folioeast: Rebranding an Entrepreneurial, Long Island-Based Arts Initiative
folioeast, an arts organization on the East End of Long Island representing local artists, turned to rayogram for help rethinking and rebranding the business.
Discovery led to the recognition that folioeast clients don’t primarily identify as "collectors;" they are looking for art to enhance their homes, to resonate in an entry hall, living area, bedroom, kitchen. Art is purchased as an investment in the quality of their daily lives.
As founder/curator Coco Myers asks, "What is more important than an investment in the space that you live and breathe in, where you wake up and go to sleep, entertain and relax?" Myers frequently consults with clients in their home, and then works with them to decide which artists’ work best enhances their space. In addition, she works with interior designers and home stagers, all with the common goal of filling a home with art. In addition Myers organizes dozens of local art exhibitions and fundraisers throughout the community.
Our discovery and creative strategy led to a new logo and the tagline “Living with Art.” Paired together, they simultaneously nod to the East End community of artists and its history of abstract expressionism, and acknowledge the philosophical underpinnings of folioeast—art purchased not as a commodity, but to add to the enjoyment of daily life at home.
A reimagined website was next—including artworks both available and recently sold to show the breadth of an artists’ work, as well as photos of pieces shot in situ, in homes, for potential buyers to see how the art piece works in an environment. "It's hard to really understand the scale of a piece, how it will look in a room just by looking at an image without any context,” says Myers.
We coordinated interviews with over fifty artists about their inspirations, artistic process, where they work, underlying philosophies that are represented in their work, why they work/live on the East End—all information that was distilled into a focused Q & A format to live on each artist’s home page. The interviews give an intimate look at each artist’s sensibility and personality.
The website also includes themed online-only exhibits, which now are now being curated and posted more frequently so that visitors can view artworks even in the midst of Covid-19 social distancing.
We identified Instagram and Facebook as the best social media networks for promoting a carefully composed mix of artist work, behind-the-scenes views of show installations, callouts to folioeast artist exhibits in other cities, visits to artist studios. And we provided a strategy for all this content to coalesce into a beautifully curated feed. Though already followed by an influential group of East End and NYC tastemakers and artworld names, rayogram proposed a plan to include targeted outreach to interior designers, home stagers, and new collectors.
