Your website sucks… Comments from the "experts"
This Linkedin Post, Is everyone tired of Livebooks website format ? on the APA Group reminded me of a discussion a while back of photographers websites. After the dust has setteled from graduation, I have been thinking a lot lately about my website, my blog and how to promote myself as a photographer and artist in a sustainable way. Recently, I have began a newsletter (sign up here) and have updated the website more regularly.
I built this site myself, with a lot of help and advise from too many friends to list. Sometimes I think I should revamp the whole thing and begin from scratch again. I think building the SVA MFA Thesis site made me start reconsidering my own site but a major overhaul will have to wait for now.
If I were to hire it out I would surly not be with Livebooks. I think Livebooks is overpriced, not as functional as a website should be and the templates I have seen look cheesy. There are too many almost free ways to make a site better looking then Livebooks. I would recommend avoiding flash sites. Unless you know what you are dong, or you hair an expert. When I originally build my site I considered flash but since I wasn’t that good at it I (thankfully) went for simple HTML. Many of the rules I followed came from the advise and philosophy of you Daniel Eatock and indexhibit. Some of the many rules I believe portfolio websites should follow are:
1. clean easy to navigate design.
2. Direct links to each area and image on the site.
3. clear contact information, artist’s bio, and client, exhibition or CV.
4. large images without watermarks. and lastly, build a site you can view on a phone. I think phone portfolio viewing will become more and more normal as people move from their old phones to 3 and 4g smartphones like iPhones and Blackberrys.
Amazingly, Daniel Eatock and friends have turned indexhibit into a free platform for creating solid portfolio sites.
Another free option I have heard good things about is http://artlog.com/ anyone out there tried that one? Let me know if you like it. If you want to spent some money on a site I would recommend hiring a company like my friends over at Wegee Design who can custom make you a site that best fits your vision in a clean design that will likely still be cheeper then Livebooks.
I just wanted to add this old commentary on web design from the a visual society blog:
2. Livebooks. It seems to be popular. Popular to the extent that if I visit a website and see the familiar name scroll across the top and familiar double thumbnails start loading down the right hand side a feeling of dread comes over me… I don’t know what Livebooks cost, from what I have heard it’s not the cheapest. Give your web designer buddy the cash instead and have him design a real site for you.
from:
http://www.avisualsociety.com/2007/10/30/your-website-sucksfrom-a-photo-editor/
and
http://www.aphotoeditor.com/2007/10/29/your-website-sucks/
August 3rd, 2009 at 9:55 am
I sort of feel the same way about neonsky sites. http://neonsky.com/ I have been reading a lot of the information put out by Photoshelter. http://pa.photoshelter.com/mkt/seo-kit-for-photographers
I think it comes down to deciding who you audience is and how you want to reach them. There sites look nice, but are a bit pricier than I am willing to spend right now. http://aphotofolio.com/
Photoshelter intrigues me for the idea of an online backup.
It is almost like there are too many options. It was easier when it was HTML or flash. Graph Paper Press also has some interesting designs if you wanted to fully integrate your site and blog. http://graphpaperpress.com
August 3rd, 2009 at 5:49 pm
You might not wanna hear this, but creatives LOVE livebooks sites! Art directors, photo editors, producers…and their clients…everybody I've talked to goes on and on about how easy it is to navigate through a livebooks site. They don't wanna have to waste even a fraction of their busy day trying to figure out what buttons to push or what arrow to choose when all they wanna see is…wait for it…….THE WORK!
But don't misunderstand me…I'm not saying these same people don't appreciate looking at a really cool website with all kinds of fancy design elements that breaks away from the cookie-cutter approach found in livebooks (and other similarly packaged web design companies)…it's just that when they're trying to find a photographer, and they're hammering through 50 or 60 or 70 websites that the Art Buyer has passed on to them, the familiar look and feel of a livebooks site tends to win them over. After doing a LOTTA research before I redesigned my site, this was the number one reason I went with livebooks.
But yes…livebooks ain't exactly cheap and if I was doing my redesign today, there would be a couple of other companies products I would be looking at, but so far, I'm crazy happy with my livebooks site.
BT
August 4th, 2009 at 12:14 am
Brad, I agree that creatives want to get straight to the work. most of the time when I see a designed site that makes me think about the design over the photography then I think its a failed site. My point wasn't so much that livebooks doesn't have good navigation design its that they are overpriced. I like indexhibit 100 times better then any live books site and they are free! Livebooks just doesn't excite me I haven't seen many design that I'm into and for the same price you could have someone at an actual design place make it in a cleaner way. Someone like Wegee Design or one of the many other local shops.
Tom, thanks for the links. you also reminded me that Rob Haggart aka a photo editor has a new project building websites for photographers called a photo folio. It look really good and its way cheeper then livebooks. still nothing is cheeper that free…
May 13th, 2010 at 2:23 am
Interesting read…
Take a look at this site that may possibly be of assistance to you….