The Black Dahlia: An Online Experience as Intriguing as the Event Itself

In order to direct people to a newly formed foundation under The Sowden House, we needed to harness the infamous story of the Black Dahlia murder. Without going overboard, we created a page to generate buzz around the house being remodeled and events to be thrown there. The page served as a landing center for PR needs, as well as anyone who was interested in sharing the story.

The challenge with this page was to limit our use of the murder’s grim nature in order to generate positive feedback and buzz. To do that, we used 1950’s film noir to playfully talk about the house and history.

Simplistic was the best thing we could do. We wanted to limit just how much the page would do, and keep everything a mystery (like the murder itself).

The page uses a lot of swooping effects, and intro video, floating sections, and animated imagery. These keep users engaged without revealing much, and play to the brand we wanted to convey.