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: