Desktop user interface design for conceptualized contemporary gallery.
Client Prompt
"I am a member of a local group of artists and we run a local gallery. We put up shows for experimental art each month and want a website to promote our gallery and our artists. We sell work, but that is not the primary goal of the gallery. Our primary goal is to create and expose the community to challenging work that has social and political significance, and to spark a dialog about that work and contemporary issues. We want people to come to the gallery, attend openings, artist talks and other events."
The Problem
Albany Contemporary's client prompt emphasized the need for community. The brand identity needed to be welcoming to new members while also maintaining the seriousness often associated with the fine arts. Though the gallery exhibits contemporary and experimental artwork, the user persona that would join this community would pay this artwork the same respect as they would classical artworks.
Brand Identity
Albany Contemporary's brand identity needed to have balance between femininity and masculinity, youth and maturity, and be playful while also professional. To create a sense of seriousness, I built off of a stark black background. I then chose five colors that could all easily become accent colors of the website. Of the five colors (#FC4915, #F5467E, #FDB82A, #69C8CD, #0D7DBA), I chose #F5467E as the default accent color for the brand. This is a warm, bright pink that brings youth and energy to the brand identity. The logo design, which is an abstraction of a recognizable house icon, was built based on the letters "A" and "C" in "Albany Contemporary". I also felt it was fitting for a founding group that emphasized community.
UI Design
Using Figma, I translated my first sketches into low-fidelity wireframes. User feedback revealed that the layout I had chosen allowed intuitive scrolling and made users want to participate in the primary and secondary calls to action. These calls to action were to visit the gallery, and to become a member. Though the primary calls to action were emphasized, the client prompt made it clear that in addition to community-building, Albany Contemporary hosts events, highlights artists, and sells artwork. These became the secondary calls to action and are included in the bottom half of the webpage. Additionally, I have included a "Gallery Merchandise" element for e-commerce.
In order to create images that fit in with the rich brand identity, I used Stable Diffusion's DreamStudio text-to-image AI generator. For the hero image, I chose to generate a two-dimensional graphic that includes all five of the brand identity colors. For the other five images, I generated gallery-specific scenarios that correspond with their button elements.
Lastly, I created a footer that includes the address, contact information, gallery hours, and social media platforms to influence further user engagement.
