Case Studies

The National Portrait Gallery (NPG) in London, following a competitive tendering process, commissioned Cogapp in 1999 for a triple project to present digital versions of their collection.

The NPG was building a new wing, and wanted an interactive system for visitors to explore their primary collection of ten thousand portraits - only a fraction of which can ever be on view. As part of the same project, they wanted to create an online collection for visitors to their site; and to create an electronic publication for sale.

Cogapp worked closely with the NPG to establish the scope of the project, and define exactly how we'd deliver each aspect. The original intention was to deliver a touchscreen system first for the new wing, then spin off a version of this as a CD-ROM for sale, and finally revamp the website with an online collection. In fact, in the course of the project, as it became clear how significant it would be to have an online outlet for the gallery's picture library, we brought this last element out first.

The NPG's idea was that the interactive system should explore the collection both in breadth - they aimed to have all ten thousand works illustrated with high-resolution images by the time the new wing opened - and also in depth, with a number of custom features about individual portraits, interviews with artists, and aspects such as archive documents related to portraits.

We worked with the NPG to refine the custom feature ideas and develop the most promising; and devised some common features that would pay off across a number of different works.

Our Role

Consultants, Designers and Producers

What We Did