Haven't been keeping up with my blog for a while, mostly due to my expanded family and my heavy workload.
That being said, I have both relocated and re-designed my gallery, with a particular focus on a few important elements...
COME HAVE A LOOK! http://adamduff.com
For anyone looking for a few good tips on creating a powerful online gallery, here are some of the features that I focused on - features that I would encourage anyone in my position to keep note of when putting their stuff online. You might find this information handy, because I put a lot of time into researching before I decided on the final template.
- one-click functionality. No menus/submenus etc..., just click and scroll, with the least number of sections possible. All of the most important information is one click away, gallery, links, email.
- Being a freelance illustrator, my name is my product - it's my packaging, it's what I want clients to know first and foremost - I want my name to resonate with people so they instinctively think of my name when they're looking for art. My former site was "Adamation Station", which is somewhat recognized, but not nearly as reliable for finding work.
- Minimum number of "sections" - you want to avoid breaking your gallery up into "character design", "line work", "environments", "children's art", "sci-fi art" etc...Clients and directors don't have the patience to keep back-tracking through your sections to see all your work. You want to keep it all in one place. In my case, I broke it up into 2 sections, "character" "environment" done.
- easily editable. In the case where you're writing your own code (I used only basic BASIC html to create my website), so it's important that you keep it simple, clean and organized. When it comes to updating your site with new artwork or a new button, you should be able to do so in a few minutes
- Art should make the site, not the site. I kept my background and layout extremely simple and minimalist, paying close attention to use values that didn't shout louder than my artwork.
- Easy links to any and all useful social media (twitter, facebook - and most importantly, LINKEDIN, which is by today's standards the epicenter of your professional networking. If you don't have a linkedin account then you're seriously missing out. Working as a freelancer, I have noticed how more and more everyday, employers and artists seeking work rely heavily on Linkedin. Many are even using Linkedin exclusively for any business related correspondence.
- Showcasing ONLY my best work. Remember the golden rule "directors will ALWAYS judge your gallery by your WORST work". If a client sees 10 fantastic pieces and 1 piece of crap, then they'll automatically think "on a bad day, this is what I can probably expect from this guy". If your worst piece is a great piece, then you're doing your gallery a great justice and greatly increasing your chances on finding work. PS - if you only have 5 great pieces of work, then that's all you should have - QUALITY is much greater than QUANTITY. I would personally much rather eat one great meal then 10 crappy ones.
- Know who you are. This might come across as a two-bit inspirational speech, but it's incredibly important to know what you represent to the industry. What are you? What do you do? From my personal experience, less is more. The more specific your expertise, the easier it is for you to be properly fit into a given type of work. Early on in my career, I too thought that knowing 100 things made me more employable, but it flat-out didn't. Being a master of 1 or 2 things is far more valuable to an employer than a hobbyist in 20 things. Your artwork will never be quite up-to-par and directors will easily get frustrated trying to figure out what the heck to do with you (actually, chances are they just won't bother)
- Last but definitely not least. You have 8 seconds to WOW your audience. It's a well-known fact that directors, clients and general visitors spend an average of 8-10 seconds max checking out your stuff before they decide to move on. If you can grab them and keep them within that time, then you're winning. It also only takes 10 seconds to create a fan, and fans do two things for you. They A) keep revisiting your work and B) tell their friends about you - there is no greater free publicity on earth than word-of-mouth.
Adam Duff
www.adamduff.com
