The Magic Ingredient is You!

Convert your Website into a showcase of your Resume, Portfolio, and Artwork Store

While I was building my website (not finished yet. This is an ongoing working process), I noted that there are some crucial points to consider related to four areas: content, design, marketing, and store.

Today, I will be writing about the content.

1. The magic ingredient is you

In all Art fields, art is a personal expression of the artist.

Your audience wants to understand the why, how, and when you do your work. You cannot divorce the art from the artist and present just one side of it; whether you like it or not, you must show yourself more.

Start small: your hand, then your back, your profile, etc., but just do it.

Your followers buy your art as much as they connect with you and believe in your work, so your website must reflect your thoughts, beliefs, and choices and share your work in progress, method, history, and not just your final art. Thus,

a) Have a dedicated 'about' page or section on the homepage. Include a picture of yourself with some accompanying text explaining your motivations for your art making.

In many cases, on professional artists' web pages, catalogs, etc., we can read the artist's "statement." Go there, read about it, learn and adapt to your situation.

In addition to this 'about' page, integrate more personal or unusual info about you into other areas of your website, such as in the shop, projects, or blog posts.

b) The 'about' section could also include a CV or historical timeline of the key moments in your progression as an artist, such as exhibitions, projects, press, books, published stories, and education.

c) Include a blog where you can write about your work and philosophy or showcase images from your career and life. Try to be consistent and post regularly: if weekly or monthly is not important, just keep to it.

d) Share project development pictures on a blog or project pages where visitors can understand the when, how, and why. It is always good to mix some personality into the project pages rather than a flat image with technical data only.

e) Everyone loves the opportunity to look at an artist's sketchbook. There, you can show your inspiration, how you develop your ideas, or other projects outside the "niche" and feel the reaction of your public. You can create a specific section on your website for this or share it in some blog posts.

f) Include pictures of you in your studio making your work or outside buying art supplies. Or vice-versa. Everything is content, remember?

g) Feature a video of you talking about your work or a particular project. As soon as you feel brave enough to do it. Courage! 💪

h) Include images from exhibitions, events, awards, art car boot sales, talks, and interviews. Show the person behind the art.

2. The artwork is the star of the show

Ultimately, your site is about your artwork, so showcase it beautifully and large!

Visitors to your site won't purchase a product unless they can see it correctly, beautifully, and with the added option to view them full screen via a click.

Everything leads to the visitor dreaming about your artwork and imagining it in their home, so the bigger the images, the more immersive the experience.

Plus, It would help to sell your art if you showed good photos of your work on a wall, so use examples of your artwork in context and not only as an isolated image. Suppose you do not have a suitable decorative context; use a mockup.

Some will add that when making these in situ photos, the interior style must fit your potential buyer's type, age, demographic, etc. If you feel you can follow these marketing tips, go ahead.

In my case, I don't go so far; it is too much for me. I follow my (good) taste and instincts, trusting that they go well together. Or, if in doubt, I go minimalist.

As possible, keep adding videos or other outside-the-box related media.

3. Content & Typography - light is more

Take some time choosing a font that fits your aesthetic. A good font choice must be easy to read, highlight your work style, and help identify your brand. If in doubt, choose a clean, easy-to-read, and minimalist font so that it doesn't fight with your artwork images.

Your website content must be easy to understand, so do not write in a wordy or difficult-to-understand style. Keep things easy and straight to the point when describing the products, delivery times, the ordering processes, etc. When writing the posts about you and your work, make them as expressive, friendly, and easy to read as possible.

Nevertheless, remain true to your writing style and add some stories or subtle jokes.

Again, ask a family member or a good friend to check on your text to ensure they understand it easily and provide some feedback on your content.

Do not forget (like me) that a big part of your public will find you through their phones, so check on how your content is displayed on mobile phones and remember that small text might exclude a part of your audience. The main goal is that the visitor quickly engages with the message.

One last piece of advice is to spread some clear call to action all over your website. Whatever is to convince your audience to subscribe to your newsletter, check on your latest work developments or buy your new artwork.

4. Group your work and provide context - better when together.

This point might seem dependent on personal taste but...

Don't have all your images on one scrolling page or mixed images from multiple projects or styles. For that, we already have our digital files stored on our computers. 🙃

Group your work by project, style, aesthetic, or creation period. Like this, you can provide some context to your progression as an artist and avoid giving a look of an inconsistent style.

It would be great to have a small text explaining the collection context on a page that relates to a particular project. Add images illustrating the preparatory work like sketches, inspirations, color palettes, quotes, or a poem excerpt. But you can also add shorts/reels of the working process and, for the brave ones, videos talking about the collection or showing the project's genesis over time. How to do this is not important, but you must do it.

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This is a comprehensive list; you don't have to do everything, just adapt to your reality.

Some points are straightforward to implement in a few days and modify your site to ensure it does what is intended. Other you include as you go. Just do not try to make everything in a day. Remember that your site must present something new periodically: why not these small improvements?

What else can you add to this list? Let me know in the comments.

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