The redesigned website earned top honors for creative excellence at the 51st Annual American Advertising Awards in Baltimore.
Sixteen months of dedication and diligence were rewarded when Fairfield University’s website redesign won a prestigious Gold ADDY for advertising excellence at the annual American Advertising Awards, hosted by the American Advertising Federation of Baltimore. Taking first prize in the category of Consumer Online Interactive Websites, the website redesign advanced to the next round of the three-tier national competition, the largest and most representative in the advertising industry, attracting more than 35,000 entries each year.
Fairfield undertook the challenge of redesigning its website after a successful brand relaunch in 2022. According to Casey Timmeny ‘99, assistant vice president for digital operations, the University understood that a website redesign was a necessary component in the push toward national prominence and was in a great position to begin that process.
For the redesign project, Fairfield partnered with Baltimore-based idfive, an integrative marketing and social design agency that works with mission-based brands in higher education and healthcare. “From the beginning,” Timmeny said, “idfive stood out to our team because of their creativity, higher education experience, research-driven approach, and focus on web accessibility, SEO, and performance.”
Fairfield was determined to introduce visitors to its institutional identity through powerful design and storytelling, but the architecture of the website had not undergone a complete revision in over a decade. A redesign was necessary to provide more images, videos, dynamic content, and simpler navigation.
