The Brief

It's no secret that we love working with artists foundations, and we've been thrilled to work with many amazing ones over the years. The Woodman Family Foundation presented a unique challenge though: we were to showcase the work of three very different artists, an incredible mother-father-daughter trio - Betty, George and Francesca Woodman. The brand identity and everything that would follow would need to speak to all three of them equally. They were all prolific artists, and the site we were to build would somehow need to showcase everything without overwhelming the user. Challenge accepted.

The Solution

We are always inspired by the artist's work when working with art foundations, but in this case we found inspiration in an unusual place: the windows of Betty and George's studio. George painted the window frames of all of his studios (in Colorado, New York City and Tuscany) the same shade of sky-blue. At the couple's Chelsea loft/studio, Betty's windows were painted a very lively yellow. We wanted to incorporate this detail into the identity, and saw the opportunity to visually identify each artist by color. Francesca's deep blue came from her love of using blueprints in her work. They all come together in the identity, as a family and a single unit, but clearly differentiated at the same time.

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The website is set with expansion in mind. We are launching with just a small sampling of each artist's work, but there are literally thousands of works to be incorporated over time. The website also provides the Foundation with a window to communicate the latest news and upcoming exhibitions for each artist.

The Results

Condensed has been extremely attentive and creative. They understand our needs, and are sympathetic to our artists and our mission... We’ve also moved up significantly in terms of search results; all three of our artists have had better search ranking. The team has been fantastic in their aesthetic designs, and they’ve given us plenty of interesting design options. On top of that, they listen to our feedback; whenever we want to do something unexpected, they’re excited to do it with us.

Lissa McClure – Executive Director at Woodman Family Foundation