How to set up an easy to use portfolio for an artist?

December 24, 2007 11:27 AM

I'm looking for an easy way for an older, non-technical artist to post a portfolio of some of her work online. A free solution would be fabulous but it doesn't have to be free as she would likely want to register a domain name to forward anyway.

I am assisting her to set something up where it would be easy (basic web form, etc) for her to upload photos, include descriptions and possibly pricing, availability, and contact information (online checkout is not necessary at this point though).

Have looked at some of the various blogging solutions (wordpress, et al) but I'm not sure that a blog format is appropriate for an online portfolio or what she is looking for. Some newer sites like http://viewbook.com look interesting but I'm not sure it offers the customization to change colors, layouts, etc.

Any and all ideas are welcome. I'd like to find something that is easy and looks nice and doesn't involve me writing all the code from the ground up.

posted by rfarmer5r to computers & internet (12 comments total)

www.absolutearts.com She can post 4 images for free, or post about 45 images for $45 a year. They can also process credit card payments if she wants to do that. I have been very happy with their service (except for the random Nigerian scam artist contacting me about a 3rd party check). It is a good service to use to refer people to, which is the only way I really use it. I don't expect sales to spontaneously generate off the internet but it has been a great place to park an extensive portfolio and put it on my marketing postcards as a website. I am also not very computer savvy at all but I was able to figure out how to upload images and edit as necessary.
posted by 45moore45 at 11:50 AM on December 24, 2007

Carbonmade. They have a free plan, with space for 35 images, and a paid plan for more projects and images.
The layout might be too simple, though.
posted by clearlydemon at 11:51 AM on December 24, 2007

buy her a domain name and install indexhibit, which is specifically meant for artist portfolios. if you look through the list of sites that use it, many use the basic template but others go all out when customizing it and the end results can look nothing like the default.
posted by lia at 11:52 AM on December 24, 2007

Check out Artbreak. She can share her work for free, list it for sale, and there is a great and active community of artists on the site.
posted by ztt at 11:59 AM on December 24, 2007

woah. I just tried viewbooks...there's nothing that I know that compares to that for free. I was going to suggest something with flickr. you don't get much for free. That's awesome.

Are there other sites like that? Are they going to end up charging?
posted by sully75 at 12:04 PM on December 24, 2007

I use Carbonmade. It's ok for a simple portfolio - especially for those that aren't very tech savvy.

(I will admit that I'm working on a flash portfolio because it's too simple for me)
posted by damnjezebel at 12:09 PM on December 24, 2007

www.coroflot.com is what I use.
posted by Eringatang at 12:48 PM on December 24, 2007

Etsy.com is used by thousands of artists to put their portfolio online. The layout is clean and user-friendly, and items are neatly categorized. There's room for contact information, artist and work descriptions. It has a shopping cart system and shows buyer/seller feedback.

I've no experience using it as a seller, but I really enjoy randomly browsing it once in a while as a potential buyer.
posted by willem at 2:31 AM on December 25, 2007

Some newer sites like http://viewbook.com look interesting but I'm not sure it offers the customization to change colors, layouts, etc.

As a veteran in web design, marketing, and development I can tell you with authority that none of that matters.

Layout is always less important than content. So long as she puts her lovely pieces of art in there nice and big, no one will care about the rest.

The most important thing is to get something up fast, while the momentum is there. Dragging your feet waiting for the perfect solution is always worse than moving ahead with an imperfect one.
posted by Deathalicious at 8:07 AM on December 25, 2007

If she does go with an online service, she should set up her own domain name that redirects to the service, and she should put that domain, not the domain of the service, on any of her promotional material. She should also get [e-mail] as an email address, and have it redirect to her current email address. It's all about having permanent addresses, email and web.
posted by Deathalicious at 8:11 AM on December 25, 2007

...what I would be worried about regarding viewbook is that it appears to 100% flash-based. It would be much more in this person's favor for each piece of art to have a real page that can get indexed by spiders. It also looks like there isn't a place to write descriptions of each work of art. If you're just looking, you don't need words. But if you're thinking about buying, you usually want to hear a story too.

last comment, I promise
posted by Deathalicious at 8:15 AM on December 25, 2007

Deathalicious...I hear what you are saying, but I think viewbooks looks like a pretty good front end to display things. I could see sending a link to something much clunkier to handle the sales part of things (for photographers there is exposuremanager.com, it would work for artists too, actually).

I also found this:
http://www.foliolink.com/featuredstories.asp

Reasonably priced and looks really good.

This thread might be of assistance
http://aphotoeditor.com/2007/10/30/your-website-rocks/
posted by sully75 at 8:22 AM on December 25, 2007