Ikon Gallery - Review: Website of Choice

I will begin this blog by analyzing the IKON Gallery website http://www.ikon-gallery.co.uk. I stumbled across this gem of an index page whilst out-and-about, searching the world wide web. But I soon learned that beauty is only skin deep and that you shouldn't judge a website by its index page!

However, since the index page is the cover of our site, I will begin by complementing the good aspects of it.

The aesthetic presentation, in my opinion, is impeccable. The structure of the layout follows a tight grid system, which, in turn, creates a sense of balance and order. No element seems out of place and all are carefully aligned with each other. The composition draws our eye to the middle where a cross-fade slideshow of images plays. The website clearly serves its purpose. It promotes the gallery and presents viewers with a taste of the contemporary art that it is known for.

In one word, the overall feel of the website is - stylish. And if I were to add another - minimalist.

The effect is very subtle, in that its color palette is very restricted in just using different shades of grey and black. Thus, it is the clever use of white space that becomes pivotal in how we interpret the final design.

The navigation (or the menu) is also presented in a very subtle way. It is situated below the gallery logo at the top of the page as a horizontal list typed in a small font. It is interesting that because its small it does not compete with the slideshow below and yet it is still prominent, since the logo draws our attention to it. There is another menu in the footer area with information that is not directly related to the gallery.

Overall, a very visually pleasing design, if we don't dig deeper that is. I clicked on the first link labeled "Programme" and was disappointed to see that nice, clean design that I love so much is not followed through the whole site. This page, though still using the same color scheme and fonts, suddenly feels heavy and cluttered. The once humble and subtle navigation, had acquired a second row of menus, and now is very messy. The main content is presented in long and chunky rows of timelines, outlining the many events of the gallery. The timelines are not simple to understand and seem very repetitive and boring. The elegance is gone and the page looks like a page from a different website. There are other sections in the site that go back to normal but the design is very uneven. I wish the design was more uniform throughout the site.