Client: New York International Children’s Film Festival (NYICFF), a non-profit film festival premiering new children’s films including Pixar submissions
Role: Web Designer / Developer
Disciplines: Code, Design
The Problem
The New York International Children’s Film Festival needed a website that could serve two very different audiences simultaneously: children and families who needed to feel the joy and accessibility of the festival experience, and donors and administrators who needed a serious, functional platform for giving and event management. Most non-profit sites sacrifice one for the other — either they lead with warmth and bury functionality, or they prioritize utility and end up feeling cold. NYICFF needed both, without compromise.
The Process
I designed and developed the full site with a colorful, energetic visual language that communicated the magic of children’s film while maintaining the structural clarity required for a multi-function institutional platform. The front-end design was built to be immediately inviting and easy to navigate for families, while the back-end event management system and donation tool were architected to give the organization real operational capability. Every design decision was evaluated against both audiences — does this delight a child, and does this build trust with a donor?
The Results
The completed site gave NYICFF a digital presence that matched the significance of the festival itself, with a platform capable of supporting both fundraising and event operations at scale. The design successfully held the full range of the organization’s identity: joyful enough to honor its audience, and serious enough to support its mission as a non-profit institution in a competitive cultural landscape.
