Asia Contemporary Art Forum (ACAF)
Individual | Web Design Intern | November 2024 - May 2025
I redesigned the Asia Contemporary Art Week (ACAW) archival website to preserve 20+ years of programming for the Asia Contemporary Art Forum. The project focused on visual consistency, navigation, and retro-inspired UI design. I also standardized 25+ archival booklets using InDesign. I refined the site using WordPress, Illustrator, and custom HTML/CSS elements.
The website can be viewed at acaw.info.
The website can be viewed at acaw.info.
- Research: Proofread and standardized 28 PDFs, identifying existing type and color systems, revealing an implicit design language that I carried into the web redesign.
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User-Centered Approach:
Created a user persona, representing curators seeking artists and events.
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Ideation & UI Exploration:
Sketched and prototyped 44 button concepts, inspired by retro web layering and archival booklet design.
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Information Architecture:
Simplified the original site’s convoluted subtabs into a streamlined navigation hierarchy. Introduced back buttons on subpages for smoother browsing.
- Visual Consistency: Designed section banners to break up long artist/event lists.
To better familiarize myself with the previous website’s content and the design language implemented by ACAW archival efforts, I was tasked to proofread the content and standardize the design of 28 PDF booklets using InDesign.
I standardized 28 archival booklets in InDesign, unifying fonts and color palettes for clarity across 500+ pages of historical content.
When working on the PDFs, it became apparent that a design language for the archival information had already been established using two main fonts and seven different colors. Each PDF used a smaller selection of these seven colors and a lighter shade as an accent.
I standardized 28 archival booklets in InDesign, unifying fonts and color palettes for clarity across 500+ pages of historical content.
When working on the PDFs, it became apparent that a design language for the archival information had already been established using two main fonts and seven different colors. Each PDF used a smaller selection of these seven colors and a lighter shade as an accent.
The Explorer
Age:
47
Bio:
Curator at a mid-sized contemporary art museum.
Goal:
Discover artists whose work aligns with his museum.
Pain Point:
Confusing site structure makes it hard to find artists or events.
Need:
Understandable browsing experience at a glance.
Motivators:
Bringing unique artistic voices to his museum.
My design improves findability for 3,000+ art professionals, enabling curators and researchers to access programming archives more efficiently.
A curator in a gallery (2025) sambath | Adobe Stock
While ideating, I created 44 different button designs. During ideation, I was inspired by layering of retro web design while incorporating design elements from the PDFs.
These buttons would be utilized in 2 different contexts: buttons for PDFs and buttons for navigating the website.
Two design styles were chosen to be further refined. The larger buttons outlined in column 4 would be used for navigating the website, while the thinner buttons in column 6 would be used for opening a PDF embedded in the website.
These buttons would be utilized in 2 different contexts: buttons for PDFs and buttons for navigating the website.
Two design styles were chosen to be further refined. The larger buttons outlined in column 4 would be used for navigating the website, while the thinner buttons in column 6 would be used for opening a PDF embedded in the website.
After the button designs were finalized, I created a banner design to separate long lists of artists. I found it important that the design of these banners was not identical to any button design, as these banners would not be clickable.
Previously, the ACAW website had 8 tabs and over 200 convoluted subpages. I redesigned the website to have a streamlined navigation to simplify its structure.
Finally, to aid in navigation, I proposed a design for a back button and implemented this button on each page that could not be accessed via the top navigation bar.