UX DESIGNER
VISIO GALLERY
On April 15th, 2018, I still remember Celebrating Asia Week, Gallery event was hosted By Visio Art Gallery Promotion In NewYork. This is the story of how I made a positive impact in showing exotic art to everyone in NewYork and how to help branding and design for the gallery at that event.
Weibo from China also featured this visual design and branding development on their website. Here is the link.
To comply with my confidentiality agreement, I have omitted and appropriated confidential information. I could talk about the process that I made for branding identity and product development for the artwork from the delivery process to Exhibit but not the whole process of the Gallery.
DANCE MASKS
Dance Masks is a watercolored original artwork designed by Yea Gyeong Cho who has a Korean background. Mask dance is one of the well-known national treasure. The Dance Masks was exhibited by Visio Art Gallery and curated by Lauren Smith
MY ROLE
I was part of the artist and Graphic design team responsible for presenting the artwork to the clients of Curator, Art Director for the show and people from NewYork. I designed Tin can, Pamphlet, Titles, Branding Images, Hangers, Holders for my own canvas.
Carefully handling miniatures at Prahlad Bubbar from India
CUSTOMER INSIGHT
The Visio Gallery for Asian art project consists of people in the 20-70 age range who are interested in Asian art.
EXPERIENCE STRATEGY & VISION
I created an illustration and design framework for the promotion item used at the gallery event to share the vision, design principles and content strategy. This helped to evangelize ideas, gain alignment and drive decision making.
THE CHALLENGE
Create a happy relationship with customers
The main requirements were clarification and creating
Informative pamphlets for International Asian Art. These pamphlets must be easy to read in all situations.
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Try to use familiar, understandable words and phrases.
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Keep text clear and concise
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Avoid Language that might sound ambiguous
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Use relevant examples and images
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Strive for an informal and friendly tone, but not rude (everyone is different)
THE VISION
WE MADE AN EVENT SO YOU CAN UNDERSTANDING ART BETTER AND
NETWORK WITH OTHER PEOPLE
USER PERSONA
HOW WE GOT THERE
The biggest challenge I faced throughout this project was balancing moving forward with designs, whilst collaborating with the wider team. Since this project touched every part of our music business, I needed to coordinate and get buy‐ins from many teams that were both co‐located and distributed. This was hard.
Tight timing meant that I needed to be efficient in conducting user research and collecting useful information. Luckily, I found a nice tin can with my illustration for art gallery show to be promoted my artwork to others. I also conducted a range of interviews with art directors and buyers to know what got them interested in Asian art events. Are there any other events for suggestions?
Surprisingly, they'd already attended several events and bought a lot of work and were still willing to buy some artwork in the future.
THE CONTROVERSIAL MOMENT
There is still a controversial moment that we might have to think about while we gather some explanation.
I would like to show what was the controversial topic while we had an event at that time. This is a general example of a controversial topic.
“Don’t turn a friend’s culture into a costume.”
- SUSAN SCAFIDI, FASHION LAW INSTITUTE AT FORDHAM LAW SCHOOL
The Sikh turban is a sacred article of faith,
not a fashion accessory.
Gucci faced backlash from the Sikh community earlier this year when it sent white (non-Sikh) models down the runway wearing turbans. Apparently, no one at the fashion house recognized that the turban is an article of clothing with religious significance, not just a cool-looking hat.
You might want to reconsider that “oriental” bodysuit.
There’s a common thread to all these crimes of cultural appropriation: things go sour when people borrow ideas from numerous Asian countries and lump them together in an “Eastern”-inspired look.
Photo Courtesy of The MET museum, The Asian Collection
“The art world is an equivalent of having Anna Wintour come clothes shopping with you.”
– Ima Ebong, Collector
COMMUNICATION
Many artists and installation teams were involved in the project needed to see it in a tangible document.
Also, art director collaborated with branding with the curator about the concept.
This risk-averse mindset meant I created a lot of reference documentation that was widely distributed and high overhead to maintain and better idea for branding since I have the background of Asian and western culture.
In the early stages, I focussed only on representing the highest risk areas of the design. Sketch and concept of artwork were the most effective way to gain meaningful feedback from the curator and art director. I was able to easily distribute these with clear vision for the events.
OUTCOME AND ACHIEVEMENTS
The introduction for Asian art, basic Dance Masks branding, and artwork were released in the incredible Visio Art Gallery in NewYorkCity. Thanks to my working experience and studying in art school, I can collect all the research, data and information from artist, curator, art collector, art director, buyers, etc.
OVER 20,000 PEOPLE
coming in the gallery and there were more than 150pieces of original artwork sold out. I can feel a lively market inside the gallery and there is something more than just art. I met a wide range of people, event organizers, social media influencers, etc. The exhibition eventually impressed the artist and galley people behind this project pitch my idea for a successful seed round.
Talking to the clients, they gave lots of feedback and business inspiration for the better gallery events and how to prepare for the show next time as an artist.
Also, it was interesting that people were willing to buy artwork online or offline. Lots of visitors had experienced buying artwork pieces before.
RESPONSIBILITY
I worked on this project as an illustrator and designer for Gallery Brand Identity.
BRINGING IT ALL TO LIFE
PEOPLE LOVE THE GALLERY EVENTS
All the hard work was done, and the event was packed full of people.
Designers expect users to read from top to bottom and left to right. But in reality, users read print copy incredibly fast. Steve Krug, author of “Don't Make Me Think,” compares the user experience to “reading a billboard going by at 60 miles per hour.”
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Keep every explanation clear and concise.
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Be careful when using humor, be aware of people's historical backgrounds.
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Refer to dates accurately
THE FINAL IMPACT
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Increased staying hour per customer by 36% increased attention.
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Increased new customer visit by 35%
Thanks to curator Lauren and all the artist, visitors, collectors and bloggers from the gallery, the art gallery exhibition was successful and I learned a lot from how things are going inside of art branding and target for the special market for specific people.
By learning more about the gallery process at this stage, I've been able to promote the idea and assess the risk points, immediately.
Let's have some fresh coffee and I will share what I've learned from there.
“So many great artworks from Southeast Asia. I should check this event every year”
“This is totally awesome! Thanks so much for inviting me to this event. The drinks and Dessert are great and this space is lovely. ”
“I am excited to get to know a lot of artists and painters, illustrators from here, they are so talented.”
“That is fantastic!!!!!! Definitely, want to check similar events later!”
“This area is really crowded with people, hopefully, you can find a bigger space than here, but it is an honor to be here."