- Fig 01 / Graphic Design
Decision: The Artist's Perspective
Result: An interface designed so visitors feel they are seeing the work as Lougheed saw it.
Museums & Memorials
An Artist's Process
An interactive and immersive website dedicated to the life and work of the legendary western painter Robert Lougheed.
Overview
- 01 / Problem
- Robert Lougheed (1910–1982) was a Western and wildlife illustrator whose life had gone largely untold. The National Museum of Western Art in Jackson Hole wanted a kiosk and web experience about his work.
- 02 / Design Challenge
- As Bluecadet's Lead Developer, Russ designed the interactions and built the piece, working from the visual designers' mockups.
- 03 / Approach
- The interface stands in for his studio: artwork on an easel, torn paper tags as navigation, the room out of focus behind. A timeline tells his life, and his pulp covers and commissions sit beside the gallery work.
- 04 / Outcome
- Captures of the finished piece survive; no launch or visitor data does.
Process + Evidence Plates
The archive's densest capture at 212 words, and it is the interpretive spine — ARTISTIC INFLUENCES · CONCEPT TO COMPLETION · IMAGES OF LOUGHEED · AWARDS & MUSEUMS · LOUGHEED THE STUDENT · LOUGHEED THE [TEACHER]. Sections about how he worked and who taught him, not only what he painted. The persistent navigation is ARTWORK · BIOGRAPHY · TIMELINE · GALLERY · CONTACT. - Fig 02 / Interaction Design
The archive's one process artifact — a hand-drawn structure diagram. Legible: OUTRO → INDEX → INTRO · BG = PAINTING · FULL BLEED · TOUR · DETAILS · BIOGRAPHY · ARTWORK · TIMELINE · EQUAL VALUE AS [SUB]NAV · TIMELINE · IMAGE THUMBS ×4 · EXHIBIT · FOLLOW [THE SUN]. "Equal value as subnav" is a stated IA decision: the timeline was to sit level with the other sections, not beneath them. And "BG = PAINTING, FULL BLEED" is the chrome-carries-interpretation move the dossier identifies across this cluster. Decision: Use motion to carry the story from one section to the next
Result: Transitions kept the feeling of flow and exploration unbroken between sections
- Fig 03 / Content Strategy
The TIMELINE — a decade ruler with biography attached. 1910 · 1920 · 1930 · 1940 · 1950 · 1960 · 1970 · 1980, opening on "May 27, 1910 — Robert Elmer Lougheed was born in Massie, Ontario to Robert…" 147 words. The same decade-ruler device as the Galileo timeline, applied to a single life. The persistent navigation is ARTWORK · BIOGRAPHY · TIMELINE · GALLERY · CONTACT. Decision: A biography designed for exploration
Result: The timeline format maintained continuity while the design encouraged free-form exploration of Lougheed's life.
- Fig 04 / Information Architecture
The ARTWORK taxonomy, and it is a commercial-illustration career itemised — EXHIBIT · FOLLOW THE SUN · ILLUSTRATIONS · COMMISSIONS · WESTERN PULP COVERS · READER'S DIGEST · SATURDAY EVENING POST · THE STAR… Naming the publications is the argument: this was a working illustrator before he was a western painter. The persistent navigation is ARTWORK · BIOGRAPHY · TIMELINE · GALLERY · CONTACT. Decision: Catalogue pulp covers and commissions beside the gallery work
Result: His illustration read as a body of work, not a list of jobs
- Fig 05 / Content Strategy
The PROCESS OF PAINTING / SKETCHES section, in the artist's own voice — "BIOGRAPHY · GALLERY · CONCEPT TO COMPLETION · IMAGES OF LOUGHEED · SKETCHES · PROCESS OF PAINTING", with an INTRODUCTION opening "[I] always had a [sketchbook] and notebook with me…" A commercial illustrator's working method treated as exhibitable content, which is what makes this a design decision rather than a gallery site. Decision: Show the painting process from sketch to finished work
Result: Visitors understood how the paintings were made