Awards:
Book Industry Innovation
codegent is a full service web development new media agency, based in clapham, london, uk, that delivers well-designed content managed sites, microsites and flash games supported by robust technology and integrated marketing solutions including search engine optimisation, pay-per-click and html email.
Independent Talent had a need to create something beautiful and easy-to-use for their time-poor clients. By creating a tool to help them search and save their favourites, casting directors started to use it as a means of managing their projects.
Independent Talent (formerly ICM London) rebranded in 2008. Prior to the rebrand they had several different divisions, all with their own websites that were totally at odds with each other in terms of look and feel and tone of voice. The first challenge was to come up with a coherent strategy for unifying the different divisions, retaining a consistent identity but retaining their independence. This was especially important because the ways in which the divisions operated and showcased their talent varied.
The Models site presented an additional challenge because it used a 3rd party system to deliver their content. Speaking to casting directors, we were aware that they were very good at scanning images quickly to find what they were looking at. They weren't bothered initially about anything other than how the model looked and how much of a match they would be to their clients' briefs.
We suggested that instead of using the 3rd party system, we just took an xml feed from their database. This left us the flexibility to produce a beautiful interface that showed the models to their best effect and also made it very easy for potential clients to scan through images quickly. We also built a clever little caching tool, just in case the xml feed ever went down.
As part of the interface we created the ability for directors to add images they liked to a virtual lightbox which didn't require any login or registration to refer back to. The whole system was cookie based, so each time the stressed director returned to their site, they earlier choices were instantly there for them to refer to.
Feedback has been brilliant. So much so that directors have been using the site to manage their shortlists as it was easier than manually collecting images. This meant that Independent Model's talent was more likely to be used than its competitors.
Since launching the site back in 2008, Independent Models has merged into another company and the Models section of the site has been closed. But we thought it was a such a nice example of a visual image search, that we would keep it live on our site. We continue to work with Independent Talent and are in the process of evolving their site and developing further tools for their casting directors.
