execution, but it always starts with the brand.

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

A: The thing we were most proud of was the integration of social and environmental impact information into a product journey. We worked with a brand that was brave enough to put their values and goals before their bottom line.The most important part was making the product story more compelling to help the brand take a step closer towards their mission in using the business as a means of changing the world.

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

A: Technology and new audience expectations and desires — what we can do is rapidly changing. New iterations of the web keep things interesting and those capabilities and new audiences mean we can do new and interesting things that we couldn't before. Our team thrives at that moment of conceptual digital innovation. Large or small scale, they are always looking for new and interesting ways to surprise our users.
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