Led by Warwick Arts Centre, Boys Dancing aims to convince boys and young men that dance is for them; and more than 2,500 boys in the West Midlands have taken part in the project since 2008.
In 2013 project leaders approached Supercool to give Boys Dancing a facelift, and to re-design and re-build its website to showcase the stories, images and videos collected over the years.
Identity-wise, we wanted a look that's clearly professionally designed, yet relaxed in style. We achieved this with a grungy, almost graffiti-like logo and graphics (very deliberately rough around the edges), coupled with a clean and clear layout style. The colour palette takes inspiration from the bold, bright colours of the photography.
The primary aim of having a new website was to give people easier access to Boys Dancing videos, stories and images. Although all the content's great quality, the image gallery in particular is quite something – helped by the fact one of the project choreographers, Mark Anderson, happens to also be an excellent photographer.
The Boys Dancing website's homepage shows-off content from the five different project regions; each of which has been colour-coded to help people find what's relevant/local to them – as well as adding splashes of colour to the site.
There's also a 'landing page' for each project region, housing their respective blog posts, images, videos and tweets; alongside information on choreographers and apprentices.
Boys Dancing has had a big impact on a lot of people, with a number of those who've taken part not only having enjoyed their time, kept fit, and learnt discipline and teamwork; but who're now actively pursuing a career in dance. (Some of the success stories feature in the Stories part of the website.)
