pixar40.com — A partnership honouring four decades of legacy and heartfelt stories.
TOOLS
After Effects
Figma
TEAM
Cosmetic
WHAT I DID
Wireframing & Prototyping
Style Guide
Experience Strategy & Concepting
Motion Design
Art Direction & Visual System
Overview
This mentorship project, guided by Garret Schauteet (Associate Creative Director at BASIC/DEPT), provides hands-on experience in digital branding and web design. It explores a hypothetical collaboration between Apple Music and Pixar to celebrate Pixar's 40th anniversary in 2026.
Challenge
How can an interactive web experience effectively celebrate Pixar's 40-year legacy while fostering audience engagement and nostalgia?
Approach
To bring Pixar’s story to life, the web page concept will feature two primary components: an interactive quiz to tailor a personalized Pixar soundtrack, and a "memory lane" feature to recount Pixar’s milestones.
Deep Dive
To fully understand Pixar, time was spent becoming well-versed in the brand, its history and how they’ve celebrated past anniversaries. A competitive analysis was also conducted to evaluate strategies for both Pixar and Apple Music. For visual inspiration, an exploration of existing quiz interfaces and creative microsites helped spark ideas and shape the final approach.
Identity Design
Two potential directions were explored through mood boards, which helped communicate an aesthetic, tone of voice and brand essence. This process clarified the focus and defined the key aspects of how the branding of the Pixar-Apple Music partnership could come to life in the digital space.
Branding
To test ideas and explore the web strategy in context, digital sketches were created. Ultimately, the final concept became a fusion of the two directions, combining the charm of "Pixar Sketchbook" through hand-drawn elements, with the modern aesthetic of "Pixar Pop.”
HOMEPAGE
A Gateway to Nostalgia
and Discovery
Two potential directions were explored through mood boards, which helped communicate an aesthetic, tone of voice and brand essence. This process clarified the focus and defined the key aspects of how the branding of the Pixar-Apple Music partnership could come to life in the digital space.
Music
Background music plays automatically upon arrival on the homepage, setting the mood. This enhances the immersive experience, drawing users into the magic of Pixar's storytelling and the musical charm of Apple Music right from the start. A mute/play button ensures users can easily control the sound to suit their preferences.
Parallax
To add an element of fun, a parallax effect was added to the buttons, making the text inside them subtly shift in response to the user’s cursor movement.
QUIZ
Finding Your Soundtrack Match
Eight tailored questions help uncover user tastes, with each answer updating the background image and accompanying song to reflect the corresponding movie.
Zoomed-Out State
Once the quiz is completed, the microsite will analyze the user’s answers to curate a personalized playlist. During this process, a loading screen will appear, engaging users as they await their results. This brief waiting time adds to the anticipation.
Loading Page
Once the quiz is completed, the microsite will analyze the user’s answers to curate a personalized playlist. During this process, a loading screen will appear, engaging users as they await their results. This brief waiting time adds to the anticipation.
PLAYLIST
Listen, Share and Relive the Magic
Here are the results! Users can listen to a snippet of their personalized tracks directly through the embedded Apple Music player or choose to open the playlist in Apple Music for a fuller experience.
MEMORY LANE
A Scroll Through Time
Users can dive deeper into Pixar’s history by going through a timeline of the studio’s milestones.
SEEMLESS EXPANSION
Mobile & Brand Activation
While this project was primarily designed for desktop users, the site was built to adapt across different devices. Alongside this, the partnership between Pixar and Apple Music extends beyond the microsite and into real-world brand activations through campaigns.
SIGNING OFF!
Final Thoughts
This project really sparked my love for designing digital experiences and took my Figma prototyping and motion design skills to the next level. It also showed me the importance of iterations and exploring different concepts. Big shoutout to Garret; he was the best mentor ever! We spent many hours together figuring things out, and I learned so much about the industry and design agency world through him.
