Mediaura was recently asked to redesign the website for world-famous Iraqi-American artist, Vian Sora. The complete redesign included the following:
- Website Design
- Content Management System Implementation
- Mobile Friendly
- Copywriting
- Photo Editing
- Photography
- Custom graphic design
- Social Media Share implementation
- Customized Gallery Design
- Social Media Blog Integration
- Search Engine Optimization
- …much more
About Vian Sora
Contemporary Iraqi artist, Vian Sora is internationally recognized for her exceptional talent of combing the rich, esoteric aesthetic of her homeland with profound social commentary. Her most recent work reflects her journey of self-discovery and transition that emerged while relocating to the United States. The structure of this new work is based on organic elements found in her new surroundings, partnered with a nostalgic reflection for her homeland communicated in abstract.
Born in 1976 in war-torn Iraq, Sora’s painting career began in the 1990’s when she began showing her artwork in her home city of Baghdad and throughout the Middle East and Istanbul. She cultivated her own unique voice through self-study and experimentation outside of the controlled art schools within Iraq.
Vian Sora’s work stems from the social and geopolitical landscape of the Middle East, depicting fragments of her first-hand experiences with war and the turbulent history of Iraq, intersected between a life that straddles both the East and West –while provoking the boundaries of religion and gender.
Website Redesign
Above is a portion of how the old website homepage used to appear. As you can see, the heavy black background took away from the vibrancy of the paintings along with making the text heavy to read. For an artist as renowned as Vian Sora, we felt the homepage should have an immediate impact on the viewer – conveying her artistic mastery and engaging the viewer to learn more.
The new landing page was custom-designed to highlight the latest artistic direction of Vian, while simultaneously providing an introduction to new viewers of her work. It features:
- Link to Recent Works gallery
- Link to Events page
- Link to Artist Introduction
- Link to Gallery page
- Link to News page
Introduction
Mediaura’s copywriters crafted the customized Introduction page. Other areas of the Introduction menu section include:
- An Artist Introduction
- Artist Biography that includes:
- Selected Solo Exhibitions
- Selected Group Exhibitions
- Selected Commissions and Collections
- Selected Residencies and Grants
- Selected Solo Exhibitions
Gallery Areas
The old paintings galleries (sample above) displayed the images on a solid black background, which again, detracted from the vibrant colors and detailed textures of the artist’s paintings. The quality of the photography was not as strong, and many of the works were difficult to view.
Mediaura worked closely with the artist to develop tailored gallery pages that would not only highlight the craftsmanship of the work but would also make it easier for the viewer to see, as well as dive-in further for a closer look.
The image above is a sample of the “Recent Works” gallery main viewing page. Thumbnails for all of the images have been arranged at the artist’s discretion and feature thumbnails of the entire painting for the viewer to see in their entirety.
Mobile Area
This image (above) demonstrates how a gallery page would appear on a mobile smartphone device.
Interior Gallery
When a viewer finds an image that they would like to obtain more information on, they simply need to click on the thumbnail to be taken to the painting details page.
On this page the viewer is able to see:
- Title of the Painting
- Medium of the work
- Size Dimensions
- Inches
- Centimeters
- Availability for purchase
- Items that are available for purchase are marked accordingly and hyperlinked to the contact page to solicit information from the studio.
Share Feature
In addition, Mediaura implemented the ability for viewers to share images that they like to their friends/followers on various social media platforms. Through selecting the “Share” feature, the viewer is provided with an assortment of social media platforms to choose from.
Lightbox
Vian Sora is heralded for the texture she created directly onto her canvases, creating a three-dimensional effect with a leather-like quality. Her previous website was not built in such a way as to allow the viewer to see these intricate details. Therefore, in addition to photo editing and new photography, Mediaura also designed a lightbox that allows the viewer to click on an image to even further enlarge the painting. Viewers are now able to see the complexity of the paintings that would not have been possible in the previous design.
Events Page
Highlighting upcoming and selected historical events, the viewer is able to read detailed information and download pdf files of the complete event information.
Blog
Mediaura has also integrated Vian Sora’s additional blog “Baghdad Artist” into her new website, eliminating the need to update information in two places. All previous entries from the old blog have been migrated over and the new blog can be accessed through the Content Management System for updates. This blog also features the ability to share entries to social media pages such as Facebook.
Press
An artist as acclaimed as Vian Sora has a lot of press attention. For these reasons, Mediaura worked with the artist to create a Press section that highlights the latest press as well as media coverage from around the globe. This includes:
- Magazine Coverage
- Downloadable PDFs for complete details
- Links to relevant websites
- Video Interviews
- Podcast Interviews
- English, Turkish, and Arabic language articles
Contact Page
The previous contact page contained a simple form on a black background.
While this method is not an incorrect implementation of this technology, Mediaura felt that the Contact page needed to be designed in such a way as to compel the viewer to learn more. The goal was to create a visual that would have a lasting, lingering impact on the viewer.
Let Mediaura Help You
To learn more about Vian Sora, please visit www.viansora.com or go to her Facebook page here.
If your website is in need of an update, either technologically or visually, contact Mediaura today to learn how our team can help refresh your brand.
