The Brief

The Citizens’ Institute on Rural Design is a leadership initiative of the National Endowment for the Arts in partnership with the Housing Assistance Council. Focusing on communities with populations of 50,000 or less, CIRD empowers local citizens to use their unique artistic and cultural resources to guide local development and shape the future design of their communities.

Established in 1991 by the National Endowment for the Arts, CIRD offers competitive funding to host multi-day community design workshops guided by design, planning, and creative placemaking professionals, as well as design-driven peer learning programs and events.

In need of an update, CIRD approached Backdoor to create an elegant, natural evolution and expansion of their identity to coincide with a wholly modernized web presence.

We worked closely with the CIRD team to plan, design, and launch an updated website that better aligned with the legitimacy and legacy of the organization while prioritizing usability and functionality.