Last year, my good friend and talented artist Gabriella Buckingham asked me to help her with designing and developing of her new portfolio based website. The driving force behind this was that Gabs had agreed to exhibit at the SURTEX show in New York City in May 2015! SURTEX is an important trade show for designers of patterns and illustrators to showcase their work to buyers of world famous brands.
For months we have been emailing and meeting up to discuss on how we wanted it to look and work. It wasn’t a chore for me, as it’s always lovely to spend time with Gabs talking about art, life, and children!
We both agreed that the new website had to be white, simple, and clean. Gab’s work is very colourful and bright (something I wish I could do for my own illustrations) and we wanted the emphasis to be on the pieces and not the website design. She was also in the process of reinvigorating her logo and brand, so it had to all tie in beautifully.
So, I set about creating the theme and structure and functionality and handed it over to Gabs to populate with her images and copy over a period of weeks. Gabs had to familiarise herself with a new content management system and upload new work as she produced it.
I have to say that I love photography that has been used (well done Mr B). It really shows how much fun and creative Gab’s personality is and of course this shines through in her style of work.
I’m really pleased with the result and I think Gabs likes it too. It’s always a pleasure to work with other designers and artists and such an added bonus that it’s for a friend. I’m very proud of the website and I hope that it continues to adapt and grow with the business.
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