SnapshotAnchor
Based in Chicago, Leviathan is a digital design and innovation agency which is part of the Envoy Group. Leviathan uses its network of experts to create immersive, digital experiences through a variety of channels. Working with companies like McDonalds, Universal, and Nike, their projects range from interactive museum installations to promotional experiences in retail spaces - as a result of their adoption of composable experience architectures using microservice-led approaches.
Leviathan chose GraphCMS to bring their vision for a new client project to life. Large 18ft x 18ft (5.5m x 5.5m) digital displays serve a mixture of content, advertisements, and video on residential and commercial buildings. GraphCMS manages and schedules content to be delivered to the screening walls positioned in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, and San Diego.
Leviathan used to work with legacy CMSs which could not be adapted to their cross-platform needs for the project. The development team wanted to accelerate project timelines by adopting a new stack.
Why GraphCMS?Anchor
The Leviathan team chose GraphCMS for the following reasons.
Easy OnboardingAnchor
Although the Leviathan team was new to working with a headless CMS and GraphQL, the intuitive UI with the GraphCMS support team helped ensure it was a smooth transition. The type-safe nature of GraphQL and features like auto-generated documentation helped them adopt GraphQL and GraphCMS quickly.
GraphQL Mutations APIAnchor
Because GraphCMS is a GraphQL-native system, it offers GraphQL mutations (write operations). These give developers more control, which opens the possibility to manage user-generated content.
The Current SetupAnchor
A React front-end powers a UI client that interacts with GraphCMS. The media display is powered using TouchDesigner. The UI client and TouchDesigner project also communicate via a websocket server for various control purposes. The content is centralized and housed within GraphCMS.
Results and BenefitsAnchor
- GraphCMS was very easy for someone with limited backend experience to learn and start building right away with features such as the GraphCMS API Explorer.
- GraphQL Mutations are essential for importing content in the system or powering custom editorial interfaces.