Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design: Engineering a Digital Future for Israel's Premier Art Institution
The Client: Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design, Jerusalem, is Israel's oldest and most renowned institution for higher education in art and design. Offering undergraduate and graduate degrees across a wide spectrum of disciplines—including screen-based arts, industrial design, photography, architecture, and visual communication—the academy welcomes approximately 1,500 students from across the country each year.
The Vision: The new website was envisioned to embody a spirit of innovation and progress, in line with the institution's meticulous agenda. The project's primary goal was to create a clean, unique user experience and a striking graphic design. Paramount importance was placed on the site serving as a beacon of visual and functional excellence, befitting a leading institution of international stature.
The Solution by FatFish: FatFish was entrusted with the end-to-end execution of this vision. Our role encompassed the complete project lifecycle: from initial development, quality assurance testing, and installation to providing comprehensive documentation, user training, organizational implementation, and ongoing technical support.
A cornerstone of the project was a highly flexible content system. We developed a framework with over 25 unique templates, allowing site administrators to construct a virtually limitless number of page layouts using an intuitive drag-and-drop interface.
The Content Management System (CMS) was custom-built to be simple and intuitive, empowering numerous content editors—many of whom do not have a technical background—to manage the site with ease. The platform includes direct integrations with Bezalel's core systems, including the Orbit system for managing courses, lecturers, and staff, as well as an interface with a dedicated lead management system.
Project Highlights:
- Technology: Drupal
- Languages: Trilingual (Hebrew, Arabic, English)
- Responsiveness: Fully responsive design for all devices
- Accessibility: Compliant with the AA standard
- Custom CMS: Drag-and-drop system with 25+ versatile templates
- Integrations: Direct API connection to the Orbit system and a lead management platform
