What Your Art Website Needs (To Be Professional)
Your personal website is your art lifeline to the world. Without it, people in the Netherlands are never going to know what you’re currently producing and corrupt publishing companies won’t be able to steal your hard work.
All kidding aside, if you’re going to be a professional artist in the modern age you should also have a professional website. It’s another tool in your arsenal and can be just as powerful as your paintbrush or stone chisel. Take advantage of it.
In my travels on the information super highway, I’ve encountered many artists’ websites. Some were slick, some were sloppy. Depending on your goals either type may work for you but, strictly speaking as a professional, when you’re trying to land a big job or a coveted promotion, showing up with a mustard stain on your shirt isn’t going to strengthen your position.
Here are a couple of things your website should have if it’s going to be the proactive business tool you want it to be.
Clear, Professional Images
First and foremost, your website is designed to showcase your artwork. Visitors have to be able to see what you produce and they have to be able to get the gist of it from a crappy little jpeg on their computer screen, not the original which of course would be preferable.
In this instance, the clarity and professionalism of your images is going to do all the talking for you. If your images are clear, properly colour balanced and professionally displayed, visitors to your website should have no difficulty understanding you and your artistic oeuvre. Perhaps you’ll get that commission you’ve been looking for.
If your images are blurred, whited out by a photo flash, cropped poorly, too dark or shot on an angle, they won’t do justice to the original pieces they’re designed to represent. You’re going to be presenting the world a mustard stain, not a nicely pressed, clean, crisp white shirt. Clients are going to pass you by. Even though your artwork may have more substance than the next artist they stumble across, due to that artist’s professional images, he’ll get the job over you.
I’ve seen website after website with terribly photographed artwork and it turns me right off. Why bother? What’s the point? Piss poor images actually do you a diservice in the long run. Clients will get the wrong idea about you, about your artwork and your intentions. You’d be better off having no website at all. At least then no one can get the wrong idea.
Rule Number One! Make sure when you put your portfolio website together that your clientelle can comprehend you images and that they adequately represent the works they’re approximating.
Easy Navigation
Once you’ve got professional images, make sure that your visitors can find them. There’s not much point in spending time and money digitizing your artworks if your clientelle has to hunt them down.
There are all types of websites out there. I’ve seen very simple ones and I’ve seen very elaborate ones too. In my personal opinion, the simple ones win for better website design and I’ll tell you why.
Websites that have simple navigation, such as clearly defined gallery links, recognizable thumbnail images and simple pop ups for enlarged images will keep artwork organized and easy to find. Visitors can see exactly how an artist has progressed through their career, what their new work is all about and they can find it quickly and easily.
I’ve also seen very flashy websites with animations galore, sound bytes and film clips that go off when your mouse rolls over certain areas on the screen and all kinds of embedded navigation that astounds the visual senses. Unfortuately, it usually makes finding the artwork on the website difficult. You have to cull through all the programming standing in the way and when you finally do discover the Art, you’ll find that it’s actually less impressive than the website itself. Surfing the Internet shouldn’t be a chore – don’t make it one.
Theres’s an old saying that goes, ”K.I.S.S. : Keep It Simple, Stupid.” Keep your gallery links simple. Keep your thumbnails simple. Keep your images organized. Easy navigation will make your site user friendly and endear your visitors to your work, not turn them away from it.
Easy to Find Contact Information
Imagine, a visitor stumbles across your website. You’ve got clearly defined gallery links on your homepage and when this new visitor views your artwork, the images are clear and super professional. They know what you’re all about and they love what you do. In fact, they love it so much that they’d like to buy the third piece on the left in the second gallery. Your site says it’s for sale. They click back to your homepage and look through your navigation buttons. No, no contact info there. They head back to the gallery where they saw the image of the piece they’d like to purchase and, no, there’s no contact info there either. In fact, there’s no contact info anywhere. Seems your visitor will have to remain a visitor and not a customer. Sorry.
Right now you’re probably thinking that can’t possibly happen but it does. Many artists websites have a total lack of accessible contact information on their websites. I’ve seen it. It blows my mind.
A portfolio website is like a mini gallery in cyberspace which is dedicated to one artist’s work. The whole point of the website is to get that artwork out to people who would not only enjoy viewing it but perhaps would also like to privately own it or commission a new work. How are they going to do that when there’s absolutely no way for them to track the artist down? I really don’t see the point.
Making sure that your clientelle can find you once they’ve settled on your work is just as important as the work itself. You don’t have to give them everything, but at least make sure they can e-mail you. I’d also recommend having your contact information available from every page on your website. Most modern blogs allow for this by making a common toolbar part of the website.
These three things are crucial if you want your website to be one dedicated to professionalism. You can add other aspects too but without clearly defined images, a competent navigation system and up to date contact info it will all be for naught. So write posts if you’d like. Put up videos and songs if you want. It’s okay to be flashy and have a bit of fun with your website, but just remember, an artist’s website is designed to showcase artwork, not your skills as a website builder.
For now, that is all. Goodnight.
