How do you extend the life of an art exhibition?

Designed a digital archive for The High Museum of Art in Atlanta to extend the life of the museum’s exhibitions far beyond the closing of their physical shows. My team at C&G Partners leveraged the rich scholarly content the museum develops for its exhibitions and created a flexible, digital repository for scholars and enthusiasts.

ROLE
UX/UI

CLIENT
The High Museum of Art in Atlanta

STUDIO
C&G Partners

Defining the product & setting key objectives

The High Museum of Art in Atlanta is the leading art museum in the Southeast. Each year, the museum sees over half a million visitors. They came to C&G to develop a digital platform that would allow the museum to phase out its printed publications, and extend the longevity of its exhibitions. Our content focused on the museum’s upcoming show for Nellie Mae Rowe.

Our team started by conducting interviews with museum stakeholders and prospective users to define key objectives. We determined our primary objectives were to (1) present scholarship in the form of essays, curated artworks, and supporting archival work, (2) provide a chronology of the artist’s life and oeuvre, and (3) allow people to explore physical exhibitions digitally.

Sketching sitemaps & wireframes

We began exploring these ideas through sketches. The sketch on the left represents a parallax timeline that juxtaposes an important artwork with images and information about historic or personal events that may have influenced the artist. The sketch on the right explores the idea of stitching together photos of physical shows (using the floor as a baseline) to create a seamless scrolling experience that makes a user feel like they’re moving through the physical space.

Branding & a design system

We chose to derive the website’s gridded structure design from three important influences in the museum’s history: print publication templates, contemporary art, and the architecture of the museum itself, designed by Richard Meier. 

Prototyping

I created sample clickthroughs for our prioritized audiences: (1) researchers and scholars, (2) art enthusiasts/members, and (3) a general audience.