How often are you updating your site and marketing materials? If you're not thinking about updating your website and its imagery, it should be something on your to-do list. Most times it's your website that art buyers and photo editors peruse through to get a sense of your work and your clients before your book is ever called in or a conversation is had about a project. If it's not consistently updated, there may be a a possibility these people will pass over you.
It's so worth taking the time to add new projects/images that you've been working on and replace some of the older images... or keep the older ones if you love them but make sure the flow works well.
Does the layout of the site feel dated? If so, update that too.
These are the bells and whistles that attract people to hire you for jobs. While you might not be a designer by trade, photographers/illustrators are creative people and as a buyer I would this creativity transcends through your imagery and to your marketing material. It doesn't have to be changed every three months but update imagery when you can, definitely at least once a year. And when you have a new project or when you update this imagery send out some promos/newsletters to drive traffic to your site.
I just received a simple e-promo newsletter layout from Sharpe + Associates that included one new image from a recent project for each of their photographers. No lengthy explanation just brand new imagery to click on that sent me to the site and the blog for more news.
Updating your website and its imagery is a smart way to keep people interested and consistently drive traffic to your work.
Showing posts with label website. Show all posts
Showing posts with label website. Show all posts
Tuesday, November 25, 2008
Wednesday, July 23, 2008
Websites
When searching for photographers or illustrators for a project the first thing I do is go searching through websites to see what work is appropriate for the project at hand before I call in books.
The past few days I've gone through only half of the websites in my arsenal... this is my first step in researching, the next step is combing through promos, PDN, Creativity, Communication Arts and other sources. Since I'm looking through so much and am also working on a timeline I can't go through the entire website but skim over it.
Here's the thing if the site takes to long to load or I can't get to the images I need fast enough, I bypass it and move on to the next name. It may seem like I'm missing out or cutting someone short but when I'm going through 100 or more websites in a few days I need to work quickly and methodically.
I thought I'd share a couple of the websites I really like and the reasons why they work for me when searching. (Please note: these are not in any order of preference and the reasoning is just my personal preference.)
Monaco Reps
Their website is so easy to use. I scroll over the artists' names and get a preview of their work. This feature is great because if I'm looking for a product shooter I'm going to bypass names that show portrait photography. The other feature that I think is incredibly helpful on this site is that once you click on a desired artist name you are directed to their artist detail page which lays out all their galleries, biography, a link to their website and current news. Succinct, simple, and so easy to use.
Francesco Lagnese
His website is so clean, not a ton of links to dig through to get to desired imagery or contact information. I like the scrollbar feature on his site because I can control the speed at which I look through the imagery. I also like how he incorporates tearsheets and the use of the images in their commissioned layout. The main focus of his site is his imagery which is what I'm looking for.
Daniela Wagner Photographers
Their website has a lot of flash animation/java script but it works brilliantly for them. I can scroll over the photographer's name and see what genre of photography is his/her specialty. Once I choose the photographer I am interested in perusing more, the imagery shows up in the main frame of the site. I can choose from the menu to look at publication work, portfolio, the artist's website, etc. A main image appears but to the right of it is one of my favorite features - the image previews. So I don't necessarily have to view each image larger but I can peruse through the thumbnails.
These are only a couple of sites I like and that make my job a bit easier. I have a ton of others but prefer not to make this a ginormously long post.
The past few days I've gone through only half of the websites in my arsenal... this is my first step in researching, the next step is combing through promos, PDN, Creativity, Communication Arts and other sources. Since I'm looking through so much and am also working on a timeline I can't go through the entire website but skim over it.
Here's the thing if the site takes to long to load or I can't get to the images I need fast enough, I bypass it and move on to the next name. It may seem like I'm missing out or cutting someone short but when I'm going through 100 or more websites in a few days I need to work quickly and methodically.
I thought I'd share a couple of the websites I really like and the reasons why they work for me when searching. (Please note: these are not in any order of preference and the reasoning is just my personal preference.)
Monaco Reps
Their website is so easy to use. I scroll over the artists' names and get a preview of their work. This feature is great because if I'm looking for a product shooter I'm going to bypass names that show portrait photography. The other feature that I think is incredibly helpful on this site is that once you click on a desired artist name you are directed to their artist detail page which lays out all their galleries, biography, a link to their website and current news. Succinct, simple, and so easy to use.
Francesco Lagnese
His website is so clean, not a ton of links to dig through to get to desired imagery or contact information. I like the scrollbar feature on his site because I can control the speed at which I look through the imagery. I also like how he incorporates tearsheets and the use of the images in their commissioned layout. The main focus of his site is his imagery which is what I'm looking for.
Daniela Wagner Photographers
Their website has a lot of flash animation/java script but it works brilliantly for them. I can scroll over the photographer's name and see what genre of photography is his/her specialty. Once I choose the photographer I am interested in perusing more, the imagery shows up in the main frame of the site. I can choose from the menu to look at publication work, portfolio, the artist's website, etc. A main image appears but to the right of it is one of my favorite features - the image previews. So I don't necessarily have to view each image larger but I can peruse through the thumbnails.
These are only a couple of sites I like and that make my job a bit easier. I have a ton of others but prefer not to make this a ginormously long post.
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