Nehemia Azaz

CASE STUDY

In 2022, Opace was approached by the team behind Nehemia Azaz, a celebrated Israeli sculptor, ceramicist, and architectural artist, to redevelop their website. The original Joomla site had grown outdated and was no longer an effective showcase for the artist’s extensive portfolio. The project’s goal was to migrate the site to WordPress while maintaining the aesthetic and functionality needed to highlight Azaz’s unique body of work.

The project began by setting up a staging environment to ensure a smooth transition. From there, we installed and configured essential plugins, such as Rank Math, iThemes Security, WP Rocket, and Smush Pro, to boost site performance, security, and SEO. The design brief focused on creating a clean, modern layout that would seamlessly carry over the style of the original Joomla site but with enhanced usability, particularly on mobile.

A key aspect of the redevelopment involved customising the design to reflect the artist’s distinct aesthetic. The new WordPress theme was built to match the original site, with improvements based on the client’s feedback. Special care was taken to design each page in a way that highlighted the unique pieces in Azaz’s portfolio. Every artwork and commission now has its own dedicated page, making it easier for visitors to explore Azaz’s wide range of work, from sculptures and jewellery to architectural designs.

The content migration was another significant part of the process. We moved all text, images, and portfolio pieces from Joomla to WordPress, ensuring that the transition did not affect the site’s existing SEO value. New functionality was also introduced to improve the user experience, such as a more intuitive “Browse Gallery” feature with clearer navigation arrows and ‘next piece’ titles.

To ensure the site performed well across all devices, we carried out extensive responsive testing and made necessary adjustments to guarantee a smooth user experience on both mobile and desktop. This was especially important given the visual nature of the portfolio, and the need for images to display perfectly across various screen sizes.

The site went through several rounds of user-flow testing, design revisions, and final client amends before the go-live stage. Hosting was arranged using a high-spec UK-based server, offering 99.9% uptime and secure backups, ensuring the site remains fast and reliable as it grows.

The Result: 

Thanks to this redevelopment, Nehemia Azaz’s work is now showcased in a more engaging and modern format, with a WordPress website that better supports both user exploration and future updates.