For Artists trying to gain exposure for their work, making their art available to be viewed & purchased on the internet successfully; can be challenging. Competition is high & although it may seem difficult to figure out how to make yourself stand out as an artist…there are steps you can take, based on research of the factors which determine why viewers choose to remain on or leave a website. Researchers have found that users form their 1st impression of a website within 50 milliseconds…and that this impression is based upon the visual information they see during that time. This 1st impression affects the user’s ‘experience’ beyond that initial period of viewing, and can influence how they perceive a site’s other attributes; such as usability, written content, functionality & navigability.

The Good News…

Despite there being many interesting & well-designed artist websites… your artwork reveals YOUR unique talent & expression, & it can & should be reflected in the design of your website.  By putting the same degree of creativity that you’ve displayed in your work, into designing a website that highlights it, as well as you as an artist; you can reach an audience of those who appreciate fine, innovative, and exceptional art; which can be customized to achieve your artistic style and convey the message you are trying to express about your work, yourself, & your artistic interpretation and vision.

Artist Web Design | An Artist ‘Blog’:

is a great way to include posts and articles about you as an artist, and also announcing events that you may want to feature; such as, upcoming shows & exhibitions.

As you can imagine…there are a vast amount of different artist web design website styles. You may want to search the internet for existing artist websites; to experience for yourself what is out there, and view the many choices of available features. Then you can choose a professional website designer/developer, (see more on this in my article “What Makes a Good Web Designer vs. Developer” ).  A good one will help you by advising you what functional elements are necessary; as well as helping you to decide how to customize your design; using colors, fonts, adding images, as well as a gallery of your artwork.

Artist Web Design | Things To Keep In Mind When Designing a Visually Appealing Website:

• Colors  can be used in many different elements of your artist web design, such as in headers, fonts, backgrounds & also in selecting images. Having all the colors relate to one another correctly is important in presenting a aesthetically pleasing website design.
• Using Web-Safe Colors is important to insure that the colors you select to use on your site will be viewed the same on all computer monitors. There are 216 colors available, including shades of black, white & gray.
• Artwork Galleries Placing your work into one organized & visually appealing place, will give viewers a way to see examples of what you do. They can be simple ‘lightboxes’,’slideshows’, or technically elaborate Flash style galleries.
• Images Putting images on and knowing where to locate them, as well as the size & amount of images you use; on the pages of your website can really affect the appearance of it.

Artist Web Design | Usability & Functionality

The best designed website will only get you so far… keeping the visitors on your  artist web design website won’t occur, if once they are attracted to it; they discover that it is not easy to get around on, or to use the features you’ve had installed.  Again, professional website designers & developers are skilled at knowing what works, and are the ones who can best deal with these elements; however, you can receive advice & technical support from online website design & development companies.

If you do not have the budget for hiring a professional Ecommerce website designer or developer, there are free template artist web design & hosting services available at online sites, that offer services for you to easily start your own Ecommerce Artist website.