Nairn Book & Arts Festival
Nairn Book and Arts Festival (NBAF) is a celebration of literature, art, music, drama and film in the Scottish Highlands. Held annually in the historic seaside town of Nairn, the festival presents a unique and interactive programme of events from a wide spectrum of cultural mediums.
The Brief
Having established a strong working relationship with NBAF over the last 15 years creating their printed programme, the festival organisers approached Dynam to build a new website that could grow and adapt with the festival, as well as provide site users with an easy user journey and assist in driving ticket sales to meet fundraising goals.
Our Approach
A Flexible New Website
We analysed NBAF’s audiences to understand the website's primary users, ensuring we prioritised building a website that created an excellent online experience. We also discovered a need to highlight opportunities to volunteer or donate when the festival wasn’t running.
We created a two-tiered menu that NBAF can keep updated year-round on the backend CMS system, with features such as 'Buy Tickets' and 'What's On' emphasised in the main navigation during the festival. Once finished for the year, these options are swapped to make other pages like 'Donate' or 'Volunteer' appear more prominently.
Previously, NBAF's ticketing platform had yet to be integrated, which meant that any modifications to the festival schedule would have to be changed on both the ticketing platform and the website, resulting in a duplication of effort for the NBAF team. By integrating the ticketing platform, the website instantly applies any changes to the site listings, resulting in less admin work and margin for error.
Designing the Traditional Festival Programme
It's become a Dynam tradition to be involved with designing and producing the printed NBAF programme, a tradition we take great pride in. The programme is an integral part of the marketing mix, which the festival organisers look forward to launching in anticipation of the main event.
Each year, NBAF provides our design team with an illustration created by a local artist. This establishes the look, feel and theme of that year’s programme, meaning every year is unique.
In 2023, the festival’s theme was: ‘The Journey’. The artwork included a prominent sailing boat, which we used throughout the programme to tie in the notion of travel and highlight key dates throughout the festival. The colour scheme was based on the artwork submitted, and different elements from the illustration are used throughout the programme for the many activities that take place throughout the festival.
In addition, we designed flyers, advertisements, and posters that were displayed throughout the local area, all with a QR code directing people to the NBAF website and online booking system.
The Results
NBAF were delighted with the website that we designed and developed. Our approach of making the site as flexible as possible has provided NBAF with a platform that can grow and adapt year after year with minimal developer interference or extra costs.
We really value our long-standing partnership with NBAF as their creative sponsor and eagerly look forward to continuing our tradition for many years to come.
