Axel Vervoordt ♞

Transforming Vervoordt’s website into a rich digital gallery for artists and visitors alike

The project leads with the hypothesis that a fruitful opportunity lay in tapping into the unique strengths that digital mediums can provide in truly “seeing” Vervoordt’s collections. Given the balance of the physical-digital nature of the industry, I began by looking into existing strategies e-commerce sites use to bridge the gap between seeing and touching an object in-person and on-screen. From the precedent study, the most relevant strategies that emerged were material-illuminating photography, zoom capabilities, and immersive video tour capabilities, all of which were integrated into the proposal to bring users up and close to Vervoordt’s pieces.

Next, the overarching strategy for the IA was reworked so that the website could be experienced through all the actionable points of engagement with Vervoordt’s work, all of which are made explicit on the sustained navigation bar; these include: ‘Works’, ‘Exhibitions’, and ‘Books’.

The secondary IA for the ‘Works’ page was then reworked to reflect Vervoordt and his team’s core three areas of interest - ‘Artwork’, ‘Antiquaire’, and ‘Interiors’. Ultimately, the proposal turns the landing page into an online space to filter through and engage with these pieces under a common category.

The landing page catalogs the projects and pieces Vervoordt and his team have designed and acquired over the years. The page uses a layout grid to create a ‘random’ display of the images to reflect the meandering experience of being at an art gallery. Hovering over the images enlarges them as if the viewer was getting up close to the object, revealing some information about the work and the opportunity to click for more.

While the visibility of other works are reduced when using the filters, they remain lightly present to still be explored on the chance they spark some curiosity in users.

After clicking on an image for more information, users are able to use the deep zoom option to get a greater sense of the detailing of the works, in an effort to capture what Vervoordt describes as “the honesty of the materials”. The project also proposes capturing an artifact in a way that manipulates lights and shadows to allow viewers to appreciate the subtleties of its materiality. 

Finally, to further bridge the gap between the physical and digital experiences, the proposal envisions allowing users to take virtual tours of the galleries that host both temporary and permanent collections. The feature makes use of now common iconography like the circular tag on objects that reveal more information, as well as hovering arrow(s) for navigation made popular by applications like ‘Google Street View’.