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Pl(art)form

Digital ecosystem for the Russian art market — from private collections to marketplace and viewing rooms.

( KEY CHALLENGES )

When international platforms left the Russian market, galleries and collectors were left without viable tools — many fell back on Excel and private messaging. Existing alternatives were expensive or simply not built for the local market. And there was no single space where you could manage a collection, run a private sale, and connect with a curator — all at once.

( DESIGN PROCESS )

The clients came from the art world and brought their network into the process — collectors, gallerists, artists. Insights came through ongoing conversations rather than formal research, and prototypes were validated with people who actually buy and sell art.

Competitor analysis shaped a lot of decisions too. One moment stood out: bulk object upload existed on other platforms, but was rigid — one formatting mistake and the whole file was rejected. During testing, I saw how much this frustrated users. People have their own habits: one artwork might have "1950s", another "1950–1960", another "1950е". The system couldn't handle the variation. My solution was to move error correction onto the platform itself. After uploading, users see a list of recognized objects with problem fields highlighted alongside correct format examples — fixable in place, without re-exporting the file. One small fix shouldn't mean starting over.

( RESULT )

The result is a digital ecosystem built specifically for the Russian art market — from private collectors to galleries and curators.

A personal Collection lets users catalogue their works and move them to the Catalogue or Listings in a few clicks. Viewing Rooms give gallerists a private space to present works by link — with a one-click branded presentation generator that supports multiple gallery profiles. The Arsenal module lets curators manage collections on behalf of clients, while the platform handles logistics, services, and editorial content through Stories. Built on the infrastructure and client base of Lobby — an established art space in Moscow — pl(art)form launched with a community already in place.

( LATEST PROJECT )

AgroSRM

Grain Logistic