Janet contacted me with a ‘massive technical block’ on her Squarespace website. At first glance it looked great but nothing linked to anything and it wasn’t really working for her. She is a very talented artist who works with textiles to create incredible costumes, sculptures, kimonos and millinery.
- Clear and simple navigation
- A zoom feature on images
- Galleries that open out into lightboxes
After a free half hour consultation Janet decided to get me on board. We talked about what she needed, what she wanted to do herself and what I could do to help her become self sufficient with her website.
We agreed on a deadline and a structure for the site which showcased 4 mains strands of her textile work: Costumes, Millinery, Wearable Textiles and Sculptures.
As a visual artist, Janet should really be using Instagram as a way of engaging people with her practice behind the scenes. I suggested https://later.com/ so she could schedule posts from her computer. When Janet’s Instagram is up and running we can integrate it into the new website.
Janet wanted a zoom feature on her images which doesn’t come with Squarespace but I added some custom code to make that work.
We talked about Artists Bio’s and Statements and I suggested she split hers up to give room for more juicy keywords to help with search engines. I sent her these links for some ideas about crafting bios and statements:
https://arts-spark.com/artist-statement-vs-artist-bio/
https://www.jacksonsart.com/blog/2019/11/27/writing-artist-bio-statement/
Janet has some incredible photos of her work and is planning to get more done. I suggested using video so we could see 360 views around her hats and fascinators. Huge photos slow down websites, I can resize them but I charge for that and it is not difficult.
I shared the link to https://pixlr.com/ which is a free online tool that lets you resize. Images need to be no more than 1600px wide and optimised for web. Janet sent me all the images I needed and new (proofread) copy.
“Thank you! It would of taken me hours of frustration to do it myself”
I built this site with a view to expansion, there are clear categories for Janet to add to and the shop is ready to open as soon as she has the product information to add.
