The Artist’s Website

What is the focus of your website? Is your site full of flashy buttons, music, and scrolling images? Or is it just bare with a couple of images thrown on one page?

Your website is your demo; it’s your presence and your first impression. It’s your talent and experience that will get you the job and this is represented by your work, not your résumé.

Your website should be simple and easy to navigate, as well as easy to update with new content. If you are deep into the guts of your site, you should be able to get to any main section with one click!

Assume the people who look at your site are complete and total mindless zombies. You want your site to be so easy to view and navigate it makes you want to claw your eyes out! I can’t stress this enough. I have been to artists’ sites and I never get past the 3 minute demo load up. You want people to see your art, and leave. You can put up a guest book, or something along those lines, but whatever you do, it should not distract from your art.

Show your skills!

For most part, the people who are going to review websites have high-speed internet connections and you can use this to your advantage by showing larger images, in some cases, larger than 800x600.

Why a website? Well, almost every computer out there has some sort of web browser on it. And a website can easily fit on a CD-Rom and can be shown with little to no setup time required.

I suggest you practice presenting your work as it appears on your website. Grab some friends or maybe ask your teacher if you can demo your site to the class room. Public speaking will never hurt you and it only helps to build self confidence and experience. Practice your presentation and time it! You will be surprised at how fast your presentation is. When I was presenting my website, it went buy quick! And by practicing your presentation, you’ll find that if you can’t get back to an image quickly, it’s embarrassing, so it helps you position and organize your images on your site.