In Process: Tyrone Geter
Building a site that accurately displays the breathtaking works of this important artist.
Tyrone Geter has built an international reputation as a world-class artist, painter, sculptor, illustrator and teacher. His portraits are sensitive, timeless, and masterfully executed. Equal to the history his figures embody, they also speak of a spiritual world overflowing with compassion and empathy, making his work uniquely distinctive. Geter relocated to Nigeria at the end of the 1970s and lived, drew and painted among the Fulani and other local peoples of Northern Nigeria for seven years. Those years proved to be a turning point in his development and the most important influence in his life and art. He returned to the U.S. in the ‘80s and took up a teaching position at the University of Akron, where he transformed his Nigerian experience into the most powerful work of his career. His work is displayed in multiple museums throughout the country, and he has received many honors for his work.
Tyrone’s daughter, Hafizah, and her partner, Stephanie, came to WOTW because Tyrone’s existing site looked like “a dad made it” (because he did!). It was full of pages and pages of endless content, and while somewhat organized, it was also a bear to navigate. They wished to honor Tyrone’s life’s work by starting from scratch to create a site that would serve as a portfolio of his work and a tribute to the man himself.
What they didn’t like about the old site was very simple:
It wasn’t user friendly
It didn’t translate to mobile well
It was outdated and slightly chaotic
Not easy to get to and navigate through Tyrone’s work
The old home page for Tyrone Geter’s website.
We can see here from looking at the blog page from the old site that it seems to be put together very piecemeal. It does look like a dad put this together and appears very dated. The feel of the page leans more toward a MySpace page rather than a professional artist’s web page.
Here’s how we’re working to meet the goals for the new site:
Creating a dynamic homepage to draw in site visitors
Letting the site be as-is in black and white as to not draw attention away from Tyrone’s various works
Maintaining a professional yet subtle font throughout the site to — once again — not distract from the work
Applying hierarchy to the navigation to ensure that navigating the site is easy and natural
Separating out content into digestible sections by using various plugins and tools native to Squarespace
Building out various portfolios for works and past projects
Adding a blog for Tyrone’s writings
Incorporating a page for press where Tyrone and/or his work has been featured
Here we see that a secondary navigation has been applied to help break up all of Tyrone’s past series. So, instead of site visitors having to navigate to several different pages to find his work, they can simply go to one page and filter through as they like. We can also see the beauty of his work all at once, which is breathtaking.
Incorporating one of Tyrone’s pieces onto the contact page makes what would normally be a simple page much more personal and inviting.
Here we see another page, this one dedicated to Tyrone’s series of works — again, there’s another type of secondary navigation that allows visitors to search and control their experience. They can easily flip from one series to the next by selecting various tabs at the top, creating an immersive experience for visitors that allows them to easily access what they would like while also continuing to dig deeper into the site.
The new press page
The new Artist Statement page, housed under the About section
We were able to achieve so much during this redesign of Tyrone’s site. The new homepage is a testament to the phenomenal work that Tyrone has created over his career and is nothing short of magic. Yes; we created an easy-to-navigate, concise, and to-the-point portfolio site for Tyrone that allows visitors to interact as they’d like. But the awe you experience as you flip through and view his work — that’s all Tyrone.
Experience the magic here!
