Ernie Barnes was the first American professional athlete to become a noted painter, recognized worldwide for his unique style of movement and energy. His works capture the rhythm of sport, music, and everyday Black life with an unmistakable visual language.
The Ernie Barnes Legacy Project preserves and promotes that body of work. RST built and maintains the official estate website.
The Challenge
An artist estate site has two audiences: collectors, museums, and press who need provenance and exhibition history, and fans who want prints, merchandise, and news. The site had to feel like a gallery while quietly doing the work of an archive, storefront, and newsroom.
The Build
We built a restrained, museum-like site where the art does the talking: a bold condensed wordmark, an image-led masonry gallery of the paintings, and minimal chrome around it. The layout lets each work breathe, the way it would on a gallery wall.
Behind the gallery sits the estate's operational layer: a store for merchandise and prints, news and exhibition updates, mailing list capture, and contact routing. The team manages content directly without developer involvement.
Ongoing Partnership
RST operates the site as an ongoing client relationship: content updates, form and mailing list management, and platform maintenance handled so the estate team can focus on the art and the legacy.
