Escape Studios
As one of the UK's leading animation, games, and VFX schools, Escape Studios produces industry-ready talent, equipped to thrive in top studios. It’s been at the forefront of creative education since 2002, supplying the industry with studio-ready talent. We were tasked with designing and building an engaging website that champions accessibility, using Storyblok’s CMS to integrate with existing sales and lead generation software.
The challenge
Escape Studios needed a website to showcase its courses, products, and events in a far more interactive, engaging, and appealing way. Its existing website catered for two distinct schools - Escape Studios (creative courses) and Pearson Business School (corporate and professional), resulting in a ‘half-way house’ that wasn’t pleasing either audience. It was also built in Adobe Experience Manager which caused issues around workflow processes when making website changes.
The new website had to offer the best possible user experience, with exceptional accessibility. The goal was to ensure students would repeatedly visit the website to find insights, courses, and useful resources. It needed to provide an easy experience for new customers, while being simple for the internal marketing team to update.
Our solution
Known for being one of the UK’s best-rated training and teaching institutions for all things animation, games, and VFX, we incorporated subtle nods to gaming features such as keyboard keys, language, retro buttons, and loading bars that mimic those of computer games. We turned the colours on their head, opting for a darker look and feel with pops of colour, letting the student work take centre stage.
Now, the Storyblok CMS permits greater autonomy for Escape Studios’ inhouse team, ensuring a simplification of the authoring experience and more consistent site for the customers. Customer journeys, SEO, user experience, and digital accessibility were considered from the start, ensuring Escape Studios’ digital presence is more aligned with its academic competitors and industry partners. Now, the website is more engaging, and it’s far easier for prospective and existing students to easily access and navigate to pages of interest.
Cameron Richmond
Website manager, Escape Studios
Andy McCaul
Managing director, The Bigger Boat