Davis Publications

K-12 Arts Curriculum Publisher Davis Art Gets a Brand New Modern Web Presence

At a Glance – Project Highlights

Transition Davis Publications print SchoolArts magazine content online and sell it as a digital subscription
Rebrand the Davis Art web presence into a formidable online business
Consolidate content from multiple sources into a newly architected website, redesigned with a new CMS for internal marketing teams to easily manage
Adopt a modern platform that can run seamlessly without relying on a single internal developer

We came to Ultra Commerce knowing that we needed to transform our business, but do it one step at a time. Our team, with support from Ultra Commerce, has re-platformed our eCommerce business, launched a new digital product business, and has a number of next-generation projects in the pipeline.

Julian Wade
President

Background

For more than 100 years, Worcester, MA-based Davis Publications has been publishing as a printing shop, and now has transitioned to a digital enterprise. Supported by the Ultra Commerce platform, Davis Publishing continues to transition more of their business into digital commerce by moving another division of their company onto the platform.

Davis transitioned into a K-12 education resource hub dedicated to the visual arts. They are now the only K-12 publisher dedicated to the arts, creating top-notch curriculum and resources for art educators nationwide. Their subscription-based digital Fine Arts Image library consists of more than 35,000 high-resolution images of museum artworks. Additionally, the company’s SchoolArts magazine is the country’s leading monthly periodical for art educators.

So how did Ultra Commerce help transform Davis into a modern, digital business?

The Ultra Solution

Davis Digital – a whole new web presence that accomplishes two things:

1) Lesson planning for art teachers. Based on license they have access to certain digital versions of textbooks and can add content from those books into lessons for their students. Ability to add text, images or their own content then share with students via the new Davis Digital web portal.

2) Portfolio builder. Students can utilize this function to build their individual portfolios – take pictures of their artwork or other projects and share via public URL link with anyone.

Custom user interface and experience for both the lesson planner and portfolio builder, all built on top of the Ultra Commerce framework. Teachers and students have unique access capabilities based on their licenses, integrated with existing systems/learning platforms with single-click login.

Outcome

Davis Digital is now unique among online arts education as the most modern and innovative platform solution in the art space.

Ability to add an unlimited number of licenses (students and teachers) on a subscription-based platform for a single, unified, exemplary user experience based on license type. A ‘single pane’ login experience with multiple brand/site/journey based on user credentials.

Digitally transformed SchoolArts magazine from a print publication to a fully immersive online experience. SchoolArts is no longer just a magazine but a web presence containing all the text, images and other information available in the magazine – all online with the ability to purchase new subscriptions and manage current subscriptions online via account management.

35,000+ images previously managed in a separate digital asset management application (DAM). All migrated over to the Ultra platform, complete with complex image data set including meta data, attributes, etc. synced to Davis Digital via the Ultra platform to ensure all images are accurate, up to date and displaying the right data to the right user.