Case Study
Trust Art is a revolutionary way to fund public art. The organization creates shares assigned to a piece of art and exchanges them for monetary donations or in kind gifts, so that each work of art is funded by a community of shareholders. At the end of 3 years, each work of art is auctioned off and the proceeds are divided proportionately to the shareholders, as a return on the investment. Our challenge was to translate this new model of fundraising into a community-based destination that would engage the shareholders and tell the story behind the works of art.
We began with the brand identity, crafting a seal that would look civic and governmental, but creative and playful as well. Then we created a digital platform to host this new economy of giving, allowing users to not only donate money, but time and resources in exchange for a unique currency, a share designed by Bell & Whistle. But Trust Art is about more than funding art. It’s about the story behind the art and community that comes together to create it. So we designed dynamic project pages to showcase each work of art and a system of chapters to narrate the story behind each project. To keep the community engaged, we built a robust user backend where shareholders could interact with each other across projects and an awesome newsletter to help spread the good word.
