Assignment 1
Website Analysis
Intent
The intent of the website is to showcase AAMY’s, an artist with a gentle pop aesthetic, skills through her artwork and experience as an illustrator.
Voice
AAMY is a Japanese illustrator born in Fukuoka prefecture in 1992. Her style is whimsical as she depicts various fantasy worlds in pastel colors and soft lines. Her website showcases her personal, client, and exhibition work. She uses many shapes like stars and hearts to outline her work and soft pinks and blues for the background or type. AAMY’s work is: soft, pure, magical, cute
Tone
The Homepage is balanced with the right amount of information and various visual works that helps the viewer understand her interests as an artist and the amount of experience she’s had working in the field. The visuals stand on their own, only for the viewer to peek inside AAMY’s world. There are no supporting texts under these artworks. Under Works, she included Client, Exhibition, and Personal pages of her artwork. The first page follows the same format as the homepage; no text, just visuals. Each artwork has its own page and titles and minimal description of its details. Under her Personal page, she included eight tabs named: Magic, Pure, Healing, Pop, Carefree, Love, Soft, and Light. Each page has its own theme of artworks that she categorized and it follows the homepages format as well. Under a page titled News, she showcases various things that show her work in recent news. For example, she opened her own online shop to sell prints and other things or that her work is being shown in a duo exhibition with Samehoshi. Depending on which event/ news box the viewer picks, the amount of information varies. Although it does not overwhelm the viewer because it is spaced out and legible. Her About page is quite minimal as well, yet it suits her website style and also does not overwhelm the viewer.
Brand
Aamy’s brand is consistently cute, soft, and minimal. Her website uses pastel ribbon graphics to decorate and soft heart and star silhouette spaces that outline her artwork. She uses very light and pastel colors. Everything is quite muted in terms of vibrance. It feels cozy and magical. I do think it would work better if the website contained more information in places like her about the page or more details about her creative process. It's simple and easy to navigate throughout, but it could benefit with a little more type.
Persona
Example 1: An organization called Blueberry is scouting hot and trendy artists to feature their work in a newsletter in Japan. After researching a bit on instagram and other relevant social media platforms for artists, they found AAMY’s website. As soon as they clicked on her website, they were greeted by pictures of her work that left them more curious to find more of her lovely aesthetic. They briefly looked at her homepage and looked detailedly at her works pages. They were frustrated that there wasn’t as much information about the artist on the About page and felt her Works pages were confusing. They click on her page to see if she’s based in Japan and if she fits the criteria the organization is looking for. Lastly they click the News tab to see how relevant she is amongst the art community in Japan. They find she’s done many collabs and events with other artists and organizations that make her very popular. Blueberry’s scouting team are impressed by her extensive experience and consistent style and want to give her a try and contact her for her unique voice.
Example 2: Lily, an art student in her first year, is casually scrolling through instagram for inspiration and lands on AAMY’s account. She looks through her photos and adores her cute style and sense of creativity. They click on her website only to be more impressed by how much work they find and the exhibitions she’s showcased at. They click on her About page and read about her but are more interested in the creative process. Lily loved AAMY’s work, but she was so inspired that she wanted to know more. So, she clicked contact on her website to ask her a few questions as an aspiring illustrator about her creative process and advice as a student.
Example 3: A client named Ella is looking for an artist to create something for her living room space. She adores shades of pinks and light color schemes and loves creative japanese anime art style. She does not want to find something too loud but something unique. She visits a contemporary art museum and finds AAMY’s work. She’s so intrigued by the style and recognized the use of ribbons in her work, so she decided to research this artist and found her website. Ella loved the way the website was designed. When she clicked on the work tabs, she browsed through her work and ignoring any other information because she wanted to find a piece that would fit her living room space and personal aesthetic. She didn’t understand what the other tabs under personal work meant but she didn’t mind them. She is interested in AAMY and contacts her to ask further if the artist accepts commissions.
Wireframe
Copy Deck
Title: About
Slogan: Hearts and stars. Soft and pop. Love, Pure, Healing, Carefree, and Magic.
Body: Japanese Illustrator born in Fukuoka Prefecture in 1992. After graduating from Tokyo Zokei University with a degree in graphic design, she worked as a graphic designer before becoming a full-fledged illustrator in June 2020. She has worked on books, advertisements, and music artwork, and has exhibited her work in numerous exhibitions. With a delicate touch, she depicts various fantasy worlds in a gentle pop style.
Reproducing all or any part of the contents is prohibited
Competition
AAMY’s website design is not very common and is unique and brings out her voice as an artist. Other illustration websites often only have their work displayed and in a very simplistic style. Usually it is black and white and not as creative compared to AAMY. Although with less information than other websites, its harder to exactly grasp who she is and her work process.