There is always, I imagine, a balance between putting all the information fit to print where it is very visible, and reducing it for simplicity and clarity.

I have been working and reworking the dynamics of my site – a site that has fiction/non-fiction, short films, and art.. It’s a wordpress blog custom designed. Currently I have my personal history on the front page, but I’ve been increasingly watching the site stats, and the movement does not pass the home page generally. This is telling me that the balance is not good yet, or that it is too cluttered and therefore too much – or the whole thing is seen first glance, and therefore no hook to the content.

Reading some of the above reactions, and this post (which, by the way, I appreciate and thanks for initiating it), the feeling I am having is that a – if someone is actually interested in your work because they have been alerted to your work by someone else, or by you – then the site is one clear channel to the work itself. It shows everything about the Type of work you do, and how you think, and therefore how it might be to work with you — the way the portfolio is organized.

Secondly, there are people searching google for illustrators and artists (how many people who can really pay do this?). Agents and jobs are so glutted, from what I understand, that the issue is finding quality workers from the throngs who initiate contact with the people paying.

Therefore, seems wisest to do a beginning-middle-end type of design, with all details integrated within each part. Beginning = entrance, home, table of contents. Middle = content. End = contact or link to other resources.

This is something clarifying by threading this post, so curious to see how clear it is. And to see an example of how my blog is so far…

http://www.blackbirdclear.com

Probably far from what I just wrote. Issue for me is how to do a site that is both blog and portfolio. The solution to this, though, is to make another site dedicated to art.

thoughts?

I absolutely agree with your Flash website assessment. They may be pretty but there are definite downsides. The loading factor is one, but I think the SEO impact of a flash site is devastating for being found by search engines. That’s what steered me away from flash, all though I think flash elements within an html site can be a good design choice.

You can get round loading times with flash sites but I only use them for educational multimedia now, not my illustration work.

Your theme has a nice consistant feel.

I still need to learn how to plan a bit more, and make more of a “Clean” look (and I need to finish placing artworks in it :P )

If you would like to take a peek here it it……………. http://www.darkseal.com
Any and all advice, C&C, always appreciated!!