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Originally posted at The Art Blog of Angela R. Sasser
My reading of Greg Spalenka's Artist As Brand continues with section VIII. What Makes a Great Website/Blog.
Section VIII talks about what makes an interesting website and blog. I love the allusion to a website as your studio while your blog is a conversation and is more interactive. That immediately puts into perspective how a website should reflect your style while a blog can be more conversational and more casual.
For those who don't have much experience designing a website, this section has great tips on suggested sections (ie. About, Contact, Press, Newsletter sign up, etc.) and exactly why you'd need them.
Spalenka also presents great suggestions for writing newsletters. I always have a hard time figuring out what's relevant and have had a problem having enough art to show (since my attentions/products were so split up).
My newsletter has gone quiet while I build up enough of a buffer of a new consistent body of work to talk about.
Shadowscapes - The Art of Stephanie Pui-Mun Law
Stephanie Pui-Mun Law immediately sprang to mind for me while I was reading. She has a fantastic online brand identity and social media/website presentation. Most impressively, she built most of this herself from the ground up, having been a computer science wiz before she became an artist.
Stephanie has a centralized shop on her site and I can always tell I'm on Stephanie's sites when I see her dreamlike Celtic knotwork, watercolor textures, and soft color palette. Her newsletter also has a similar feel and updates her fans on upcoming events, new art, new tutorials, and a monthly giveaway which all feels relevant and cohesive to her brand identity.
These sections definitely got me thinking about how I want my Angelic Shades and The Fantasy Art of Angela R. Sasser sites to be different.
Angelic Shades Studio - Should be a vintage inspired theme with Art Nouveau flow and flourish. Soft pale colors (blue, purple, light grey, and white).
Store should serve fine art buyers and my target audience (ie. fancy mats and framed art, postcards, greeting cards, etc.).
The Fantasy Art of Angela of Sasser - Should be elegant and sleek with just enough flourish to not make it too stark. Black, white, or neutral with accent colors. Words and images blended together to reflect my love of characters, stories, and narrative images.
Store should serve book lovers, gamers, and character fans. (ie. journals, bookmarks, playmats, dice bags, themed sketchbooks/storybooks, graphic novels, etc.).
Re-designing these sites with more of a specific identity in mind is definitely high up on my to-do list!
I've left out SO much concerning all the various resources Spalenka mentioned, so definitely go support Spalenka's book/workshop if you are finding this blog series helpful!
My reading of Greg Spalenka's Artist As Brand continues with section VIII. What Makes a Great Website/Blog.
I found the book for a great deal on the Nook.
Or you can buy it via my Amazon referral link
and give me a little kickback!
You can also buy direct from the author!
Blog vs Website
Section VIII talks about what makes an interesting website and blog. I love the allusion to a website as your studio while your blog is a conversation and is more interactive. That immediately puts into perspective how a website should reflect your style while a blog can be more conversational and more casual.
For those who don't have much experience designing a website, this section has great tips on suggested sections (ie. About, Contact, Press, Newsletter sign up, etc.) and exactly why you'd need them.
Newsletter Strategies
Spalenka also presents great suggestions for writing newsletters. I always have a hard time figuring out what's relevant and have had a problem having enough art to show (since my attentions/products were so split up).
My newsletter has gone quiet while I build up enough of a buffer of a new consistent body of work to talk about.
Example of Online Brand (from My Own Experience):
Shadowscapes - The Art of Stephanie Pui-Mun Law
(puimun here on dA)
Stephanie Pui-Mun Law immediately sprang to mind for me while I was reading. She has a fantastic online brand identity and social media/website presentation. Most impressively, she built most of this herself from the ground up, having been a computer science wiz before she became an artist.
Stephanie has a centralized shop on her site and I can always tell I'm on Stephanie's sites when I see her dreamlike Celtic knotwork, watercolor textures, and soft color palette. Her newsletter also has a similar feel and updates her fans on upcoming events, new art, new tutorials, and a monthly giveaway which all feels relevant and cohesive to her brand identity.
My Homework
These sections definitely got me thinking about how I want my Angelic Shades and The Fantasy Art of Angela R. Sasser sites to be different.
Angelic Shades Studio - Should be a vintage inspired theme with Art Nouveau flow and flourish. Soft pale colors (blue, purple, light grey, and white).
Store should serve fine art buyers and my target audience (ie. fancy mats and framed art, postcards, greeting cards, etc.).
The Fantasy Art of Angela of Sasser - Should be elegant and sleek with just enough flourish to not make it too stark. Black, white, or neutral with accent colors. Words and images blended together to reflect my love of characters, stories, and narrative images.
Store should serve book lovers, gamers, and character fans. (ie. journals, bookmarks, playmats, dice bags, themed sketchbooks/storybooks, graphic novels, etc.).
Re-designing these sites with more of a specific identity in mind is definitely high up on my to-do list!
I've left out SO much concerning all the various resources Spalenka mentioned, so definitely go support Spalenka's book/workshop if you are finding this blog series helpful!
Next Up: High Touch Venues - Conventions to Galleries
Handcuffed behind the back close-up
If you love handcuffs behind the back, in arresting positions, and really good CLOSE-UPS, enjoy my shares. Handcuffs, ropes, even NO bondage; I only focus on women's hands shown behind "PALMS OPEN,"
and showing more femininity. None of this tied "PALMS TOGETHER. Prayer position" nonsense. where is the fun in that? 🤷
Thousands of divs to share
$5/month
Say No to AI + Where to Find Me Outside DeviantART
After much deliberation, I've decided to take a stand against this site's stance on allowing AI generated imagery in its current unethical state. Until this tech is not based on data laundering of artist's hard work, I won't be participating much with new work here and have cancelled my subscription. I will be more active on Inkblot instead, a site that has taken a firm stance against AI imagery on its platform. This is difficult for me. I've been on DeviantART for 20 years. I've made lifelong friends and have good memories of all the old artwork I shared on here when I was a young, excited artist who turned to this community for support, advice, and encouragement. As of this writing, I have 886 Deviations. Many of you can imagine my horror when I learned that all of my years of work posted with joy and in good faith have been scraped without my consent to train a technology meant to replace the need for artists. Meanwhile, DeviantART irresponsibly joined in on promoting this
What Story Topic Should I Choose for NaNoWriMo?
Alright folks, I need help with an artistic decision! I want to use NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) as a 'muse vacation' to indulge some fun D&D story ideas that have been sitting on the backburner for a while. What topic do I choose? They both sound fun! I've boiled it down to these 2 story choices. Read the pitches below and let me know your choice in the poll! CHOICE 1 - TITLE: SACRED & PROFANE Zombies, werewolves, and romance between monster hunters. SYNOPSIS: When Red joined the Blood Hunters' Lodge, she thought she'd be using her awesome skills to be hunting down worthy prey, not babysitting Nils, another hunter who's seemingly good for nothing more than corpse retrieval and granting last rites as an ex-priest. On the road, the two face the dangers of the Path, their own troubled histories, and finding a true friend in each other. CHOICE 2 - TITLE: FLAME OF THE SULTANA A Barbarian's tale of her rise from harem princess to Warrior Saint. SYNOPSIS: Rabs
I'm Back! (Where Did I Go?)
For those who didn't know I was gone, a couple of weeks ago, my account was hacked with disgusting images and anti-George Floyd memes. First off, I'm so very sorry that any of you all had to see these awful things in your feed! I didn't even see them before my account was perma-banned. Generous fans contacted me afterwards to let me know of the incident so I could contact support about the issue. Thankfully, DeviantART has helped me to restore my account, though I have sadly lost all of my Watchers and my entire Watchlist, as well as all of my stash. It's a bit of a blow and a hard lesson to secure my accounts better (which I am now doing with hash generated passwords from Bit Warden). Losing my account made me remember how much in that 20+ years since I first joined as a wee high school student all the good memories and life-long friends I made here, as well as how dA helped me grow as a young artist. I'm glad to be back so I can keep participating when I can, despite the
[Patreon] Angelic Shades Website Redesign Part 1
© 2014 - 2024 AngelaSasser
Comments9
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yeah, just about every other artist I know as their own website or blog, I understand the need for your own website because it looks better when it comes to clients looking at your work, but as for the blog, is their honesty a need for one? i do have a blog, but I hardly use it because really I have nothing to talk about that really important expect for my art, no one notices my blog anyway so it seems like a worthless effort.