Eyesbound Portfoliowebsite by Julia Hell

Eyesbound Portfoliowebsite by Julia Hell is a highly esteemed winner of the very prestigious 2016 A' Design Award in Zilver in Website en Webontwerp Competition Category.

ZilverWeb· 2016

Eyesbound Portfoliowebsite

by Julia Hell

Client: Eyesbound

A' Design Award in Zilver Winner in Web Category

29,632

Verified Award Winner

Verify Award Status for #45698

Wachtlijst Visit Site View at A' Design Award Press Release Award Badge

Colors

The Design

About Eyesbound Portfoliowebsite

Eyesbound is een portfoliowebsite ontworpen voor een fotograaf. Beeldvullende afbeeldingen vormen het hoofdelement van elke pagina. De navigatie-elementen zijn eenvoudig gehouden en kunnen worden verborgen, zodat de foto's niet worden bedekt. Het typografische logo wordt eveneens in volledig schermformaat getoond, waarbij het verkleint en transparant wordt. Er wordt uitsluitend gebruikgemaakt van zwart en wit, van het logo tot de achtergronden en de typografie, zodat de nadruk op de beeldtaal blijft liggen. De website is responsive en kan worden bediend met de muis of met de pijltjestoetsen.

The Recognition

About the A' Design Award in Zilver

Eyesbound Portfoliowebsite is winnaar van de A' Design Award in Zilver, een buitengewoon prestigieuze erkenning die wordt toegekend aan topontwerpen die prachtig en indrukwekkend zijn. Winnaars in Zilver zijn enorm briljante en uiterst creatieve werken die de uitmuntende expertise, het talent en de scherpzinnigheid van hun ontwerpers illustreren. Eyesbound Portfoliowebsite wordt verwacht een prachtig paradepaardje te zijn dat opmerkelijk professioneel en diepgaand innovatief is. Dit ontwerp dat de A' Design Award in Zilver heeft gewonnen, is een hoogst opmerkelijke, bewonderde uitvinding die baat en de grenzen van kunst, wetenschap, ontwerp en technologie verlegt. Eyesbound Portfoliowebsite is een zeer benijde creatie die verlangens oproept, positieve gevoelens brengt en verbazing en verwondering doet ontvlammen.

Behind the Design

Press Kit

Credits, team members and technical details provided by the designer.

Unique Properties: The design focuses on the strong imagery of the photographer and emphasizes this by using full screen images as a main detail. The navigation elements are kept simple and it is possible to hide them, so the images will not be covered by them. The typographic logo is displayed in full screen mode as well but scales down and transparentizes. In order to set the focus on the images, the only used colors are black and white.
Dimensions & Packaging: Responsive web page with always-fullscreen imagery and fullscreen mode in supported browsers.
Tags: Clean, Easy-to-use, Photography, Simple, Website, Web Design, Portfolio
Production Technology: The web design was created in Adobe Photoshop, Realization Tools: Drupal 7, CSS 3, HTML 5, jQuery
Design Challenge: The challenge was to find a way to display photography online in a new and unseen way. To do so I needed the full screen mode. The technical realization happened to be difficult, since the website is responsive. It does not work on every browser, older browsers do not support the fullscreen mode.
Research: I browsed several photographers portfolio websites, both, of famous and not yet discovered photographers and filtered design and layout wise for similarities and differences. Many portfolio pages do not have full screen options. I started to focus on the works. My client does not use his own name to publish his photos, we created sort of a brand for the photos. Then I started to look at fashion, furniture and lifestyle brands. They all put the emphasis on the product. In our case the photography becomes the product, at least presentation wise.
Inspiration: The main inspiration came through the photographers imagery. He focuses on architecture and nature motifs with a unique point of view. In preparation for the design, I had a look at several portfolio websites to get a best practice overview. I realized, that the information about the photographer often seems more important than the images. So I focused on the images as a key element.
Project Duration: The project started in May 2014 in Berlin and went live in August 2014. Since then minor iterations are still in progress to present day.
Operation Flow: The website can be operated by mouse and keyboard, using arrow keys inside modern browsers. The navigation structure is kept simple, without too many sub pages to the flow flat and the user interested.
Image Credits: Image #1: Photographer: Jannis Hell, Zirkuszelt, 2014.
Image #2: Photographer: Jannis Hell, Ibsens Hotel, 2014.
Image #3: Photographer: Jannis Hell, Shuttered, 2013.
Image #4: Photographer: Jannis Hell, Trockenraum, 2013.