Website Research.

I do not yet have my own website, blogging is how I roll right now, but I know that I both want and need one in the near future. I am aware that we will be taught how to create our own websites at University towards the end of the year and so of course it would be a good idea to have a look at what already exists. See which websites are successful and why? I will also take note of the features I do not like, and by going through the process I should end up with some idea of how I would like me website to look.

Oliver Jeffers' home page, http://www.oliverjeffers.com/, has a very simplistic and professional look, not entirely reflective of the work he produces but probably more of his studio space. His name exists in his well known handwriting, but the links below it remain in a bold and clear type, it reminds me more or a photographers website. It doesn't say too much and I like that, because it means you have to go further to see the actual images of his work.

Interesting, because during our time at Charles Hively's house/studio, he said that photographers are the ones who know how to present and promote themselves. If you want to see a website done properly, then you should look at ones created by photographers. Art directors generally want to see a gallery of final images, with thumbnails alongside so that they can randomly select which ones they want to observe.

Ian Crawford's is a great example, I really like the layout of this website, all the information needed remains in the left column whilst the images you select blow up to fill the rest of the space on the right.
http://www.iaincrawford.com/

Default images also appear when you click on one of the subheadings before you even chose to select from the thumbnails given. These images can be carefully selected as the ones that are most well known or successful.
However I would like an area were people can interact with the website, perhaps where small illustrations are the links themselves. They could even move when you click on them or there could be an animated icon in the corner.

There are many photography websites out there that are a little too basic for my liking. I want to hold people's attention, so I am not fond of scrolling down endless streams of images with no interesting links to anything other than random final pieces. With a teeny tiny font being used at the side of the page, that strains my eyes.

I want viewers to enjoy looking through my website and be surrounded by my illustrations almost as though they are stepping in to my world. Beatrice Alemagna's website: http://www.beatricealemagna.com/ gives me this feeling, everywhere I go I am presented with another one of her characters, even in the 'contact' section.