THE MER COLLECTION


themercollection.org  (view web)



CLIENT: THE MER COLLECTION
YEAR: 2021
GRAPHIC DESIGN: laura negro
 studio
CODE: Feijoo-Montenegro
#WebDesign
The MER COLLECTION (the initials for Marcos, Elena and their son, Rafael) constitutes a significant representation of today’s most outstanding artists, many of whom are widely recognized by critics, museums and global art markets. 

Elena Rueda and Marcos Martin started their collection in the 1980s with the national market and then branched out into international waters in the 1990s, focusing special attention on contemporary interpretations of the human body and gathering close to 800 works of art, most of which date from the last 40 years.

The goal set for this website was to intimate the collection, to tell it through others’ words. To accomplish this, we designed a landing page that, as an archive, presents the main published contents about the collection: a record of its life. A second section, “About,” compiles different reflections on the collection commissioned from different authors, as well as information on the collectors and their future projects in reference to the collection. Lastly, “Artists” alphabetically lists a selection of names found among the collection.

The design itself, through its different elements (composition, typography and color), seeks to manifest the MER COLLECTION.

The landing page is composed of an irregular structure of typographical headline elements, which unfold when clicked on, showing news, audio, and video in a large messy collage. The typeface is Franklin Gothic, a font used in a variety of media, from headlines to billboards. When scrolling, the fonts are stacked and overlapped, evoking the idea of chaos, which together with the colorful pages make expressiveness prime, referencing forms of composition found in German neo-impressionism, a pictorial trend prominent in the collection. The colors of the website come from analyzing the artwork’s color palettes, choosing those with a marked dominance. White is reserved for the “Artists” page, alluding to the white cube. “About” plays with disproportion, with a central image followed by text.

Upon loading, the site displays a banner that, when clicked, is collected in an upper alert bar, directing the visitor to Turner Publishing House ecommerce. In the “Archive” and “About” sections, the website’s footer features another banner announcing the book.

Overall, the design is an aesthetic protest rather than a solution, a critical and sarcastic vision that honors the independence and nonconformity that characterizes these collectors.