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Brighten the Corners has designed a new website for Anish Kapoor that lets the artist's work speak for itself...
The homepage of the site at anishkapoor.com presents a simple list of names, events, websites and more obscure terms that seem like they might be the titles of artworks. It becomes clearer as to what each word might represent when users clicks on one of the subject categories listed at the top: Works, Thought Experiment, Links and About. The relevant content in the list is then flagged up in the subject's colour. (NB: Thought Experiment contains a host of studio shots of works in development, ideas etc).
The design of the site is very much tailored to focus on the stunning visuals of Kapoor's pieces and to allow for exploration. Further information on Kapoor himself, or a particular exhibition, is largely gleaned from links to external sites – to a feature by The Guardian, or to the BBC's Imagine profile, for example.
"Design for the arts can be so serious and stuffy," says the studio's Billy Kiosoglou. "It's like any excitement or playfulness in the work gets lost, so we wanted to get away from all that: we wanted to approach the site in a way that was true to the spirit of the work and did it justice."
The content itself varies from beautifully shot art pieces, sketchbook images, YouTube clips and other links such as Clould Gate Google, essentially a Google Image search for Kapoor's much-photographed piece in Chicago.
"The content can speak for itself," says Kiosoglou, "so the design was focused on organising it in an appropriate way, rather than presenting it in a certain light. We have always found site maps really interesting, as they are often better designed than the website itself, so I guess you could say that we've done both a website and a sitemap in this case."
Design and art direction: Billy Kiosoglou and Frank Philippin. Programming and CMS: Stéphan Barbé.
8 Comments
The design is really gorgeously minimal.. frustrating slightly when wanting to find information quickly but beautiful to explore.
I do think the main category navigation (about, thought experiment etc) would benefit from an extra line of css say #nav3 {pointer: cursor} and then for each of the other nav ids. It would really help usability.
2011-05-18 13:09:31
Looks like an indexhibit theme, nothing special.
2011-05-18 13:49:00
it's the kapoor art that stands out!
2011-05-18 14:12:30
can spend hours looking at his work...
2011-05-18 14:19:26
Ha, by chance I was on Kapoor site just the other day for the first time. Had no idea it was new. Ill tell you what though I found the following annoying.
So lets say you want to browse all of Kapoor's 'Thought Experiment' work, so you click on that and it highlights all that work in green. Then you click on something and see it. From that page the only way to see more work from the 'Thought Experiment' category is to either push the back button or click on his name. Once this is done and you are back to the homepage, you'll find that 'Thought Experiment' work is no longer highlighted, so you have to click it again and start all over again. The same is true for the other 2 categories of 'Links' and 'Works'. I was on his site for a fair bit the other day and this became so tedious. Im no web designer, but just from user experience that cant be good design. in fact David I think indexhibit would be easier to navigate.
A
2011-05-19 00:28:55
The indexhibit look works a treat if you ask me. Putting the focus on the artwork in the same way that the white walls of a gallery would. Also: there's something really refreshing about the biggest name in modern art opting for such an understated site.
2011-05-19 16:37:40
"...tailored to focus on the stunning visuals..."
Is that why the homepage comprises of a lists (and lists ands lists) - which you have to navigate back&forth, back&forth, back&forth (you get the idea) in order to see anything...
Don't get me wrong the navigation is really nice but seems to be used on the wrong client – if there were thumbnails (or something) to show where each title was going, or what was in store then it would at least be more focused on the visuals and there would be less back&forth, back&forth, back&forth....
2011-05-20 15:30:01
as an Artist myself..
I am not impressed by the HOME page.. somehow it invites you to explore, but in little I have TIME, I would rather spend it on exploring the work rather than exploring how to reach the work... after last visit, I would say; NOT good way to present Kapoor.
2011-09-26 09:51:29
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