July 01, 2016
At the beginning of the year, my professor asked the entire class to identify a problem in society that we could solve with our design skills. Once we had identified the problem, we had to find the solution for it. I identified the problem of Art being cut from public school curriculums across the U.S. and that Art was becoming something just for the affluent.
My solution was REN. REN is an interactive app that helps to put art history in the hands of the normal person. It provides a term dictionary, exhibit library, search function, and classes. I feel that everyone should be able to feel a connection to art because they have a deep understanding rather than them shying away because they were not given the opportunity. REN makes art and especially art history accessible.
In the Class option, the user has the choice of what they want to learn about from a wide variety of options. Each lesson comes with multiple chapters starting with the basics of that style or era and moving onto specific pieces that are essential to that style or era.
I wanted the design to be simple, sleek, and not distracting from the actual art. I based a lot of my inspiration off of actual galleries and exhibitions where there is plenty of white space to highlight the piece. It is also interactive so the user feels as if the piece is really in front of them; there is a function where you can click on one of the circles and the app will zoom in on that specific part and a side bar will pop up with a description of what is going on that is significant.
As this is a thesis project, I am going to be spending the next few months perfecting the design while also traveling to take the photography necessary to create a compelling library.