Having a website is a crucial and almost essential method of getting your work viewed by the public eye when working as any sort of freelance artist. However, whether it does your work any justice is a different matter as so many people seem to mess them up. Many sites can quite easily come across as being half arsed and unprofessional, leading to the standard of work looking lower then it really. The text and writing style used must reflect the artist’s personality in a friendly and professional manor as its quite easy for a potential client to dismiss work due to bad grammar and overconfidence. Getting the balance right could be the difference between getting a job and being left staring at the phone. Giving a piece or art credit where its due can also be a challenge especially when trying to capture the essence of a hand generated piece and displaying it digitally. On saying this there are tons of sites out there that tick all the right creative boxes and present their work spot on.
There are loads of template-based sites out there that can easily help you build up an idiot-proof page (if like me you’re completely clueless when it comes to URL’s and HTML codes). Last year I used cargocollective to make an online portfolio site that has loads of easily changeable layouts and styles to use or you can customise them if you wish. I don’t think that I’ve used mine to its full advantage yet as I’m pretty bad at remembering to update and promote it. Having looked around at various other online portfolios and sites I’ve come to the conclusion that mine could do with a little bit of tender loving care as well as my blog. I’m currently in the process of creating a new site through a friend having just recently purchased my own domain so having done some research into fellow artists I think I know what sort of atmosphere I want mine to create.
Travis Millard’s website has always been one that stood out against the rest for me. You can tell a lot of time and effort has really been put into it and it reflects the humour and fun aspects of his work. You’re greeted by a flood of different creatures and object that flow from one side of the screen to another each time you click on a subsection. The ability to rearrange and move different images and pieces around pulls you into the site letting you explore the creativity the site has to offer. In doing so you instantly find yourself hooked and entertained with Millard’s work.
Another site that’s at the complete opposite side of the spectrum to Millard’s site is work by Collate. Although the site is incredibly aesthetically pleasing to the eye and easy to use I’m not overly sure whether Collate are a design team/graphic designer/agency as there is no about me/contact section (unless I’m being completely blind). Anyway, the site on a whole looks very graphic and runs incredibly smoothly, giving you the option to slide through each project from left to right effortlessly. Other then the fact that I have no idea who the artist is or how I’d get in touch if I wanted to hire them for work its overall a very well designed site that gives of a level of high sophistication and class.
I think that to compliment my work, I would be better suited to something little more structured like the amazingly talented Dan Matutina. His work is displayed in a grid like system through little thumbnails showing projects with the title placed over the top locked in by a neat list of options centred at the top of the page. It compliments the slickness of his artwork and gives you’re an incite to multiple pieces without having to click through them one at a time. Matutina’s logo is viable on all pages of the site, which I like and think it’s important to brand yourself correctly like and he’s achieved it well.
Having looked and thought hard about how I eventually (over the next few weeks) want my site to look I have decided to customise the cargo profile I already have using HTML coding. I just need to tidy the typeface up and play about with the thumbnail aspect of displaying my work. It’s under construction at the moment but keep your eyes peeled at www.kris-sale.com for what I hope to be a visual treat.
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