Midwest Landscapes: Native Prairies and Glacial Hills

Artist Fred W. Peterson

Art Direction, Branding, Web Design

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.

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.

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