Landing TV Share Stories from the Cultural Divide Online

On February 26, 2009, zu announced the successful launch of a new website for Landing TV. Produced by Hulo Films, KarmaFilm and the Saskatchewan Intercultural Association, Landing is an award-winning documentary series that shares the intimate stories of Canadians with diverse backgrounds.

The primary objective in developing the website was to mirror the culture of the television program by reinforcing the show’s compassionate portrayal of traditional tales and legends. Supplementary media including episode clips were utilized to communicate a deeper experience for viewers. This visually-engaging website was designed outside traditional ‘look and feel’ techniques; instead, a collage treatment was used with custom photography and video. The result is an interactive forum that invites the user to respond and share through social networks or submitting their personal video.

"From a user experience point of view, we weren’t concerned with which profile was selected first, so we decided to use faces for the navigation, and let the user choose which one caught their attention. The overall concept was fun—we had to carefully reflect an international tone without emphasizing a specific region."
Albert Jame, Creative Director, zu

"With the television show focusing on an individual’s story in each episode, it was a natural fit to use their photos for the navigation. Regular viewers will be familiar with the shows they’ve seen, and new viewers are communicated the personal concept of the series."
Levi Myers, Manager of Creative Experience, zu

"Collaboration with the team at Hulo Films helped make the site come to life with a combination of great design concepts, photography, content and programming which helped achieve the overall objective as an effective marketing tool to showcase and promote their product successfully."
Liz Carswell, Project Manager, zu

"zu is a great partner with a ton of in-house talent. They were able to ‘get’ the series, which admittedly is a rather abstract concept. They came up with concrete visual metaphors that weren’t too ‘high concept’ and they tied it all together with a navigation interface that allows any web user to move through the site with ease. I really think that this site proves the adage that less is more. zu is a first class professional organization that is always fun to work with."
Ryan Lockwood, Producer, Hulo Films

Tune in to SCN every Tuesday at 8:30pm and Thursday at 8:00pm for the latest episode.