As a new venture to promote Malaysian and South-East Asian artists, ARTisFAIR KL (AFKL) set out on a mission to be Malaysia’s first hybrid art experience, blending both physical and digital experiences for art lovers and buyers. To achieve this, AFKL hired Flow Digital to be the sole Ecommerce developer for their project.

Summary

Being a new player in Malaysia’s fine arts scene, AFKL’s main goal was to create a brand new, hybrid experience for art lovers and curators alike. The client required a customised digital solution to achieve 2 goals:

• To allow visitors to learn more about the art pieces using their personal devices
• To provide a seamless art purchasing experience through their Ecommerce system

Challenges

The project was a new venture in the arts industry. Creating a new hybrid system from scratch meant that there were next to no other organisations or case studies to base AFKL’s customised digital solution on. Other major challenges included:

• Creating a digital touchpoint which combines information and a Ecommerce system
• Building an order fulfilment system for art purchase
• Payment gateway setup

UX Designer

Web Developer

Ecommerce Developer

Our Approach

AFKL required the full-stack treatment to achieve their goals. As their sole digital arm, the Flow Digital team started from scratch to identify the milestones to achieve the correct solution.

Brand and UX/UI Design
Establishing a new brand requires an easily recognisable logo and UI. Our team started off by carrying out research into similar brands and the target market. A few elements that our team focused on included:

• Competitor website layout/design
• Target audience demographic & market sentiment
• Customer journey and touchpoint mapping

From our research, we liaised with the client to produce:

• A brand new logo and colour scheme
• A website wireframe (to be used in web development

Website and Ecommerce Development
The website is the core touchpoint for AFKL’s target audience. On top of being the main access point to search for information about art pieces, it would also be where interested customers can make a purchase. Here was our process:

1. Our web development team created a skeleton website based on the previously agreed wireframe.
2. After discussing with the client, we decided on using Shopify as the Ecommerce host for AFKL.
3. The development team moved on to write custom code to give the website the desired functionality.
4. Through a few cycles of feedback, we built completed AFKL’s new website just in time for the opening of their physical art gallery.

The Result

AFKL’s website was completed in time with the launch of their physical art gallery. Having developed and implemented our custom code onto the main website, Flow Digital engineered a new digital experience for art lovers; giving them the chance to appreciate it in person while also providing the option to purchase it directly online.