Web project
Kent — Artist Website
A website for French singer, author and illustrator Kent, bringing together a large body of work spanning several decades.
Role
Design, development and ongoing maintenance
Built with
Django, vanilla CSS
The brief
Kent’s previous site had grown organically over time, leaving music, books, drawings, news and archive material difficult to navigate as a whole. The new site needed to bring everything into a clear structure, remain flexible as new work appeared, and age well without requiring another major redesign in a few years.
Durability did not mean making it anonymous. Many section titles use Kent’s own handwriting, while small marks and squiggles were digitised from his notes and drawings. They bring his hand into the interface without overwhelming the work.
A homepage that adapts to the artist’s activity
The site has a strong visual identity, but the homepage does not need the same opening at all times.
Between releases, Kent can show the portrait and introductory message at the top of the homepage. When a new album, book or exhibition needs attention, he can hide that hero so visitors arrive directly at the latest news. He can switch between the two layouts himself without redesigning the page.
↑ Try both layouts with the switch just above.
Discovery
Keeping a large catalogue visible
With a discography as large as Kent’s, older albums can easily become buried. Each homepage visit surfaces one from the catalogue, giving it renewed visibility and offering visitors another way into the archive.
Structure
A catalogue, not a collection of pages
Kent’s discography — more than thirty albums — was organised as a structured catalogue. Albums, songs and releases are linked, so each song page can show every record on which it appears. The data can be corrected, extended, exported and reused beyond the website.
Small screens
The content remains the priority
Across catalogue, album and song pages, navigation, readability and access to the work take precedence over desktop-only effects. Even dense material remains straightforward to browse on a phone.
