Overview
Caravan Interactive was the technology partner for Dumbo Arts Festival (DAF) heading into the September 27–29, 2013 weekend. The work was a full-stack festival refresh: a new brand identity on the site and social profiles, a rebuilt Open Call with PayPal fees, an archived 2012 CMS, a restructured data model for exhibitions and the map, and native iOS and Android apps shipped as DAF Mobile 3.0.
DAF is a three-day celebration of art, music, and performance in Brooklyn. Visitors needed to find artists, galleries, open studios, and events on a map. Artists needed a single, payable application path. Staff needed a CMS that could publish the live weekend without mixing last year’s registrations into this year’s schedule.
Timeline
Scoping started in January 2013 after an RFP and wish list from DAF leadership. Caravan ran a technical evaluation and preliminary pricing, then delivered in three phases so the Open Call could open on time and the apps could land before the gates.
Jan 2013 — Scope
RFP, wish list, technical evaluation, and pricing before a line of production work was committed.
Feb–Mar 1 — Open Call
New logo and branding, unified submission forms, PayPal, and 2012 CMS entries archived before the public artist call.
Mid-April — Site & CMS
2012 content archived on the front end, exhibition and map data model reworked, volunteer forms and sponsor ads updated.
Jun–Oct — Festival
Live artist, schedule, and map publishing. DAF Mobile 3.0 deployed before September 27–29, with post-event maintenance through the weekend.
Submissions and payments
Artist applications had been split across Artwork/Installation, Exhibition, and Event/Performance. We collapsed those into one form and kept Open Studios on a second form — two paths instead of four. PayPal sat inside the CMS so application fees could be collected at submit time, including discount codes.
Validation was tightened at the same time: case rules, required fields, and file-type limits for CVs and images, so incomplete packets did not land in staff queues.
Two forms
One unified artist application plus a separate Open Studios form.
PayPal
Application fees processed in the CMS, with discount-code support.
Validation
Mandatory fields, case rules, and restricted uploads for CVs and images.
CMS and data architecture
The exhibition model was rewritten so date and time lived together and schedule rows nested under a single URL. That fixed map associations and schedule sorting that had been fighting the old schema. 2012 entries, registrations, and exhibitions moved into historical collections; reusable location records stayed in place so venues did not have to be re-entered.
Exhibition entries gained dedicated bio, description, and organization fields. Volunteer forms were updated for the new season.
Website
The 2013 identity rolled out across the site and social profiles. We built up to seven sponsor banner sizes, connected MailChimp for newsletter signups, and embedded filtered Twitter and Instagram feeds on #DAF2013.
Content work included a static History page in About with festival photos from 2010–2012, next/previous pagination on exhibition details and blog posts, and an image-based grid for the blog.
Mobile — DAF 3.0
The native iOS and Android apps were updated for the 2013 festival: splash and menu, map and event detail, and live artist and schedule content. The legacy Audience Choice Award / voting feature came out. Embedded Vimeo playback went in so highlight video lived in the same app people used on the street.
Clients
Native iOS and Android, shipped as DAF Mobile 3.0 before September 27.
Festival data
Artists, schedule, and map published from the same CMS as the website.
Media
Embedded Vimeo in the app; voting feature removed.
Weekend support
Post-event maintenance through September 29, 2013.