NewFest  • Declassified

A modular brand system for the first national LGBTQ film festival

Communicate Dynamism and Uniqueness

Founded in 1988, NewFest is New York’s largest presenter of LGBTQ+ film and media, and the largest convener of LGBTQ+ audiences in the city. NewFest engaged the L+R team to redesign their website, integrating a new brand identity designed by Ogilvy, with a goal to communicate the organization’s dynamism and uniqueness.

Technology-Enabled Design

The L+R team performed a comprehensive technical review paired with ideation for a digital experience that aligned with NewFest’s engaging visuals and varying content types. The team also architected an intuitive ticketing flow. Once these pages were successfully designed and usability tested, the interaction design was developed to create a sophisticated and engaging experience. L+R supported onboarding sessions to help NewFest employees understand the unique CMS and how to build out immersive pages and content as needed in the future.

Reflecting Values and Brand

The redesign and rebranding of NewFest’s website created a more accurate reflection of the organization’s values, technology-enabled brand, and high quality content. NPR covered the transformational announcement of NewFest taking its major New York LGBTQ Film Festival fully virtual. With its newly crafted online identity, NewFest presents a public image to a global audience within all its communications, giving the LGBTQ films and their creators a unique and dynamic platform.

NewFest needed a digital experience that could support film, community, and cultural programming. The broader challenge is helping audiences discover content while preserving the identity behind the festival. L+R makes emerging technology valuable through strategy, technical execution, and meticulous craft, keeping AI grounded in real workflows rather than abstract promise. If your cultural platform needs to connect programming and people, reach out and we can help.