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Constructed from start to finish by an all-designer team, the Wix Playground goes to show how, when given the right tools, professional creatives can independently master their work online. And this, without giving in to technological constraints and artistic compromises. When letting creativity run this freely, the Web really does become a playground.
It is a rare occasion in a designer’s career to work for fellow designers. When the opportunity does arise, it usually carries with it a unique thrill. This is what happened to the Wix Design team, when they were asked to imagine a new language, content and stand-alone website to speak web design to the community of professional creatives. “We could do whatever we wanted, which was exciting and extremely challenging at the same time”, recalls Hagit Kaufman, VP of Design and Branding at Wix.
While the team was brainstorming at the early stages of the project, the ideas of enjoyment and free experimentation kept coming up. “Most of the designers involved expressed the act of creating with Wix as ‘playing’, having fun with the design features on a blank page”, says Lior Dahan from the Wix Studio. The project was hence titled “Playground”, a name highlighting the company’s belief that the Web should, first and foremost, be fun.
Enjoy unlimited creative freedom
The resulting Playground mini-site is an incredible celebration of online creativity. Every single element was built from scratch, in-house. Even more impressive: no developer was involved in the process. Thanks to the agility of the Wix Editor and its meticulous design features, the Design team could bring their creative vision to life on their own. Among the assets that Wix offers are customizable layouts, allowing complete control over all the elements of the page, down to perfecting the exact column width. Designers can pick from numerous sophisticated effects, such as parallax or hover boxes, to add that interactive spark. Finally, retina-ready image display, as well as an HD video player, make their vision shine through as sharply as they’ve intended.
These design features are accompanied by other helpful tools such as custom domains, unlimited storage and industry-leading SEO, meant to answer all professional creatives’ needs. These versatile options enable all web design decisions to remain solely in the hands of the designer. As Hagit Kaufman puts it, this gives the user the ability to “own their site from design to live, and make use of that freedom to bring their true self as a designer forward - without depending on anyone else.”
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