Bespoke Design for Famous Sculptor
Hamish is an internationally renowned sculptor. His work is amazing and beautiful. Quite simply we had to design and build a website that was up to the job.
Brief:
Bespoke branding, design and theme, one of our favourites
Client:
Internationally renowned sculptor Hamish Mackie
Skills:
Branding, design, theme development, Search Engine Optimisation, data handling
Challenge:
In 2016 Hamish Mackie had a website which was slow and was not mobile-friendly. The SEO team identified, from Google Analytics, that Hamish’s target market was quick to move to mobile devices for browsing and he was at risk of alienating these visitors unless he moved.
Changing expectations from Google and from internet users meant that the website was at risk of decline. Hamish was keen to keep up with Google’s requirements and that’s where we came in.
We saw a website that had been optimised but where the technology was no longer able to keep pace. Hamish needed something fresh and he wanted to seize the opportunity to create a website that showcased his work in a way that did justice to the quality of his art. He also wanted a website that would perform well in the search rankings, encourage people to connect with Hamish and help him sell his pieces to an international audience.
Solution:
A collaboration between Gillian, our branding expert and designer; Kate, our SEO expert and Akriga allowed us to produce a design that allows Hamish’s art to speak for itself whilst at the same time doing justice to the quality of his work. We achieved this without compromising on mobile-friendly functionality or site speed.
We built a custom WordPress theme to deliver the design and functionality around Hamish’s blogs, exhibitions, catalogues and – most importantly – sculptures.
To support ongoing SEO, we work actively to maintain site speed. Hamish has exacting standards and it is crucial that his work is displayed in the most visually appealing way possible. With active SEO involvement, we continue to anticipate Google’s increasing demands and to seize new opportunities that allow Hamish’s work to shine above his competitors in the search engines. The ever-changing nature of the website requires consistent collaboration between the web and SEO teams.
Our approach is to ensure that Hamish has a site that works for him. If these requirements challenge the constraints created by Google, we blend technical and SEO expertise to provide solutions.
Hamish’s website has been so successful we have received calls from art dealers asking that we do the same for them.
Outcomes:
“In 2016 the team at Akriga Ltd rebuilt our website from scratch. Having met with Adrian Allen we decided that due to the amount of data, photographs and constant changes that would need to be made, we needed a custom built site. It was a huge undertaking for us in all senses but we felt in very capable hands.
The website needed to be live in time for the build up to our October exhibition in 2016 and it went live, on time, on 30 August.
Since 2016 Akriga have maintained the site and we have found them all to be quick to understand what we needed, easy to work with, quick to respond to questions and work that has needed to be done.”
Laura & Hamish Mackie
hamishmackie.com