James Cameron may be most well known for being a demanding Hollywood movie director, but this month he embarked on a mission tougher than the 1969 moon landing: leading an expedition into the Mariana Trench, the deepest place on Earth.
In a custom-built submersible vessel so small he could hardly move, Cameron journeyed to this point in the Pacific Ocean, east of the Philippines and nearly 7 miles deep. He was first to descend into the trench since 1960, and the first ever to complete the dive by himself.
The National Geographic Society wanted a stellar website to match the historic nature of this expedition. This past summer, it turned to West Reading design company Neo-Pangea.
The high-profile project came with some unusual stipulations, not the least of which was a gag order about Cameron's mission, which was being kept secret from the public. “Actually, not even the whole company at Neo-Pangea was allowed to know about it,” creative director Brett Bagenstose says. And Cameron himself needed to approve the design for the website, which invites viewers to scroll down the page and learn more about Cameron's plunge into the trench.
The site is full of graphics and videos showing the inner workings of Cameron's submersible and the creatures that live so far underneath the surface of the ocean. (Bagenstose reports that the Neo-Pangea team wasn't asked to change much about its design).
Cameron reached the trench's lowest point, the Challenger Deep, on Monday morning local time.
Source: Brett Bagenstose, Neo-Pangea
Writer: Rebecca VanderMeulen