Escapee Speaks: An Effective Portfolio Website Part 2 – The Gallery
This article is part 2 of the series entitled 7 Elements of an Effective Portfolio Website, which aims to encourage Illustrators to consider some crucial features when building or refining their portfolio websites. You can find the rest of the series here.
Ok, so now we get to the juicy part.
The Image Gallery
For obvious reasons, the gallery is usually the section of a portfolio website that an Illustrator gives the most attention to. After all, this is where you get to show off your babies. As pointed out in Part 1 of this series, however, too much focus on this part of your site at the expense of a neglected overall design just might prevent anyone from ever making it as far as your gallery. So, the key is to nurture every aspect of your portfolio website with equal amounts of attention and care. It might help to think of your site as the frame that houses your art, in that you want it to show your work in the best possible light.
Razzle Dazzle Don’t
Remember when I mentioned in Part 1 that you want your site to be clean, clear, and easy to navigate? Well, the same principal applies here. I implore you to avoid the temptation to adorn your gallery with clever tricks and special effects. Again, this will only distract, and perhaps annoy, the potential client who is viewing your work. Let the Illustrations speak for themselves.
Another mistake that you want to be aware of is a complicated user interface. You don’t want your audience to have to figure out how to leave one image or get to the next. The idea is to make everything as simple as possible. The only thing your visitor should be focusing on is how amazing your work is.
What To Include
I recently wrote a post called Selecting Images for Your Portfolio, so I won’t rehash that here, but the main point I want to highlight is that less is more. Just include your best work. Don’t give the Art Director any reason to leave feeling underwhelmed.
In addition, be sure to upload the smallest file size possible while still retaining visual quality. This will allow for fast page load times to cater to the pesky short attention span of your audience. Let’s face it. In this day and age, people just don’t have a tolerance for slow page loads.
Consistency or Variety?
This happens to be another point of debate in the Illustration community.
Most people will emphatically tell you that you must present a consistent style so that potential clients know what they’re going to get if they hire you for a particular project. I agree with this for the most part. That being said, I have seen enough people achieve success while working in a wide range of styles and mediums to know that there is still something to be said for being a jack-of-all-trades (such as Stefan Bucher). If you choose this more treacherous path, however, you should still try to inject enough of yourself into your work to project a unified artistic vision. This is obviously a lot more difficult to master, and some artists even choose to work under different names in order to explore multiple styles (Nate Williams also works as Alexander Blue, for example).
You’ll need to make this choice for yourself. Just remember that the goal is to get Art Directors to hire you for a project because you’re the best fit, and the best way to do that is to present a unique identity as a creator. They do need to be able to have some idea of what they’re in for.
Don’t Worry. This Can Still Be Fun.
I hope I haven’t taken all of the joy out of your portfolio experience by approaching this topic from such an analytical standpoint, but these things really do make a difference when your site is just one floating buoy in a sea of Illustrators fighting for attention. And, you can keep these things in mind and still inject emotion, humor, and inspiration into the gallery of your finest work by giving the Illustrations a safe place to shine.
Do you agree with these concepts? Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments section of this post.
Read Part 3 of the series – The About Page
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Thank you for all your expertise in the website areas. You have been bookmarked by our Dreamweaver instructor!
I would like to post to every artist out there this message:
As artists we use the word Medium and Media quite a bit. Like when we would say “I work in a lot of Mediums”(I write this incorrectly for an example) What no body seems to know in our field is there is no such word as Mediums. It is either Medium or Media which is the plural. Even Comm Arts magazine editors have allowed this error to occur. Please be aware of this so that we can not only be excellent illustrators and designers but well-written too.
Thanks for your response.
In response to your grammatical comment, I must say that I disagree. I believe that if enough people use a certain word to describe something, then it is a real word. This is, after all, how words eventually make it into the dictionary to begin with: common usage. In addition, I think it’s great that you point out that Comm Arts uses the word, because this is further proof of its commonly understood meaning in the language of artists.
Thomas
and another great article.
I wonder if you would be so kind and have a look at my site with an analitical eye and give me a little crit? It would be totally awesome, as I´m rather new in the game :)
thanks in advance
http://www.boldheadstudio.com
Good article so far. I mean to redo my website http://www.dashinvaine.co.uk from scratch, and with newer work. The new version of Dreamweaver, with all the CSS, is proving a bit of a nightmare to learn, however. Whoever designed that needs shooting!
On the subject of online galleries, I don’t know if it’s just me, but I don’t like portfolio pages where the thumbnails are too small, or only show a small portion of the picture (or some secondary detail thereof). It’s annoying, because you can’t tell whether it’s something you’d want to view in full until you actually have!
Thanks Gordon,
I have to agree with you about thumbnails that are too small. I’m often frustrated when visiting a fellow artists’ website and looking at their portfolio for this very reason. Thanks for commenting!
Hi Thomas – A very good article. Clean websites with good concepts, illustration often makes us revisit them and recommend.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts with the community.
Cheers,
Rahul
(P.S.: If you have time pls visit my site and give your valuable feedback)
Hi Thomas,
Your articles are so useful for a newcomer to building websites!
I have a few questions for those in the know…
I am concerned about “separate identities”, as I work in watercolour and a more sculptural approach, and so wondering if it is OK to have two separate sections in my gallery for each style, or if I need completely separate identities. Or is it better to focus on one medium only? I do not understand why an art director panics when they know an artist works in different ways, as surely if they ask for one particular style, that is what they will get anyway?
Madeleine
Hi Madeleine. I would recommend either separating your work into 2 categories in your portfolio, or working as 2 separate identities. The second choice involves more work, I would imagine, but if you think as two separate artists, then that might be the best way. If, however, your 2 styles can live side-by-side successfully on your website, then you might rather do that.
My problem is that I don’t have enough things I like that I want in my portfolio. I have a lot locked away on my hard drive that I’m always in two minds about showing the world. If I don’t love it, I just don’t put it out. Ever.