Bryan KlugeWebsite & campaign concept for the Milwaukee Art Museum
The sculptural white ribs, glass windows and reflective floor of Windhover Hall.

MilwaukeeArtMuseum

An invitation
to look closer.

Milwaukee, Wisconsin

Come in.
Come back.

Scroll to unfold the museum
Skip to the proposal

Quadracci Pavilion
Santiago Calatrava

The invitationArt, as part of everyday life.

Return to a favorite painting . Bring someone along . Stay for an hour , or the whole afternoon.

Touch or click an image to take a closer look.

Every visit begins with an invitation. An exhibition gives that invitation a story of its own.

01 / The briefWebsite design & exhibition campaign

A website shaped
by the art.

The problem

How can the Museum make unfamiliar work compelling online while keeping a visit easy to plan? An exhibition title and dates can inform someone without giving them a sense of the work itself.

Why it matters

A campaign can attract attention, but the website has to develop that interest. For a limited-run exhibition, the journey from seeing an image to planning a visit needs to feel connected.

The proposal

Redesign the website around encounters with the art, supported by a coordinated exhibition campaign. Water’s Edge: The Art of Truman Lowe is the first application: an interactive exhibition page, a three-part poster series, and a digital invitation.

A self-initiated proposal. The visitor challenge is a design premise to test with the Museum, not a finding from audience research.

The creative direction

Follow
the line.

The willow structure of Lowe’s Canoe Form sets the composition. A single photograph extends across three posters; the website lets visitors examine its construction. Artwork, typography and exhibition information carry through to the invitation.

02 / The exhibition pageFollow the line.

Inside
Canoe Form.

The campaign leads to an exhibition page where visitors can explore the sculpture, read about Lowe and find the details for a visit. The artwork sets the pace; navigation and dates remain accessible.

Move the slider between a material detail and the complete sculpture.

Detail of Canoe Form by Truman Lowe, showing its willow framework.

Followthe line.

Milwaukee
Art Museum
Water’s Edge
The Art of Truman Lowe

Canoe Form, 1985–90

Peeled willow saplings form the sculpture’s open framework.

April 9–August 1, 2027
Included with Museum admissionExplore the exhibition
03 / Inside the storyExplore the work

Willow
and leather.

A second view pairs the sculpture with concise interpretation and material details. Exhibition information stays in the same reading flow.

Full view of Canoe Form, an open framework of peeled willow saplings and leather.
01 / Form

A canoe,
drawn in space.

Lowe gives the familiar outline of a canoe an open structure. You can see through the work as well as around it.

Truman Lowe (Hoocąk, 1944–2019)
Canoe Form, 1985–90
Peeled willow saplings and leather

Exhibition details at the Museum

Water’s Edge brings together work from across Lowe’s career. Organized by the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian, the exhibition explores his connection to water, landscape and place.

April 9–August 1, 2027
Milwaukee Art Museum
Included with Museum admission

04 / Across the campaignPosters · Social · Invitation

One work.
Three posters.

Adjoining sections of Canoe Form complete the sculpture across three posters. Each carries the artist, exhibition title and dates. The same sequence becomes a social carousel leading to the exhibition page.

05 / The proposed engagement

Website
and campaign.

Start with an exhibition-led website redesign and a launch campaign for Water’s Edge. Establish a visual approach the Museum can extend to future exhibitions.

My work for The New York Times + Amazon spans visual identities, key art, motion and campaign systems.

Develop the work with the Museum’s curatorial and marketing teams, from the visitor journey through launch.

  • Web design & development

    An expressive homepage and exhibition template, with clear routes to visit information and tickets. Responsive layouts, accessible controls and performance are part of the design.

  • Campaign development & creative direction

    A concept rooted in the exhibition, with art direction, typography and copy developed across posters, social and email. The website continues the visual story.

  • Marketing & launch

    Define the audience, channel plan and release schedule. Agree on measures before launch: exhibition-page engagement, ticket-link activity and attributed purchases where the Museum’s systems allow.

Let’s bring the next
exhibition to life.

Bryan KlugeIndependent creative director
Wisconsin-born, NYC-based
View my work ↗
An independent website and exhibition campaign proposal for the Milwaukee Art Museum.Web design · Creative direction · Campaign development
Sources & image credits

Exhibition information: Water’s Edge: The Art of Truman Lowe. Campaign context: Museum sponsorship information. Reviewed September 5, 2026. This is a self-initiated portfolio concept, not a commissioned or approved Museum campaign. The audience and need for additional campaign work have not been validated.

Campaign artwork: Truman Lowe (Hoocąk, 1944–2019), Canoe Form, 1985–90. Peeled willow saplings and leather. National Museum of the American Indian, 26/9766, gift of John and Meryl Lipton Lavine. Image: National Museum of the American Indian, via the Museum’s exhibition page. Campaign images use photographic details. The collection viewer shows the complete Canoe Form image. Interpretive campaign copy is proposed for curatorial review.

Architectural source: Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / Gannett, September 2023. The isolated architectural image is an AI-assisted study derived from that photograph, separated into masked layers for animation. The wing movement is illustrative, rather than a mechanical simulation. Interior photograph: Chris Rycroft / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0, resized and cropped for layout. Gallery photograph: Milwaukee Art Museum membership page.

Painting: Gustave Caillebotte, Boating on the Yerres (Périssoires sur l’Yerres), 1877, as titled in the Museum’s source article. Milwaukee Art Museum, Gift of the Milwaukee Journal Company, in honor of Miss Faye McBeath. Photograph by John R. Glembin. Museum and press imagery is included for concept review; publication requires appropriate image permissions.

The Lowe campaign uses the Museum’s photograph of Canoe Form, cropped for detail views and presented with original typography and motion. No generated water photographs or synthetic sculptures are used in this campaign. Digital refraction is optional. All artwork credit remains attached to exported invitations. The architectural opening retains its separately credited study treatment.

Digital references: Closer to Johannes Vermeer, Rijksmuseum, Fabrique and Q42; winner of two 2023 Webby Awards. The Met Unframed, The Metropolitan Museum of Art and Verizon; 2021 One Show Merit in Branded Entertainment. These inform the approach to close looking and audience participation. They are reference projects, not collaborators or endorsements.

Artwork view
Explore the image