Hi Webby judges, here is our lovely case for our client Van Gogh Museum

Father than the eye can see

Unravel Van Gogh is the updated version of the successful Touch van Gogh app. Numerous stories are hidden in and underneath the paint of Vincent van Gogh’s paintings. Unravel Van Gogh reveals what you cannot see with the naked eye: view Van Gogh’s paintings in even greater detail and discover the information concealed in and underneath the paint with the ‘Unravel Van Gogh’ web app.

The brief

Along with asking DEPT® to ‘modernise’ its Touch van Gogh 1.0 iPad application, the Van Gogh Museum was looking for a better way to reach the (young) target group with the new app.

DEPT® won the pitch based on its innovative ideas and vision on the digital world. Together with the Van Gogh Museum, they made a user-friendly design illustrating the story behind Vincent van Gogh and about his works in full glory. During the development process, DEPT® used innovative UX techniques and observed the highest accessibility standards. This ensured that all of the visitor’s attention went towards the protagonist of this interactive experience: Vincent van Gogh and his masterpieces. These stories will soon be visible in the museum across all devices.

In and underneath the paint

Did you know that some of the colours used by Van Gogh were originally brighter? Discover how his famous painting The Bedroom probably looked before the red pigment faded. The walls of the room are now blue, but were once lilac.

It’s very difficult to see with the naked eye, but if you closely examine the painting Seascape near Les Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer, you’ll see grains of sand in the paint. Van Gogh painted the work outdoors, and sand blew onto his canvas. Van Gogh’s paintings conceal plenty more intriguing stories. Which secrets are waiting to be unravelled in other artworks? Find out for yourself as you view masterpieces including Field with Irises near Arles, The Cottage, Self-portrait as a painter, Quinces, Lemons, Pears and Grapes, View from Theo’s Apartment and Garden of the Asylum.

Updated version

In 2018, the Van Gogh Museum presents Unravel Van Gogh: an updated and improved version of the Touch Van Gogh app. Introduced in 2013, the original app was awarded four prestigious international prizes. However, Touch Van Gogh no longer met with the technical requirements of a modern-day app.

Unravel Van Gogh allows you to discover more about how Van Gogh set to work. Embark on a voyage of discovery on your smartphone, tablet or desktop computer. The web app is free to use, all you need is an internet connection.

Results

From the launch at the end of December more than 125K people have visited unravel van Gogh in the museum. On a yearly basis this number will run up to two million people. The web app has already had 11.000 visitors in two months. On Facebook, two promotional posts reached more than 323K people and received almost 400K views. On Instagram, we reached 160K people and 222K views, and on Twitter we reached almost 6,000 people.