ANDERSON — A new Web site has been launched to tout the fact that Anderson University and Warner Press own several globally iconic images of Jesus Christ.

The Warner Sallman Collection has been under joint control of those two local entities since 1987, with the university owning the actual paintings and the company controlling the copyrights.

The best known of the collection, “The Head of Christ,” is one of the most common depictions of Christ in the world, having been reproduced more than 500 million times, according to Chris Williams, director of AU’s Office of University Communications.

“The work of Warner Sallman had brought a lot of attention to Anderson University,” Williams said Thursday. “And there are millions of people throughout the world that relate to these images and have encountered them at some point in their lives.

“We had an earlier version of the Web site that was created several years ago, and we really felt that an updating was due. We have received a lot of traffic to the site.”

Williams, along with Randy Dillinger of his staff, joined with Jason Knapp, AU professor of art; Regina Jackson, vice president of product marketing for Warner Press; and several people from Brainstorm, a Web site design firm in Indianapolis, designed and built the new site, which was relaunched on Aug. 7.

“Brainstorm had been working with Anderson (University) on their Web sites for quite a while,” said Barb Lakin, account manager for Brainstorm. “One of the principals here, Bart Caylor, attended Anderson and went to the design school, so when they wanted to redo the Warner Sallman site, they brought us in.”

Other AU graduates at Brainstorm include Dawn Caylor, Joellyn Detjen, Hiroki Chalfant and Paul Ruda. Chalfant developed the site from designs by Jenni Roberts.

“The main goal was to make it a little bit more user-friendly,” Roberts said, “while also highlighting his artwork and letting the collection be the focal point. The site as it existed before was much more text-heavy.”

A new navigation system made it easier to use, especially for those who know the paintings but not necessarily Anderson University.

“They definitely wanted to create a site that was unique and different from the university’s site,” Roberts said. “There was an emphasis on making it its own unique entity.

“We wanted it to feel very classic. We didn’t want it to feel trendy in any way. We wanted to keep it simple and streamlined so that the focus was on the imagery.”

Lakin, who said Brainstorm handles both faith-based and corporate clients, said she relished the challenge of providing a Web site for such a revered collection.

“There are always challenges, but we look at it more as an opportunity,” Lakin said. “Any kind of Web site, you have to step back and go, ‘What is the goal of this?’”

One of the goals, according to AU’s Williams, was to provide a forum for visitors to tell their own stories about encountering Sallman’s images in their lifetimes.