NEW YORK, June 26, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- For the second year, Wix.com Ltd. will be hosting its Wix Design Playground (Playground) initiative for designers which includes a focus on empowering New York City nonprofit organizations. The Playground is a three-month design program, taking place in Manhattan, in which participants develop and hone their web design skills. A major initiative over the course of the program is the Social Good Project in which each designer is assigned to one of 15 local nonprofits.
Class in session at the Wix Design Playground in New York City
Designer Jessica Walsh presenting at the Wix Design Playground
Website created for the nonprofit organization ARTE Justice as part of the Social Good Project
This year 40 designers, selected from approximately 400 applicants, have been accepted to take part in the Playground. The program is structured to help designers build their expertise, strengthen their portfolios and expose them to a variety of guest speakers, design professionals and leaders in the creative community.
As part of the Social Good Project, the designers pair with local New York City organizations that need a strong and impactful online presence - recognizing that nonprofits rarely have the digital resources they need to service their communities. In preparation for the summer, the local Wix team has been working with these organizations, to prepare the content each will need in order to build their online presence.
"We are so happy to give the Playground participants a chance to give back to the community as expert web designers," said Hagit Kaufman, VP of Brand and Design at Wix. "Wix is committed to developing its global community and helping it thrive. We love sharing our knowledge during the Wix Playground program and using these skills for the Social Good Project. The exercise truly sharpens the experience and really highlights the impact of great design. For the designers, this provides an amazing opportunity to work with a real client with a true need, learning how best to support them and cater to their requirements. This is such a special part of the program for the designers, their partners and all of our team who work together to give back through the medium we know best."
Throughout the summer, the designers will work directly with the participating organizations to build the sites in order to promote their individual causes. The nonprofit teams are taught not only how to maintain their websites, but also how to manage the ties with their own community and audiences. Additionally, Wix will host these sites at no charge for three years. Last year, 10 nonprofits took part in the program.
"Through the Wix Playground program, we worked with talented designers who helped us create cohesive and recognizable branding for our organization. As an arts organization, we value having a website that serves as a beautiful, informative, and functional piece of art which is normally the first interaction that the outside world will have with our organization," said Marissa Gutierrez-Vicario, Executive Director and Founder of Art and Resistance Through Education. "We are grateful for the relationships we have established with the designers and creatives that have extended far beyond the summer program."
Culminating in a formal design presentation on August 5 at the Wix Playground venue, the designers will share their final presentations with the nonprofits. This work provides a valuable resource for the organizations that need design expertise, which may otherwise be out of reach, and the designers can then use the creative campaign work as part of their own professional portfolios.
About Wix Wix is leading the way with a cloud-based website development platform for over 150 million registered users worldwide today. The Wix website builder was founded on the belief that the Internet should be accessible to everyone to develop, create and contribute. Through free and premium subscriptions, Wix empowers millions of businesses, organizations, artists, and individuals to take their businesses, brands and workflow online. The Wix Editor, Wix ADI, a highly curated App Market, Ascend by Wix and Corvid by Wix enable users to build and manage a fully integrated and dynamic digital presence. Wix's headquarters are in Tel Aviv with offices in Be'er Sheva, Berlin, Dnipro, Dublin, Kiev, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, San Francisco, São Paulo, Tokyo and Vilnius.
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