François Bonjour's new website stems from a very ambitious intention: to create a space capable of conveying the visual and poetic power of his work in all its evolutionary peculiarities, spanning over 50 years of artistic activity.
Not as a simple container, but as a gateway leading to a place that is perhaps atypical, and certainly original, but “alive”, wide-ranging, rich in poetry and art.
DESIGN
francoisbonjour.art should not be experienced as a template, a sum of sections, but as a place to explore, like a room of memories, with thresholds, rhythms and relationships between the parts. The aim was certainly to exhibit in a clear, simple and direct way, but it was also to welcome and invite discovery. The result is an almost material digital space, like Bonjour's art itself, where not only the artist and his works are described, but also an emotion, a story, a journey, an idea. The site opens with a hero video lasting over three minutes, which, like a visual curtain, brings together the material nature of Bonjour's art and transports it into a mystical, almost dreamlike setting, alternating between overviews and microscopic details, as if to reveal the hidden secrets of Bonjour's style. It aims to introduce the layered worlds of his art in a harmonious and intimate way. Enveloping music unhurriedly accompanies the flow of images that open and close like deep breaths, evoking the tactile substance of Bonjour's work. Grain, flashes, material fragments: it is a sensory threshold that predisposes the gaze to a different, slower, more attentive and more engaging time.
The design is deliberately immersive, with pages that stretch out, long, layered and deep. So much so that orientation and navigability become an essential design responsibility. The side menus, which are always visible and anchored, are not only an aesthetic choice but also a functional one: they represent a structural compass, a reference point for orienting oneself in time and space on the page. They allow visitors to navigate the site's architecture without ever getting lost, to jump from a work to an exhibition, from a critical text to a profile, while maintaining an organic relationship with the whole. The main menu - Works, Profile, Solo and Group Exhibitions - represents the major chapters, each of which is developed in an articulated and complex way from a structural point of view. This complexity is simplified through the side menus, transforming boundless expanses into navigable, coherent chapters without dispersion. With them, each section becomes accessible without interrupting the experience, as in a well-designed exhibition, where the rooms open naturally onto one another, but a mental map always accompanies the visitor's steps.
The heart of the website's design is the detailed display of the works. Each work is presented in high resolution with two zoom levels: the first shows the painting in its entirety; the second zooms in on the surface, down to the texture of the material. Behind this clarity lies meticulous craftsmanship: over 300 works have been digitised, with numerous paper catalogues scanned in high definition and careful post-production work on colour, cropping and digital framing. The end result is surprising because, on the one hand, it brings out the individual details, densities, shapes and materiality of Bonjour's art; on the other, it offers an anthological overview extending over time, highlighting the evolution that has taken place over the decades through Bonjour's own works. An immense and immersive visual journey.
CONCEPT
Entering François Bonjour's website is like delving into a multi-layered story, where each visual and conceptual level adds meaning without betraying the core message. The design, seemingly simple and elegant, gradually reveals hidden depths: with every scroll, every click, the experience is enriched with new fragments of meaning. This experience is not the result of chance, but the concrete application of the principles of Neogenerative Semiotics. In particular, three key concepts, parallax, blur and transparency, guide the hand that designed this digital presence, blending analytical precision and narrative warmth in a rare balance.
In Neogenerative Semiotics, parallax is not just a graphic effect but a fluid form of interpretation: it allows different perspectives of the same content to be presented while keeping its deeper meaning intact. In this way, the site speaks to different audiences without ever losing its focus. The poetry of the opening motto – “matter and memory, overlapping layers, fragments of light and time that breathe life into my memories” – offers an emotional and evocative introduction to Bonjour's universe. At the same time, the profile and catalogue pages present concrete information (materials, exhibitions, biography) with rigour and clarity. These are different angles of the same message: on the one hand, the lyrical atmosphere that resonates with the sensitivity of the observer; on the other, the factual structure that reassures the art connoisseur. Just like in a parallax effect, these communication levels move in harmony: they vary the angle of view, emphasising either emotion or explanation, but remain aligned with the same semantic focus, François Bonjour's artistic vision. The result is a multifaceted but cohesive communication: the view may change, but the core remains solid.
Alongside this multiplicity of perspectives is blur, a “controlled blurring” intended not as a defect but as an expressive resource. Instead of communicating everything in a slavishly defined way, the site embraces a slight evocative ambiguity, similar to the aura of memories. Memory itself is often made up of blurred images: barely outlined profiles, fading details, emotions that fill in the gaps. In the same way, the visual and textual elements of the site leave room for interpretation by the user, stimulating their imagination. The initial poetic claim does not explicitly spell out every meaning: it suggests, alludes and triggers personal associations. Everyone can project something of themselves onto it and find resonances with their own experiences. Yet this semantic openness never descends into chaos: it is carefully calibrated, expanding the bubble of meaning just enough to accommodate personal projections while maintaining a shared emotional convergence, without dispersing the meaning. The design, the minimalist approach, and the attention to detail avoid both excessive vagueness (which would risk confusing or disappointing) and excessive rigidity (which would make the message sterile and cold). The visual and verbal language engages the user on an emotional and imaginative level, creating a deeper and more memorable connection. This intentional “blurring” (also visible in the elements moving out of the central frame of the screen) becomes a tool for semantic rewriting: it allows the visitor to actively re-semanticise the content, to make it their own, as one reinterprets old photographs with faded edges but intact emotional value.
The third conceptual pillar is transparency, conceived here as a semiotic threshold between levels of meaning. The metaphor is that of glazing in painting, and it manifests itself in Bonjour's art: what appears on the surface is only part of the composition, while the true meaning is sometimes revealed by looking through the overlapping layers. In the design of the website, this translates into a multi-level experience: a clean, minimalist and immediate surface, and a narrative-informative layer in depth. With each level change (whether clicking on Profile, browsing Works or downloading the press kit), the communication reveals a new layer of meaning, adding context, data and stories. This is ThroughView Semiosis: the message is designed not to be exhausted at first glance, but to reward curiosity with successive degrees of revelation and exploration. Transparency is therefore both visual and cognitive: semi-transparent graphic elements or content overlays symbolically reflect the desire to “see through”. Not only are the strengths shown (the promise of an intense artistic experience, the beauty of the works), but also the evidence and background that validate that promise, namely the artist's history, the list of exhibitions and awards, the humble materials brought to new life and the evolution over time. It is an honest dialogue with the user, who perceives consistency and depth: behind every image or phrase there is a reason, a tangible design intention. This gradual approach to communication does not overwhelm the visitor, but rather feeds their trust: they know they can rely on a transparent message that does not hide details but reveals them at the right moment, making navigation a continuous discovery. From these angles, François Bonjour's website presents itself as a narrative ecosystem consistent with the vision of Neogenerative Semiotics. Every design choice – from the multi-level rhythm of navigation, to the slightly out-of-focus background images coming off the screen, to the texts that alternate between poetic and informative tones – contributes to translating theory into practice. There is precision: nothing is left to chance, each level of content is designed to maintain the central meaning and guide interpretation. And there is warmth: the experience is enveloping, human, capable of speaking to the heart as well as the mind. The overall effect is that of an accessible but cultured narrative, where stratification and depth do not weigh down the experience, but rather enrich it.
In the Bonjour project, Neogenerative Semiotics ceases to be merely a set of concepts and becomes a tangible experience: visitors do not simply “read” a website, but experience it through multiple perspectives, subtle reminiscences and revealing transparencies. What remains after exploring those pages is the feeling of having grasped the essence of a creative world in a natural and gradual way – a readable, stable, coherent and memorable message. It is a demonstration of how analytical precision and evocative warmth can coexist in a narrative design, giving life to a digital experience that honestly and stylishly reflects the artist's soul.
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Domenico Amodeo / Designer
www.amodeo.ch
