Bob Ross Digital Experiences

After Minnetrista’s Bob Ross Experience opened in 2020, Ball State University saw opportunities to extend the painter’s joy and creativity beyond the Muncie community. The Digital Corps partnered with Bob Ross Inc. and Ball State PBS to conceptualize an interactive, digital experience and provide more Bob Ross content for fans across the country.

Blank Canvas

The beloved landscape painter rose to prominence as a TV personality and re-emerged as an internet phenomenon for a new generation. Bob Ross Inc. gave Digital Corps students the creative freedom to help bring his artwork into the digital age. Tasked with promoting Bob Ross’s positivity, the team looked to the acclaimed PBS series The Joy of Painting for inspiration.

Digital Corps students embraced color and retro aesthetics, collaboratively researching and brainstorming within the Bob Ross brand. The team used their combined knowledge of social media platforms, target demographics, and web graphic development to pitch several fun solutions for the Ball State PBS website.

In the end the Digital Corps delivered:

Art for Everyone

The Bob Ross Digital Experiences allowed students to research decades of material and experiment with the Bob Ross brand. The team aimed to spread Bob Ross’s contagious optimism and love of nature, from sharing famous quotes and paintings on social media to encouraging fans to build their own Bob Ross-inspired digital paintings. Developers, concept artists, animators, and content writers collaborated to produce an introductory video and two websites, all while focusing on the user. Digital Corps students not only honed valuable industry skills, but also created digital experiences that put the ‘fun’ in functional.

Skills Learned

  • Web Graphic Development
  • Persona and User Research
  • Parallax Video Effect Editing
  • Creative Problem Solving
  • Content Branding and Writing