Sunday, March 10, 2013

It's about time!

Making a website is a giant pain in the ass. There are a lot of options for artists portfolios and I know people who have used them all. Here are the ways I was considering:
  1. You can hire someone else to make it for you. (Expensive! You have to rely on another person for updates!)
  2. Portfolio sites such as Square Space, 4ormat, Other People's Pixels. (Very reasonable cost, you control everything and can make/add changes yourself but can be limiting depending on what you pay, formats, etc)
  3. Create one on a free site like Wordpress.com (Free, you make all changes, but can be limiting in terms of format.)
  4. Use a CMS like Wordpress.org on your own hosting (Hosting and domain costs, limited only by your imagination, unlimited content, total control, but also total responsibility)

I opted for number 4 because I already had hosting that I liked and all my DNS junk already worked out (which I don't really understand so I didn't really want to mess with it! it's all a series of tubes!) and I really wanted a responsive (mobile, ipad, etc formats) website. We're in the digital age, after all!

The nice thing about Wordpress is you can buy AMAZING templates and then modify them to any degree if you have any knowledge of basic web code/CSS. I like Theme Forest. Cheap and reliable. Also, it's EASY. Seriously. It's easy to use if you have a basic knowledge of websites.

It took me about 48 hours to go from a basic html hand coded website, and turn into a responsive, mobile ready, slick and clean looking website with the ability to sort items by keyword (such as drawing, animals, portrait, still life etc.) I can also add videos I have hosted on Vimeo or YouTube, stream pictures from my Flickr and embed all my social media. I am very, very happy.

Check it out and let me know if you have questions or feedback on the site (or if you find any mis-spellings on my website!)

NEW WEBSITE!

3 comments:

Georgia said...

It looks fantastic, Julie! Very clean, professional, and fun!

TSL said...

It does look fantastic. I get around okay on blogger, and I have a Wordpress site, but I struggle with it, I don't even know what CSS means, lol.

suzanneberry said...

love the new site and thanks for the options. i need a new one. and thank you too for the help with preserving mixed paints. really appreciate it. and thanks too for the kind words about the studio.

been a while. hope you're good. your work never fails to inspire. amazing!