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"Not another bloody design blog"
Wednesday, 25 January 2012
We’re excited to announce the launch of a new website for the well-known illustrator Peter Grundy at www.grundini.com
Peter's world is a truly complex, fascinating and idiosyncratic one. We created a serendipitous interface that allows visitors to explore the vast catalogue of Peter’s work and experience this world of Grundini.
Commissioners of illustrators’ work often find themselves having to ‘sell an illustrator in’ to a client as part of the design process, so a highly portable site which worked effectively on a tablet provided that illustrator with a strong advantage in client meetings. We created a ‘portable portfolio’.
To help further emphasize the site as Peter’s destination on the web we allowed for an aspect of quirky and fortuitous discovery. Tags, including epiphanies, hands, and jumbles, are Peter’s way of describing his work: they allow for epic and unplanned journeys through the 80+ illustrations.
The work is the hero; these illustrations are presented at as large a size as possible, and optimised for a range of devices. The site allows visitors to browse Peter’s work project by project or to dive deeper and follow a particular subject, theme, format, discipline or client. The work can be shared socially at any time, either as individual pieces or in these collections.
The interface is sympathetic to the illustrations. The grid layout of the homepage, left-hand justification and a strong two-dimensional aesthetic ensured that both the work and Peter’s brand were never compromised.
We had an open minded approach to the project interviewing Peter's potential clients to gain a deep understanding of their needs - verified using a simple site survey.
Grundini’s request for a content managed site lead us to suggest flickr rather than word based options – in his own words ‘the work is all about communicating visual messages’.
We enjoyed the freedom to apply a user centered design processes for a client with such a high standard of visual design and aesthetic rigour.
