Entering François Bonjour’s website is like stepping into a layered narrative, where every visual and conceptual level adds meaning without betraying the central core.
At first glance, the design is simple and restrained. Yet scroll by scroll, click by click, it reveals hidden depths: the experience gradually gains new fragments of meaning. None of this is accidental; it is the result of applying theoretical principles that matter deeply to me.
During the design process, I drew inspiration from Neogenerative Semiotics, translating key concepts into tangible creative choices. Three central ideas in particular – parallax, blur and transparency – guided the design and production, bringing analytical precision and narrative warmth together in an innovative conceptual balance.
Parallax
From a neogenerative perspective, it is not merely a visual effect but a fluid mode of interpretation. I designed the website to offer different perspectives on the same content while preserving its deeper meaning. We wanted to speak to different audiences without ever losing the centre. The poetry of the opening motto – “matter and memory, overlapping layers, fragments of light and time that lend their breath to my memories” – offers an emotional, evocative entry into Bonjour’s world, immediately awakening sensibility and imagination.
In parallel, the profile pages and catalogue of works present concrete information – materials, biography, exhibition lists – with documentary rigour and clarity. These are different angles on the same message: the lyrical atmosphere that resonates with the viewer on one side, and the factual structure that reassures the art connoisseur on the other. Just as in a parallax effect, these layers of communication move in harmony: the viewing angle changes, emphasising emotion or explanation in turn, yet remains perfectly aligned with the shared semantic centre – François Bonjour’s artistic vision. The result is multifaceted but cohesive communication: the user’s perspective can vary, while the narrative core remains firm.
Blur
Alongside the multiplicity of perspectives, I chose to embrace a slight controlled blur. Rather than communicating everything meticulously and with absolute definition, the website deliberately leaves areas of evocative ambiguity, like the aura of memories. After all, memory often consists of blurred images: barely outlined profiles, fading details, emotions filling empty spaces. Similarly, the website’s visual and textual elements give users room for interpretation and stimulate their own imagination. The opening poetic statement, for example, does not spell out every meaning: it suggests, alludes, sparks intimate associations in the reader. Everyone is free to project something of themselves into it, finding resonances with their own experience. This semantic openness is carefully calibrated, however, and never descends into chaos. I widened the “bubble” of meaning just enough to accommodate subjective projections while maintaining a shared emotional convergence and preserving the overall sense. It is a delicate balance: avoiding excessive vagueness, which could confuse or disappoint users, while also resisting excessive rigidity, which would make the message sterile and cold. In practice, the visual and verbal language engages users emotionally and imaginatively, creating a deeper, more memorable bond. This intentional “blur” – also visible in the layout, for example when background images fall slightly out of focus at the edges of the screen – becomes a tool for semantic rewriting. It allows visitors to actively reinterpret the content and make it their own, much as we reinterpret old photographs whose outlines have faded but whose emotional value remains intact.
Transparency
The third conceptual pillar is transparency, which I understand here as a semiotic threshold between different levels of meaning. My guiding metaphor was that of glazes in painting: in many of Bonjour’s works, what appears on the surface is only part of the composition, and the truest meaning emerges by looking through the overlapping layers. In the same way, I orchestrated a multilayered experience in the website design. On the surface is a clean, minimal, immediately accessible interface; beneath it unfolds a rich narrative and informational layer. Whenever users make a transition between levels – for example by clicking “Profile”, exploring works in detail or downloading the press kit – the communication reveals a new layer of meaning, adding context, data and stories. We might call this approach ThroughView Semiosis: the message is designed not to be exhausted at first glance, but to reward curiosity through successive stages of revelation and exploration. Transparency here is both visual and cognitive. Semi-transparent graphic elements and overlapping images and text symbolically convey a desire to “let people see through” things. This makes visible not only the strengths in the foreground – the beauty of the works and the promise of an intense artistic experience – but also the evidence and background that support that promise: the artist’s history, the list of his exhibitions, and the humble materials he has transformed and ennobled over time. It is an honest dialogue with users, who perceive coherence and depth in what they see: they know that behind every image or phrase there is a reason, a tangible design intention. This gradual approach to communication does not overwhelm visitors; it builds their trust. Users feel they can rely on a transparent message that does not hide details but reveals them at the right moment, making navigation a continuous discovery.
These integrated perspectives create a true narrative ecosystem, fully consistent with the vision of Neogenerative Semiotics. Every design choice – from the multilayered rhythm of navigation to the slightly out-of-focus backgrounds and texts alternating between poetic and informative tones – helps translate theory into practice. There is precision: nothing is left to chance, and every level of content is designed to preserve the central meaning and guide interpretation. And there is warmth: the experience is enveloping, human, able to speak to both heart and mind. The overall effect is a cultured yet accessible digital narrative, where layering and depth enrich rather than weigh down the experience. In this project, Neogenerative Semiotics steps out of the theoretical shadows and becomes tangible experience: visitors do not merely “read” a website, they live it through multiple perspectives, subtle reminiscences and revealing transparencies. What remains after exploring francoisbonjour.art is the feeling of having grasped the essence of a creative world naturally and gradually – a coherent, memorable message that settles in the mind. It demonstrates how analytical precision and evocative power can coexist in narrative design, creating a digital experience that reflects the artist’s deepest spirit with honesty and style.
by myself.