Astound needed a platform capable of supporting a global audience, thousands of artworks and a growing set of powerful tools.
Astound required a digital platform that could balance deep functionality with a simple and intuitive user experience. The challenge was creating a modern interface that felt fast, confident and creative while also supporting complex workflows such as saved artists, curated lightboxes, artist messaging, personalised dashboards and advanced search. With a global audience of publishers, brands and licensing agents, the platform had to be high performing, scalable and accessible across all devices. Protecting assets at scale was equally critical, requiring advanced AI protections, server stack hardening and continuous monitoring to ensure speed, stability and uptime.
Our design and UX approach focused on clarity, discoverability and effortless access to the platform’s powerful feature set.
We developed a clean, image forward design language that places artwork at the centre of the experience. Wireframing and prototyping guided every decision, ensuring that even complex features felt easy to use. We created a cohesive UI system that works across dashboards, artist profiles, search tools, messages and lightboxes. Every page is built for speed and clarity, with layouts that adapt seamlessly across mobile, tablet and desktop. The experience is designed to aid exploration, encourage repeat visits and give end users straightforward access to the tools they rely on without cognitive overload. Consistency across all brand touch points ensures the interface feels modern, trustworthy and aligned with Astound’s creative identity.
A custom Laravel and Vue3 PWA supports powerful discovery tools, content management, communication and asset protection.
We built a fully custom Laravel backend and Vue3 PWA to power Astound’s platform. Key features include a personalised dashboard, saved artist lists, curated lightboxes, internal messaging between clients and agents, advanced artwork search and filtering, artist profiles with availability and awards, and an integrated content pipeline that syncs with internal systems. We implemented advanced asset protection technology to shield artwork from scraping, misuse and emerging AI threats. The server stack includes custom attack protections, backup and disaster recovery systems and performance layering that ensures a fast and reliable experience even during peak usage. Every feature development is guided by user data, heatmaps, recordings and behavioural research to ensure genuine value for end users.
The platform delivers higher engagement, stronger discoverability and consistent accessibility for a global user base.
The rebuilt Astound platform delivers a modern, streamlined and highly engaging experience for clients and artists. Users benefit from faster browsing, clearer navigation and tools that make researching, collecting and commissioning artwork easier than ever. The advanced lightbox system supports creative collaboration, while artist profiles offer deeper insight into style, availability and experience. Performance improvements have reduced load times, enhanced mobile usability and increased platform reliability at scale. Asset protection, server hardening, and AI blocking have significantly improved security and system resilience. The response from users has exceeded expectations, with notable increases in engagement, repeat usage and overall satisfaction.
Our partnership with Astound is built on continuous innovation, rigorous optimisation and a commitment to long term digital growth.
This project demonstrates how a fully custom Laravel and Vue3 platform can transform a creative agency’s digital presence. The Astound ecosystem blends strong UX design, high performance engineering and advanced protection systems to support a global community of artists and clients. Our ongoing partnership covers CRO, audits, consultation, feature development, hosting, asset security and blue sky ideation to ensure Astound remains one step ahead in a competitive market. It is a living digital product shaped by insight, creativity and long term collaboration.
" We have trusted the Bing team for many years and they continue to deliver exceptional work across every part of our platform. Their understanding of our business, combined with their technical expertise, has played a major role in our growth and in keeping us ahead of the industry. Their hosting, protection systems and continuous innovation give us complete confidence in the platform. "
Astound
