Midwest Landscapes: Native Prairies and Glacial Hills

Artist Fred W. Peterson

Art Direction, Branding, Web Design

Change of Seasons Oil Pastel by Fred W. Peterson

CHANGE OF SEASONS I Oil pastel on paper I 2014 I 25” x 29” matted and framed © Fred W. Peterson

PROJECT DETAILS:
If you’re a professional practicing artist, you know art is a business and like any business, it requires marketing. Part of an artist’s marketing mix is to build a brand for one’s self and one’s art. This can be really difficult for some artists to wrap their heads around; for others, it’s as natural as creating the artwork itself.

In working with the award-winning artist, author and art historian Fred W. Peterson, he knew a website to showcase his work would be a wonderful asset, an extended means to reach potential buyers for his work. He also knew there are numerous “do-it-yourself” artist template websites. The issue with DIY sites is they all felt too cookie-cutter, often scaling an artist’s work into too-small thumbnail images for any real effect and not a lot of custom design options. There had to be a better solution.

Given Peterson’s artwork is a reflection of central Minnesota landscapes, I knew the website design had to be open and bold as the prairies he depicts. Because he is also an author and art historian, I suggested the website feature these accomplishments to show artistic influences and provided a well-rounded view of the artist to his audience.

The solution is a simple, clean interface design with full-width image slider for the home page, a gallery page linking to individual art pages, artist bio, statement, and publications. Notices of gallery showings and other news have prominent placing on the website.

Drawn Logo Mark Typography for Fred W. Peterson

Using the “Sun and Stone” image long tied to the artist as his “signature”, it was a natural to use as a brand mark for the website, pairing it with the artist’s name. A plus was securing a domain name matching the artist’s for added brand recognition.

Fred W. Peterson Website Homepage
Fred W. Peterson Website Gallery Page
Single Art Webpage Featuring Oil Pastel by Fred W. Peterson

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DELIVERABLES
Branding
Brand Messaging
Web Design
Web Development

ABOUT FRED W. PETERSON
Fred W. Peterson is an award-winning accomplished artist, author, art historian and a founding faculty member of the University of Minnesota, Morris. Peterson has since retired from teaching, but continues to create works of art. His work has ranged from traditional to abstract landscape, divinations, improvisations and multiples, structural rural landscape to crafting relief diptych portals and passages depicting spiritual change and transformation. Currently, Peterson explores the richness of oil pastels, evolving his work to capture the natural wonder and grace of midwestern glacial hills and prairie.

His work is part of many public collections throughout Minnesota, as well as private collections in the United States, Canada, Eastern and Western Europe and Australia. Peterson’s work can be seen at Kaddatz Gallery, located in historical downtown Fergus Falls, Minnesota. He exhibits in both Salisbury and Ocean City, Maryland.

View Site: Fred W. Peterson