Creative Business 101 – Website Designing Continues…

by Linda | Apr 8, 2011 | my creative journal

From my last post about designing your website…it’s no surprise that after looking at my initial work – I decided to change it up a bit. I think it’s really important to give yourself some time and be totally comfortable with the design you will go with. Sure you can change it up at any time and at some point you will update it to change with the times. But this is your website representation online and you want to love it! You’ll be seeing it and showing it off all the time, so don’t hesitate to keep working at it. Although revisions could go off into a spiral at times, you just need to find the middle ground. I wasn’t totally happy with my final design, so I played around a bit more. I asked myself, what do I want to see, what do I like and not like?

My directive was to create a more impactful homepage for those coming to my website for the first time. So I got rid of the newsletter column for the homepage, removing the distraction. I also decided to go with a more traditional navigation strip. It’s much clearer in that way and shows up clearly. This gave me room in the header to add some graphics and my shorter vision statement…which I like sitting up there as a consistent element. Not sure if I should fade out the graphics though or maybe go with a floral element…hmm.  I also wanted to showcase other artwork that was not specifically art licensing directed, even though that is the priority. Just want to show a little more variety of what I do. I’m really close to building it out and to avoid going into a neverending cycle of revisions, I’ve just given myself a deadline. It’s a great way to finalize things. When there is a deadline, you get it done!

For those who already have a website, remember that you should be thinking about a bit of Spring cleaning. A website is a living element, so don’t think it should stay the same forever. Why would people ever come back? It should updated to represent who you are and what you do currently…and you as an artist are always growing and changing. You might find some website related articles I’ve come across helpful. Thought I would share as I’ve definitely learned a lot:

• Blog vs Website?
• 8 Ways to Quicly Improve Your Art Blog or Website
• Quick Blog Fixes
• 11 Fast Website or Blog Fixes

Creative Business 101 – Design Your Website

by Linda | Apr 1, 2011 | my creative journal

Since I’m designing my own website, I’ve going through the process from scratch. However, even if you hire someone to design your website for you or if you choose to use a service online where templates are provided…it’s still a good exercise for you to go through the design process in your mind. Having done quite a few web design jobs in the past, often clients just throw it over the fence, so to speak. Then I find out after the fact that they had something in mind or have certain preferences that they didn’t express previously. As with everything, we are going through the steps to make it a smooth and easy process for everyone. Ultimately, that will lead us to the end result that satisfies all our needs.

Building upon the purpose of your website which should never be compromised by the aesthetic or design decisions…think about the style you prefer. It’s honestly the most useful to think of a few adjectives to describe what you want. I would like a site that is simple, clean and direct. I want to keep it minimal, so the artwork pops and shows up the most…I don’t really want distractions in the site design because it doesn’t serve much purpose in the end. However, I think some artist might want to use their artwork in the design of their site…perhaps create the mood. Just make sure it doesn’t clash with how you display your portfolio.

Even when using a template or theme for your website, often you choose the colors and insert imagery. So it’s important to take your time in choosing a combination that works for you. One of my biggest pet peeves in artistic sites is the lack of usability. Folks like to have hidden navigation elements or animations flying all over and it just makes it hard to use your website! Unless it’s something connected to your whole purpose, or perhaps you are already famous and people are compelled to navigate your website no matter what – it’s just a bad idea. I know there are websites out there that seem to break all the rules, yet they are successful in their business. Sure, it happens…when the product sort of compels people to overlook all those other obstacles. But do you really want to start your business in that way? It’s much better to make it as easy as possible for others to use your website from the start. Don’t scare people away!

Think about your navigation elements and make sure it makes sense, easily visible and easy to use. From your sitemap, you should have a clear organization figured out already, giving some sense to your website structure. Otherwise, you’ll be adding things here and there, plopping them on left and right and suddenly your website is a mess of stuff. That’s when you need to step back and revise your sitemap. Here are a few guiding tips to help you out:

• Follow your sitemap, so every piece of content has purpose
• You can even include a sitemap page with direct links to each piece of content, if your website contains a lot of parts (like a table of contents for a book)
• I don’t think you need the sitemap page if your main navigation does the same job though – like my simple website plan.
• Make sure your site is organized with easy to use navigation that appears on every page!
• Try to reduce the amount of clicks for users to reach content…basically as simple and flat as possible for your purposes
• Avoid flashy, animating or extra graphics “just because” – it needs to serve a purpose – remember!
• Make sure your text or imagery is easily readable or viewable – not clashing to the eye or taking away from your work pieces.
• When creating graphics for your website, make sure it’s saved for the web…

After creating your design, we can go into the development details and checking the download speed of your website. For visual artists, we often offer thumbnails, so that it doesn’t take forever to load large images of our work. However, you can always show one piece large first to get the impact and WOW factor for your work, then have all others as thumbnails. Again, just have to weigh your goals, the purposes and finding a balance for everything. I hope these tips have helped you move forward a bit. You can check out this Art Biz blog post with important points about what people look for in an artists’ website specifically as well. There’s a nice list of amazingly one page websites that do the job here. Design sponge also have a great post going through setting up a website with WordPress in a weekend. There are lots of options out there and resources to help you get through the process.

Here’s the site design I created for my website…mocked up in Photoshop and ready for development. I also created an inner page to work out what that would look like…it’s always best to have things figured out before you dive into building…reduce the confusion and need for making immediate decisions while in the trenches!

Notice that I have have included my logo to brand my website along with my navigation, consistent on every page and clearly visible. There should not be any confusion when it comes to looking for my work or contact info, etc. Keeping with the minimal style, I kept it pretty simple and sleek…but I wanted to put in that kraft paper background as it is one of my favorite surfaces to work on and that adds a bit of me into the site without distracting from other elements. It’s also less boring than a solid color, for me personally. In the artwork section I’m just showing previews of collections with a note that full collections are viewable to interested parties if they contact me. Notice that I added the newsletter sign-up to the right side of my website structure as well, so as someone browses they can clearly sign up to receive mailouts when new work is available to review. I also added my mission and vision as the space was available and I think it’s nice to have that driving force sort of branded there. For me this is a great marketing tool, so I can directly contact those who are interested in seeing new work and see if they want it! It’s nothing fancy, but it serves exactly my purpose and goal. I’m already thinking it might be too busy in some respects…might want to work on the spacing and such…refining the details before diving into development. It helps to step away and look at your work after a few days, so I’ll mull over everything this weekend. What do you think and what have you come up with for your creative business?

Creative Business 101 – Planning Your Website

by Linda | Mar 29, 2011 | my creative journal

I believe that a website will be your main marketing tool to spread the word about what you do. A business without a website is like pasta without any sauce?! Does that even make sense…hmm, but I think you know what I mean. Whenever you want to find out more about something, you go search on the Internet. I think it’s insane not to have an online presence, especially since it’s amazingly cheap and easy to do nowadays. I know some folks are already thinking that blogging is better than a static website – but what I mean is your online presence – you can build it however you like. I think blogs seem easier to set up because of the many platforms out there, ready to use – but the same is true for websites. It’s like a weird juggling of terminology because “website” really just encompasses everything…ultimately what I mean by “website” is your internet home, presence or representation. You can have a blog, a shop, etc in your website…same difference.

The point is that it is supremely important to think things through and build up your website properly. It doesn’t have a be a complicated process either…it all simply depends on your purpose. Since I’ve worked in the web design field for many years, I certainly have the web development process ingrained in my mind. However, I’ve learned from experience that not everyone knows what that process is or follows it … thus creating a lot of trouble later on. Ultimately, you are a building a showcase piece, so all your marketing efforts can point to this one location that will get people to engage and complete the deal! Whether it is selling something immediately or getting the viewer interested enough to contact you.

Research and planning should be the first step of building your website. Consider what you want your website to do for you! It’s so important to have the purpose figured out, because everything you create – layout, design, functionality – should work towards the intended purpose. For my portfolio website at lindatieu.com, I want to showcase my work and provide contact information. I will primarily be sending clients there, perhaps behind a password protected area to see full collections. Eventually I hope that potential clients will find me naturally and the purpose would be to help them contact me for more. The ultimate goal is to use my website to aid in getting my work licensed. Now is a good time to go back to your business plan and use what you’ve already written out as a guideline. What are your business goals and how can the website help you achieve those goals? Some might need the website to sell their art directly. Others might simply need a business card website – the who what when where why rundown for credibility.

In this step, you can also do the research of what your ideal customer or client would be looking for to help decide what is important content to include. I’ve seen many artists include sketches and I’m not sure what the purpose might be. To prove that you can sketch? Maybe just my opinion, but think about it for yourself and be sure to understand the purpose and goals of your website. That way you know exactly why you are including xyz, not just because it looks flashy or cool. This should lead you to literally plan out the structure of your website. Get out that pen and paper and write out your sitemap. Just like writing an essay, you often outline the major points and arguments before fleshing it all out. Same for your website, write out an outline of the content – literally a map of your website. Here’s mine…

I’m trying to get it as focused and simple as possible. My homepage will say who I am and what I do. Then you can check out the gallery and/or contact me. There will be a protected gallery section for those who will view full collections versus just a brief preview of my work for the general public. Finally, I wanted the “Elsewhere Online” as a general spot to link to all my other stuff…blogs, shops, etc…but it’s not the most important aspect. Now that I look at the sitemap and at my goals…I think I might add a callout to sign up for a newsletter – directed to creative directors and manufacturers. Basically, I will let them know when I have new work to look at. Again, think specifically for your audience and what you need to include.

Hope this discussion has helped to spur you onward. Let’s get our planning done first, then we will move into design. You can start thinking about the look and feel you like, your aesthetic to incorporate and the feeling or mood you want to create from the design. Until next time…happy creative business building!

Creative Business 101 – Portfolio of Work

by Linda | Mar 23, 2011 | my creative journal

In my efforts to move ahead in building my creative business, I’ve found myself a bit stuck on how to categorize my work – of all things! I’ve done traditional graphic design work, web design, digital scrapbooking products, digital stamps, drawings, paintings and bookbinding work. It’s all fun and crafty, but I really need to shape up my presentation to create an official portfolio of work. Which leads me to a thought regarding the website versus the blog. I think they are two separate things and the blog is secondary. It might be combined depending on how your website is organized, but suffice to say that your web presence is the formal side of things and the blog is the more informal side. Blogs come from the word web-blog and it’s just a journal that you are sharing to the general audience. But it’s not a portfolio and not a place to send your clients to in my opinion. At least for my purposes of getting into the licensing industry or even for fine artists or illustrators, you need a gallery or portfolio area so people can see your work quickly and easily. I’m thinking of my website like a professional resume. If I point potential clients to my website, they should be getting the essential information needed to help me get that job. Here’s my work, please contact me type of thing! Of course, you can add the blog, award mentions, etc but don’t clutter it up so much that the original intent is covered.

Anyway, so I am thinking about my portfolio section and how I want to organize it. Even the title of this section can get me stuck… is it a gallery? Licensing gallery? Portfolio? Artwork? Hmm. I had to snap myself out of it and realize that people will get it whatever I call it. No need to get so picky about the vocabulary when everyone will understand in the end. So I started to think about the categories my work would fall into. I want to present my work in an organized format, because they are really different from a visual standpoint at times. I have line art and colored art, patterns…it varies so much. I must admit this probably means I’m a novice in the field…still in the exploration stage of things. But at the same time, I think over time it means I’ll have a wide breadth of work because that is who I am truly. I have many interests and sides to my personality, so they result in different styles of artwork.

I thought it would be best to check out working artists in the licensing world and see what they do. From Puffy P to Alisha Wilson to Kate Harper to Leslie Newman to Leyla Torres to Shawn D Jenkins to Sue Zipkin to Khristian Howell to Heidi Gray to Jen Goode to Cindy Ann Ganaden to Jane Shasky to…I’m sure there are many more to explore, but I had seen enough. I noticed that most veterans in the business showed actual products they have licensed their artwork onto. I also noticed some artists did work outside the realm of licensing and in those cases, they did split up their portfolio into sections by licensing, editorial, illustration, etc. Finally, I noticed many artists only offered previews to give you a taste of their work. Many had private areas for clients to actually review the full collections.

I realized there are many ways of presenting oneself and all those were working artists with different setups. I suppose we just have to find the right combo for ourselves personally. I like the idea of collections, since each can have it’s own style and theme. As a beginner, I don’t have actual products to display and don’t want to delve into mock products at this point. However, I still feel like surface pattern collections should be separated from other artwork collections…hmm.

From the process of organizing and looking at all my work in full, I also realize there are many holes to fill in. It’s important to note that work should be updated to reflect your current body of work…so there are no surprises when a client wants to engage with you. However, as a beginner or a hobbyist going professional…you might want to weed out a lot of stuff. Everyone says you have to show your best work – of course! But at the same time, you only have so much work as a beginner, so I think it’s okay to start with the best possible and keep updating as you go to build up your presence.

I’m thinking of going with previews only for my portfolio. It’s important to show enough to get people interested, but not necessarily reveal it all to non-clients. I have to remember the purpose of sharing my portfolio and going back to the business plan, I have an idea of who my potential clients are and what they might be looking for. I don’t know how many potential clients would be stumbling on my website…more often than not I’m directing people there to see my work or I would have submitted my work already. So I continue to wrestle a bit with how much to present and a few more questions also pop up in my head. I also wonder if lower quality web images would do the job, in the sense that they would be protected from people who rip the images to print. Would manufacturers understand that aspect of things?

How are you planning to organize your work and how much do you want to show? For those wanting to sell the work itself, I would envision something like a virtual gallery setup…so you would have to consider offering more details, pricing and an option to buy. Others might only have a preview of best works displayed, especially if you have a very unique signature style. You don’t need pages and pages to get the point across. I don’t think it’s ever necessary to have your entire lifelong gallery online anyway. Might be a bit dangerous too for those copycats or such as well…it’s more work to have to protect. I’m thinking just the most recent and relevant. Feel free to share your thoughts and portfolio structure or organization plans…thanks!