Hello, 2025!
Introducing our new website and branding.
Introduction
2025 is here, and with it, new projects, clients, and challenges.
Here in Pittsburgh, a consistent streak of cold temperatures has created a picturesque landscape: streets, sidewalks, and fields covered in an inch or two of crisp, white snow. Every morning, the scene refreshes.
Speaking of a refresh, Bright Archives is excited to announce our new website and branding.
What’s new, you ask?
For one thing, we’ve added bright (yes, pun intended), new colors. Longtime Bright Archives followers will notice that we’ve kept our signature “Bright Archives Blue”—hex code 66A0D0, for the color enthusiasts—and complemented it with a sunny “Folder Yellow” and a warm “Bookend Orange.”
We also created modern illustrations to help guide you through our website, making it easy to navigate and clearly identify our service areas.
And most importantly, we’ve gotten better at communicating what we do and what we have to offer. Our completely revamped Services page provides detailed explanations of our archives, oral history, and creative media work.
This new look couldn’t have happened without our friends at Woven Digital Design, who implemented our design ideas, made them better, and dug into the underlying code to create a dynamic user experience full of subtle transitions and elegant spacing.
Visit our website to see it for yourself, and keep reading to get a behind-the-scenes look at the key changes we made and why.
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In the first half of 2025, we’re excited to share a range of new projects—blossoming archives, new dance films, intro videos, and engaging audio tours.
Our clients do incredible work and have great ideas, and we’re thrilled to help bring them to life.
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While we look forward to new adventures, we are also sending love and support to our friends and colleagues impacted by the fires in the Los Angeles area. Many of our friends have lost everything, and as people who predominantly think about the care and preservation of objects (and how those objects reflect histories and impacts futures), it’s hard to grasp the loss.
Alongside the upheaval of hundreds of thousands of lives and livelihoods, museums, archives, arts nonprofits, and cultural heritage organizations are also facing significant challenges, with some even being destroyed. In response, many organizations have come together to support recovery efforts, including the launch of the LA Arts Community Fire Relief Fund and the American Library Association’s support for libraries affected by the fires.
These efforts highlight the resilience of the cultural heritage and arts communities, and we encourage others to support the rebuilding and recovery process in any way they can. Every contribution helps preserve the vital role that these organizations play in our communities.
Wishing you warmth, community, and care now and in the year ahead.
Thanks for reading,
Dave and Katherine
Highlights from Our Website and Rebranding Project
As we continue to grow, we felt it was time for a fresh new look that better reflects our mission, values, and the services we provide.
We believe archives are vibrant, full of opportunity, and essential for strong, resilient communities and organizations. We wanted our branding to truly reflect our point of view. After spending a few months refining our mission and vision, we partnered with Woven Digital Design, a local web design firm, to rethink how we present our work.
Our new brand is clear and easy to interact with—and we’re excited to share it with you.
New Case Study: How We Created an Audio Tour for Shiftworks
In 2024, Shiftworks Community + Public Arts contacted Bright Archives to produce recordings for an audio walking tour called Beautifully Lit: A Self-Guided Tour of the City and Season's Artful Light Installations, created in collaboration with Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy and Pittsburgh Cultural Trust.
Working with a tight two-week turnaround, we recorded seven speakers and delivered nine recordings, all while bringing an authentic, storytelling approach to the project.
Client Exhibition: When the Lights Come On at Brew House Arts
It’s always exciting to see what our clients are up to, and we’re looking forward to the latest exhibition at Brew House Arts in the South Side of Pittsburgh, When the Lights Come On: Queer Nightlife as Emergent Space, curated by Hannah Turpin.
The show will be on view at the Brew House Gallery from January 23 to March 22, 2025, with an opening reception on Thursday, January 23, from 6-8:30 pm. The reception is open to the public and free to attend.
Read below for a description of the show.
“When the Lights Come On brings together local, national, and international artists reflecting on their experiences of queer nightlife. Historically, queer nightlife spaces have emerged out of necessity, as acts of rebelliousness that prioritize pleasure, self-expression, vulnerability, and intimacy within the face of oppression. Informed by the work of writers like adrienne maree brown and Audre Lorde, the exhibition looks at these gatherings as sites of communal adaptation and resilience, amplifying how radical love and pleasure are necessary for imagining a more liberated future. Exhibited artists include Harrison Apple, Théo Bignon, Clint Fisher, ggggrimes, Jules Malice, Amanda Pickler, Nica Ross, Janie Stamm, Mary Tremonte, True T Pittsburgh, Jimmy Wright, and huny young.”
Visit the Brew House Arts website for more details.
Questions? Contact us or visit www.brightarchives.com
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