Fine Art Websites: October 2011

Monday, October 31, 2011

Web Design Tips for Fine Art Websites

Last week we listed several key items to consider when buying or designing a fine art website. The items were as follows:

Design
Layout
Programming
Hosting
Domain Names
Search Engine Optimization
E-commerce
Content Management Systems

We primarily focused on the importance of Content Management Systems because of the number of updates an artist website undergoes on a regular basis. If you're an active artist, you should continuously be updating your website with new artwork, shows, news, events, ect. In this post we will be focusing on the design and layout of a fine art website.

When browsing the web through artist websites, gallery websites, and fine art websites, it seems that websites tend to fall under 4 conditions.

Great Web Design and Bad Programming.
Great Web Programming and Bad Web Design.
Bad Web Design and Bad Web Programming.
Or on rare occasions: Great Web Design and Great Web Programming.

Obviously #4 is the best option. We'll cover programming in another post.

Fine Art World Edward Aldrich Website

Great design consists of several criteria including:

Layout
Color
Font Usage
Navigation
Background Images
Ease of Use
Aesthetics

A fine art website with great design should be eye-catching, engaging, easy-to-navigation, professional, well branded, and should accentuate the artwork. Two major issues in web design are distraction and bad navigation. The design should not distract from the all important artwork and should be easy-to-browse.

Fine Art World websites are designed with these concepts in mind. The community websites and independent websites are easy to navigate and make artwork shine.

Register for a Fine Art World website 14 day free trial.

Wednesday, October 26, 2011

Fine Art Websites & Content Managment Systems

Fine Art World Content Management System or Control Panel

When looking into web design and development, there are a number of things to consider:

Design
Layout
Programming
Hosting
Domain Names
Search Engine Optimization
E-commerce
Content Management Systems
And more

One item that is often overlooked is the Content Management System (CMS). Most artists and even businesses are more concerned with the design, layout, and domain names because these are the web items that people can actually see on a website. On the surface you won't see the content management system because it's a "behind the scenes" item.

The Content Management System is very important. CMS gives the artist or site owner the power to change or "Manage" the text, images or "Content" on their website. Otherwise you have to pay a designer or developer for any changes which can be expensive. Plus those changes have to be made around the programmer's schedule which means it could take time.

Some websites may not need a content management system. If you have very little need for updates on your website, a content management system could be overkill. However, in the case of fine art or artist websites it's 100% essential.

A fine art or gallery website should need constant updates. As an artist continues to create new artwork or a gallery obtains new artists and artwork, they will continue to upload that artwork and those new artists. When an artist has an upcoming show, the artist must be able to update their website with information about that new show.

The Content Management System should be easy-to-use. If your average person can't use the system, then it defeats the purpose. Almost anyone with minimal computer experience and a computer with an internet connection should be able to add or change text or upload and delete new and old images.

Fine Art World has one of the world's most advanced Content Management Systems. Artists can quickly and easily log in and add, edit, or delete artwork, text, news, events and other information from just about any computer with an internet connection.

In the screenshot above you can see how easy it is to add a biography to one of the Fine Art World artist websites. The artist can either manually type the biography in or "Copy and Paste". Then they click save and the artist's biography is instantly added to both the artist's Community Website and Independent Website. The same is true with artwork and other web content.

Contact Fine Art World today for more information about its artist websites and gallery websites.

Monday, October 24, 2011

A Fine Art Website Company

Fine Art World, LLC is a fine art website design and development company. FAW provides a variety of clients including galleries, artists, photographers, publishers, and more with fine art websites designed to sell and display artwork.

Here are a few of the fine art websites designed by Fine Art World: