www.washingtongreen.co.uk www.washingtongreenoriginals.co.uk

Background

Washington Green specialise in representing some of the finest painters and sculptors. As a publisher of fine art, the company translates original works into fine quality collectable limited editions and sculpture. Their nation-wide network of Partnership Galleries combine art retailing with the staging of exhibitions and promotions. Collectors enjoy regular invitations, information and updates on all of their activities.

Task

In 2003 Washington Green asked BlackOrange to create a new website to promote Washington Green Limited Edition artworks, and allow customers to quickly find their nearest gallery to view and purchase the artworks. The site needed a facility for Collectors to request further information, put forward questions, register for newsletters, and find further details on artists including related news and events.

Result

Initially the site featured 600 artworks yet this quickly doubled to 1,200, showcasing the work of over 60 artists. The database of artwork is presented using Macromedia Flash, with the facility for each artist to personally describe their work via streamed audio clips.

For Washington Green to manage the influx of requests for Collector magazine and questions for the artists, a backend was constructed. This allows them to have an overview of every aspect of the site - artists, artwork, galleries, magazine requests etc - and facilitates an organised and efficient response to all issues.

Further Developments

With the success of the limited edition site, Washington Green asked BlackOrange to build a further site to offer original artwork to the public.

To enable Washington Green to manage both the artwork and the reservations placed through the site, a bespoke backend content management system was built. This allows them to add new originals onto the site, process requests and review the status of any artwork or reservation entered in the system.

New Directions

Washington Green asked BlackOrange to build a third site to meet the specific needs of their Partnership Galleries.

Each gallery was given a unique password to manage several resources that were previously dealt with using telephone, faxes and emails - such as news updates, marketing materials requests and image downloads. In addition, original artworks are made exclusively available to each gallery.

Bespoke Sites

Many of the Partnership Galleries wanted to take this a stage further, with their very own sites. So a template 'Washington Green Partnership Gallery' was designed drawing content from the main site. The advantage is that each gallery has an impressive, professional website that is always up to date. In addition, galleries have their own admin area where they can upload news and events specific to their business. Some galleries choose to display their website on a plasma screen, so clients can see more works by a particular artist or view more genres of artwork. To date over twenty Partnership Gallery sites are live.