Two Palantir sites win W³ Awards

The Art Institute of Chicago and the University of Chicago Law School, two sites developed by Palantir, were selected as Silver Winners by the International Academy of Visual Arts in the 2006 W³ Awards competition. The Art Institute of Chicago site was honored in the Cultural Institutions category, while the University of Chicago Law School site was honored in the School/University category.

Sanctioned and judged by the International Academy of the Visual Arts, the W³ Awards honor creative excellence on the web, and recognize the creative and marketing professionals behind award winning sites and marketing programs.

The International Academy of the Visual Arts is an invitation-only body consisting of top-tier professionals from a “Who’s Who” of acclaimed media, interactive, advertising, and marketing firms. IAVA members include executives from organizations such as Alloy, BRANDWEEK, Coach, The Ellen Degeneres Show, Estee Lauder, HBO, iNDELIBLE, Monster.com, MTV, Omnicom, Polo Ralph Lauren, Refinery, Sotheby’s Institute of Art, Victoria’s Secret, Wired, Yahoo!, and many others.

The Art Institute of Chicago is one of the premier fine art institutions in the United States. Palantir worked with design partner studio blue to create an entirely new presence on the Web for the museum. The redesign of the site has several objectives: to give the museum a Web presence worthy of the institution’s stature, to promote the wide range of activities available to members and the community, and to streamline maintenance and content updates performed by museum staff. The new design brings the collection of the museum to the forefront through the use of rotating images on department pages and a robust search interface that allows users to search over 800 works of art featured on the site. Teasers for events, resources, and programs are placed throughout the site in order to make previously buried content easily accessible.

The University of Chicago’s Law School is widely recognized as one of the nation’s most prestigious law schools. Palantir collaborated with design partner studio blue on the redesign and redevelopment of the Web site, which had organically grown to over 1000 pages since its last redesign and needed both a design overhaul and content management tools. The design of the site was created to be flexible and expansive, yet unique to the School. The Law School possesses a distinct academic culture focused on the "life of the mind." The photos and pull quotes used on the site reinforce this singular academic environment.

About Palantir
Founded in 1996, Palantir has developed a full range of custom interactive Web sites, database applications, and software. Our goal is to change the way people share information by employing new media technologies that empower and enable end-users through seamless, highly functional interactive experiences.