i have been working (for an embarrassingly long time) on putting together a new website and i am struggling with how exactly to present myself this time around. there are MANY things i enjoy doing, which i feel i am skilled enough at to include in my professional activities. some fit easily into the current image you might draw of me from my Etsy shop, others are a little further out there. i want to maintain a consistent identity/style/brand, throughout my various works, but i vacillate between wanting to make sure you know EVERYTHING i can do, and worrying you'll think i don't excel at anything in particular.
i often summarize what i do as "design & illustration" but i feel that ultimately, that is too narrow a definition. "artist" is such a broad term, without some catchy slogan or subtitle to give more clues. while i spend the most time on drawings, prints, and paper goods right now, in the long run, i don't feel like i have to give up my other pursuits to get ahead with just a few things.
how much information is too much? can you suggest any examples of online portfolios that cover a wide range of media or skills without just looking like a hot mess? besides, say, Oprah or Martha Stewart, whose far-reaching empires get your attention through multiple outlets? you out there, doer of many things, how do you brand yourself? if you work in the arts but have other talents, do you have multiple business personalities known to different groups? do you separate the fine art from the craft bits? how do you showcase all your talents to an audience who might have only heard of you from one type of your work? is there a limited range to your professional/commercial work and the other things are relegated to fun or hobby?
please, discuss. talk amongst yourselves.
3 comments:
There's lots of different ways to go about this: some organizations do 'vertical sites' like car dealers: a website for the Nissan Leaf that leads you back to them, then another microsite for eBay sales, etc. Other orgs do a monolithic site that contains everything.
I'd recommend organizing the site around what you're currently doing: have the main sections be Welcome, Current Work, Portfolio, Blog, Contact/About.
The Current Work would need to stay up to date, and since it's work you're into, you'd be putting up the content you're excited about.
The reasoning is that someone might find you via an artsy youtube video you did, and click through to your site. They see that you're now really into newsprint eggshell micropieces, but they know you did a kick ass video because that's what drew them in. All the other stuff you've been into - stuff that's *not* current - is still there, still findable, and people will stumble across it. They'll come to the conclusion that 1) you're a talented artist who 2) doesn't stick to just one thing. They might dig in the archives, but you'll be representing yourself as staying active in art/design while having lots of disciplines.
The really nice thing about this organization is that the old stuff doesn't go away, it just gets archived or what have you. So all those old hooks that are Googleable or discoverable are there luring more and more interested people to your site, where they see what you're doing today.
well, you could say that mom and dad always discribed me as the wonderkid and now that I'm all grown up they think of me as the Renaissance Babe. You have an IQ significantly higher than that of the Raven (135). In a more serious vein one of your clients has discribed you as; "...a shaman, whose work is most positive and healing and who seems to have the ability to solve most any artistic problem in her completely unique/creative manner. She seems to have almost magical access to problem solving and to new techniques and she's an excellent food artist."
Hi Agnes,
I knew your father when I was a student at UAA in the mid to late 90s.
In a drawn out way through various people I've been looking for my one time sculpture professor Chip Williams who disappeared (at least to me) a handful of years ago.
Yesterday I had the insight of thinking of your Dad and how he and Chip were colleagues. You probably met Chip more than once when you were a kid. I think I met you once as well.
It would be interesting to see what your Dad is up to and if he knows anything on Chip's whereabouts. If it at all helps your Dad in remembering me (I never had one of his classes), but I was the tall longhair 20something guy who made steel sculptures and at the time was married to Andrea Heath (not my last name) who was a painting BFA student. I was kind of a Chip prodigy, but not really. I was also a bit unruly i.e., did not work well with the politics of the Art dept. Bill left before I finished my BFA.
I also used to live off 36th in of the two only houses one side of the road just up from the Uni and Lake Otis. I think you guys lived in the community across the street.
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=East+36th+Avenue,+Anchorage,+AK&sll=61.408058,-150.576553&sspn=0.127828,0.445976&gl=us&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=E+36th+Ave,+Anchorage,+Alaska&ll=61.188189,-149.842561&spn=0.004023,0.013937&t=h&z=17
Bill can contact me at abqinhabitant@gmail.com
Cheers, Luke
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