CINEMA LIBERTAD • CHICAGO, ILLiberating the Film and Television World
01 WEB DESIGN02 COPYWRITING03 SQUARESPACE DEVELOPMENTCinema Libertad liberates storytelling from the corporate, Eurocentric stories crowding our minds by uplifting the unique beauty and storytelling of diverse cultures.
Through their films, they use powerful visuals that put anecdotes into imagery so captivating you cannot peel your eyes away. Cinema Libertad roots each picture in the culture of the story or idea created.
In 2022, we were tasked with helping take their site from bare-boned to designed with intention. We designed the CL website to share their films in a vibrant, mold-breaking form with striking visuals and layouts allowing the pictures to shine.
Because their videos deserved to have a space that allowed them to cut through the noise and built a ship for them to take their next voyage further.
Decolonizing the Language of Cinema
The website had a lot of jobs and emotions to express. We brought these to life through three key design elements: strong, rough fonts paired with scratch written text that was inspired by early activist and propaganda posters; layered collages of text, illustrations, photo and video to symbolize breaking the mold and quite literally breaking the 1920x1080 mold of standard video, and earthy yet vibrant colors that were inspired by the fertile native land.
From our very first conversations with Zapata, it was impressed on us that the mission behind Cinema Libertad is to take back what is native - the narrative, the land, the history. The language and beauty that was infiltrated by colonizers long ago.
However, it is and was never about waging war on the industry—but rather sharing their vision and shared love for storytelling, with immense passion behind it.
THE DESIGN MOODBOARD
FREEDOM
LAND
LIBERTY
JUSTICE
ACTION
FREEDOM LAND LIBERTY JUSTICE ACTION
Hover below to scroll through the website.
Moving Images + Hover Effects
Cinema Libertad’s work is 100% video. Therefore, their website had to have moving images so that each space could draw the viewer deeper and deeper into each story. To incorporate this, we clipped sections of their pieces to create short-form content that was easily digestible. Additionally, we found spaces where we could use color and image in combination with create unique hover effects that delight and engage the viewer.
WHAT THEY SAID“I love everything! Our new site helps tell our stories so visually and powerfully.”
— Zapata Robert Stockwell • Cinema Libertad • Chicago, Illinois
