International Fine Art Contest needs a beautiful new look.

Agora Gallery, New York

The Chelsea International Fine Art Contest, has been drawing attention to the work of talented upcoming artists from around the world for more than 25 years.

The contest is hosted by Agora Gallery, a fine art gallery based in Chelsea, New York that is dedicated to the promotion of contemporary artists. The Gallery caters to the taste and trends of the sophisticated New York art market and the Gallery's discerning worldwide collector base.

The Competition is juried by important figures in the New York art scene; last year's juror was Megan Fontanella, Assistant Curator of the Guggenheim Museum. Artists from around the world, at whatever stage in their career, are invited to join the competition.

In addition to the recognition received by the selected artists, prizes valued at $38,000 are awarded. Prizes include participation in the competition exhibition in New York, cash, internet promotion and review by an art critic.

The website is targeted at potential contest participants.

The participants are artists from around the world, at all stages in their artistic career. Their technical ability varies, and not all our native English speakers, so the design needs to be easy to navigate.

What the participants have in common is the desire to have their work judged by an art professional, and the dream of having their work shown in a New York Gallery and recognized on the world stage.

We are looking for a design that will get artists excited about our competition and which will make them want to take part. Of course, we'd like as many artists as possible to sign up, and we want to make it easy for artists to find the information they are looking for.

We'd also like to leave the artists with a positive impression of Agora Gallery, and with a desire to show their work there in the future.

The homepage will have slightly different content depending on whether the competition is open or closed:

* A title: "The Chelsea International Fine Art Competition"
* The text from the page http://tinyurl.com/6r6b6n , starting "The management of Agora" and ending with "children in need throughout the New York Metropolitan Area."
* Links to foreign language versions of the page.
* Links to the inner pages More Information, How to Enter, Entry Fee, FAQ & Results.
* The BBB accredited business logo.

When the competition is open the homepage must include the following:
* A Competition Entry Box. This is most important element on the site, and it should be very prominent. This will be similar in content to the Portfolio Submission box on our representation site ( http://tinyurl.com/34sly6f ). The artists will enter their email address and choose whether they are a new or existing artist. If they are an existing artist they will be asked for their password, or have the option of a having a password reminder sent to them.

Before the competition is open the homepage must include:
* "The next fine art contest is due to open in February 2011."
* "Sign up for an email reminder when the competition opens:" and a box for the users email address. This should be prominent. It could also include a link to our mailing list page, with the text "alternatively, join our mailing list."

2

In addition to the homepage we need a standard layout for our inner pages.

This should include links to the homepage and the other inner pages (More Information, How to Enter, Entry Fee, FAQ & Results.).

It should either include the competition entry box (described above) or a 'Click here to begin your entry' button.

The following elements are optional, both for the homepage and the inner page:
* A countdown until the competition opens/closes.
* This video of last year's competition exhibition http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ffgt…r_embedded
* Photos from the competition exhibition reception ( http://www.agora-gallery.com/exhibi…=8/17/2010 ), photos of other receptions ( http://www.agora-gallery.com/exhibi…_main.aspx ) or of the gallery generally ( http://www.agora-gallery.com/galler…hotos.aspx )
* A link to our facebook page http://www.facebook.com/AgoraGalleryNY twitter feed http://twitter.com/agora_gallery or blog http://agoraartgalleryblog.com/
* A placeholder for a small portrait of the juror and/or text about the juror. This year's juror has not yet been chosen, but will be appointed by the time the page launches.

http://www.agora-gallery.com/compet…_main.aspx

We like most of the content, but the design is messy and missing the sign up box.

We are not sure how integrated we would like the competition site to be with the rest of our website. Right now it sits inside the same template as the rest of the site - it has the full blue menu at the top and the blue-gray background. We are welcome designs which are either:

1. Completely different to the rest of the Agora Gallery site (in which case we would require a link to the main gallery site).
2. Have the same top menu and background as the rest of the Agora Gallery site.
3. Include changes to the top menu/background that we would use everywhere on the Agora Gallery site.