USC enlisted Casual Astronaut to create an interactive website that engages students, journalists and civil rights activists in Black history and media.
Challenge: The Charlotta Bass Journalism and Justice Lab at the University of Southern California’s Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism was founded in 2023 to “save, study and share Black media that changed the world.” With a wealth of historic research, cultural insights, technology-forward projects and ongoing activities, the Bass Lab needed a website to serve as an interactive hub for their work — all while engaging multiple audiences.
Solution: The Bass Lab website brings Black media to life through bold, immersive design. Expansive imagery — spanning historic moments to current events — takes center stage, while a cohesive visual approach amplifies the work of the lab and its fellows. Full-screen sections create a structured, digestible flow, and strategic pops of color highlight buttons and calls to action, ensuring key content stands out. Our strategy:
- Build site navigation for multiple audiences. The website’s main navigation speaks to different audiences and facets of Bass Lab engagement — such as Research & Work, Fellows & Students and Get Involved — making the site easy for users to find what they’re looking for.
- Use imagery to amplify storytelling. The Bass and Beyond timeline covers more than 200 years of Black media activism that navigates users to pages of essays written by Bass Lab fellows on topics such as abolition, the Black Labor Movement, prison reform, the Third Reconstruction and many more. Full-screen imagery of archival photos and current events paired with enticing headlines gives the feeling that users can time travel with the click of a button.
Pull all activity into the site. The Bass Lab wanted to pull all their content into their digital hub instead of sending them to other USC sites. C/A developed a portal to support an event calendar, RSVPs and class signups. Backend development also allowed the Bass Lab to house their signature AI oral history archive, The Second Draft Project, within the site instead of sending users to USC Libraries.
Create an all-encompassing newsroom. The Bass Lab has a wealth of research and multimedia projects that contribute to the library of Black social justice movements and media. The News & Media section of the website houses the Bearing Witness journal (an annual digital magazine), the student-produced Second Draft podcast and press releases in a single content hub. The new hub also provides Bass Lab fellows with an easy-to-use platform for content publishing.
Blending USC’s Brand with the Lab’s Mission
USC’s brand guidelines provided a strong foundation for the Bass Lab’s website design, but the visual approach needed to feel distinct and deeply connected to its mission of celebrating and archiving Black journalism. Cardinal red and gold appear in subtle yet purposeful ways — accents in headers, buttons and key design elements — while bold imagery and video take center stage, allowing Black history moments and Bass Lab events to speak for themselves. The result is a site that aligns with USC’s identity while creating a space uniquely reflective of the stories it preserves.
Integrating AI, Archives & Events
The redesigned Bass Lab website seamlessly integrates advanced technology. A centerpiece of the site is the Second Draft Project, an interactive AI-powered archive inspired by the Shoah Foundation that preserves in-depth accounts from prominent Black activists and allows users to engage with them in conversation. C/A migrated the project from the USC Libraries website and integrated Bass Lab events, previously managed through the USC Annenberg calendar. C/A’s web development team built a custom tool to embed Second Draft interviews directly into the platform and developed a flexible event calendar system, giving the Bass Lab full control over how events are displayed and managed.
FROM OUR CLIENT
— Allissa Richardson, Founding Director, USC Charlotta Bass Journalism & Justice Lab, University of Southern California