Museum of Arts & Design
Problem
The Burke Prize, a biannual contemporary art prize for new artists working with expanded media (glass, fiber, clay, metal, or wood). Normally take place onsite at New York, but due to Covid, had to be remote
Proposal
An online exhibition that introduced all 14 artists and their work, with the winner being revealed online.
My Contributions
As the studio's first product designer, I co-created directly with the Design Director to craft a digital exhibition for the Burke Prize 2021, with the aim to focus on accessibility and showcase artists' work in digital narrative form. ☞ Launched in 2022 and won Museum Association of NY's 2022 Awards of Merit for Excellence in Design and shortlisted for Best Digital Product Innovation for the Digiday Media Awards
14 artists representing 'a new generation of artists working in a world of expanded media. A big question for the project was: 'How do we represent what was normally live in digital form?'
Took stock of all 14 artists who have unique mediums and statements for who they are (note: sculpture is a very physical medium)
I composed a system for organizing and structuring all the artifacts
Based on the system, I came up with 4 media categories and designed specific components for each
Capturing what the award and exhibition is about
Two comments from the museum led the storytelling direction I went on to define: 1. MAD's curations of the exhibition evoke sense of participation over possession 2. Craft is a journey, so the time and labor are as much part of the process as the finished pieces
I wanted to evoke a sense of museum-goer participation and the organic process that craft embodies. I also designed some scribbles and handwriting as part of the organic element
I storyboarded an interaction for the hero welcome that gave context to the exhibition — as visitors hovered over dots, there is a reveal of an artist's work
Art direction for the interface
I worked directly with FE engineer and Design Director on implementation of the site with focus on accessibility, assets hosting, links, and components
Used special animation and motion to infuse storytelling elements
I created components specific to each of the media types