Big Blue Art Platform

OVERVIEW

The Big Blue Art Platform is an online archive where visitors can view exhibition materials on the theme of ecology and environment held by the Daecheongho Art museum. The online archive introduces environmental art exhibitions that are representative of the characteristics of Daecheong Lake, the representative destination of the Cheongju region. Designed and developed by Rebel9, the website was designed with the goal of providing visitors to the museum with access to exhibition content online, in response to the ongoing pandemic crisis. Through the production of participatory content, the archive site aims to break away from the one-sided convention of viewing exhibitions and create a platform that reaches both online and offline visitors.

https://www.bigblueart.site/

VISUAL IDENTITY CONCEPT

Lakes are a place and medium that directs the gaze inward. The artwork that comprises the visual identity for the Big Blue Art Platform was inspired by the scenery of Daecheong Lake, where many seek rest, healing, and beauty. Rebel9 created a graphic-based identity to supplement the website’s structure and visually communicate the archival material in a way that felt new and engaging. With geometric black-and white patterns that are at times lyrical and at other times intense, these graphic shapes are a physical representation of memory, visually emulating feelings of complexity and contemplation when gazing at the lake.

INTERFACE

We constructed the Big Blue Art Platform with the goal of creating an intuitive layout for visitors to easily explore exhibition materials while capturing the refreshing atmosphere of Daecheong Lake, a harmonious balance between function and expression. To achieve this, we designed the layout to feel like the visitor could be reading a web-zine, and created interface elements including breadcrumb function and fixed menu navigation for efficient exploration.

THE STORIES OF DAECHEONG LAKE

To share the historical stories of Daecheong Lake, Rebel9 planned and designed a minigame as an extension of the primary Big Blue Art website. Taking the form of a memory-based card matching game, users can collect stories among three primary subjects: local ecology, local legends, and local heritage.

Each of the twelve stories of Daecheong Lake are told through objects, wildlife, and folklore that are representative of Daecheong Lake’s history and ecology. As a continuation of the main site’s visual identity, the twelve corresponding artworks were designed to represent the visual motifs found in each story. The artwork was utilized across multiple applications, from the 2D card design to the interactive 3D model, to the main artwork found on the Big Blue Art Platform’s homepage. By playing the card game, visitors can collect stories to hold in their memory. Visitors are also able to view the stories they have collected at any point in the game through the collected stories menu interface, inspired by stacks of rocks that are often found on lake shores.

CMS PLATFORM

The Big Blue Art Platform was created with Memex. Memex is a CMS platform that allows for the convenient management of updatable resources.