Case file 02
Parallel Archive
Website, Art direction
Client
Parallel, Rotterdam
Year
2025
Role
Art direction, Web design
Duration
5 months
// Briefing
The brief
Parallel holds tens of thousands of photographs and drawings of post-war buildings, most of them never published. Their old site was a search box and a wall of thumbnails.
The approach
Each collection is treated as a printed book: a strict grid, generous margins and one image at a time. Search still exists, but the default way in is a curated sequence.
The plaster models in the archive’s studio became the photographic language, lit from one side to match the archive’s own photographs.
// Debrief
Visitors now stay with one collection instead of bouncing between thumbnails, and the archive uses the same grid for its printed catalogues.
