Portfolio Box Update

My porfolio box has come a long way in the past few days.
I have scanned in and printed almost half of the photographs which are going to be in it.
So far I have included an edited version of my narritives series, and also a collection of my situated practice collaboration.

My portfolio box is 8x10, and although it may be a little bit small for the the style of work I produce, I am still using this module as an experience and I know now that when I want to buy my next portfolio box I will go bigger with a thinner depth in order to compact my work a little bit more.

Over the next few weeks I will be includng more images into the box and also playing with the idea of putting in different aspect ratios. I have a lot of square format prints which I would like to display in my work. I have thought about displaying two images on one sheet to fill it, although my box is only 8x10 which means the images would be tiny.
This is the next thing I need to figure out.

Website Update

My wesbite has been going well so far, and I am happy with how it looks at this stage.
I have been scanning in different images I want to include in my website, and testing out loads of different templates to see which ones fits my style of work best, and asethically pleases my target audience.
I have decided so far to have a white background, with simple black text with a simple font which doesn't domiante the page to much.
I am goin to include a contact and information page on my website with a number of diffeerent galleries containing different series of work.

I am still using squarespace to design my website. It is going to cost me around £63 yearly, that cost includes a free domain.
I browsed different web designs to try and find the best one and I decided on squarespace as it seemed simple to use and not to costly.

The website will constantly be a working progress and I will try to update it as often as possible woth new work and information.

Work Placement Progress

For my work placement, the only decision I have made is that I would liket to focus on two areas and try and get a few weeks experience for both.
The two areas I want to focus on are:
Teaching/Eduction
Archieves

Although i enjoy photography and want it to be a big part of career I don't think that means I have to constantly be making work. I feel that I need to make a good living and that just taking photographs won't do that. I would love to teach and share what I know about photography to other students whether it be undergraduates, high school children or maybe even younger.
The other option I want to explore, archiving, is mostly due to my interest in history, I would love to gain experience in a records office where they hzave documents dating back 100's of years. Along side this I would also love some experience in a gallery archieve.

I am in the process of emailing around to try and arrange some work experience. So far I have had no replies although there are still alot of places which I need to contact.

My Website Development So Far

What I consider to be a successful website
-Meeting the target audience needs
- Simple yet effective template and layout
- Simple font and font colour (black or white)
- Simple background colour (black or white)
- No over powering distractions (bright colours, dominating images, different font types)
- Informative content
- Quick processing
Put yourself in the viewers shoes, what would they want to see if they were entering the site to look specifically at your work?


Cost
- I have't thought much about cost of a website yet. Although I have researched many different websites where you pay monthly or yearly, I am yet to find one in the UK which gives me the responsibility I want over my website, which allows me to make all the decisions, and start the who thing from scratch so I can make it exactly how I want.


Appropriate Design
-The biggest thing I want from my website is for it to be simple with relevant content and effective templating.


Links to social networking
- I would link my website to my blog so people can also navigate there and see other works and posts.

Website Analysis 3 - Bettina Von Zwehl

 

 

The third website I decided to analyse was Bettina Von Zwehls, mainly due to me not knowing her work as well as I could, therefore it will be easier and more insightful for me to break down the aspects of the website.

The introduction page is one of the most simplistic I have come across so far in my research, it has a list of links on a white background in black simple font. I think is a great way of inviting people onto a website without putting them off with an overpowering amount of text and imagery.

The links are very easy to naviagte to and work quickly.

I then decided to move onto the 'Information' tab to see what that included. When i first clicked on the page i thought there was a lot of writing, which might put some people off, although the way it is layed out in blocks with black writing and the continuous white background makes the whole page look easier on the eye. The information is writtren by someone else, not Bettina her self which makes the text seem less personal, but more informative and interesting.

I then decided to look at one of her links which lead to one of her bodies of work. Again it is easy to naviagte too and the link works quickly. When the page loads there is a few lines of text but a dominating images right in the middle of the page, this factor helps the audience to engage with the page as its the first time an image has come up on the photographers whole website. You almost have to go searching for one as its not included on the first page.

The text on the page is informative information relating to the photograph we see, and underneath is the same list of options we can see on the front and first page, this again proves that you can access all areas of the sight with ease.
There is a simple back and forth arrow to go through the collection of the images in that particular set which allows us to take control of the website and look through them at our own pace. A great positive.

The lase page i decided to analyse was the contact part of the wesbite. With most websites I have seen there has been numerous links to different email adresses which can sometime be annoying and take more time than needed to contact someone about certian information.
Bettina's Contact information simply includes one email, which doesn't state limitations of questions you can ask etc. This makes the whole process seem really quick and easy which means people will more than likley email as it is not a significant amount of hassel you would often come across.

Overall Bettina's website is one of the most interesting I have come across (even though I have only looked at some in depth) I found it the most simple, and easiest to navigate around. I only takes a few seconds to find what you want. Along with this I have always found websites based around black and white backgrounds and font colours the best, there are less colour distractions so you can focus on the information instead of dominating features like bright colours.

Website Analysis 1 - Taryn Simons

I decided to take Taryn Simons as one of the photographers websites I would analyse, mainly because so far with in my year and a half of studying at UCS, she has been mentioned in almost every module of mine and been a great influence throughout.http://www.tarynsimon.com

The first thing I done was look at the first page, the one which tells you whether or not you want to continue to look at the site, or divert off of it due to the unpleasing aesthetics.

Taryn Simons introduction page at first glance looks pretty confusing, and full of information. Saying this, the background is plain black, and the writing is white which i think it a great way to keep something looking professional and simple. I think that lots of bold bright mixes of colours is to much and can sometimes misslead and put people off your website.
Her first page contains links on the left hand side which lead you to different areas of her work in a separate page, after a drop down menu gives you options of what you want to look at. Very quick, easy and efficent.

She also has photographs of her recent collaboration on the first page, styled in a grid format showing a ride range of the collection. This is good as it gives the viewer a varied taster of her work, but it also look quite overpowering and chaotic in contrast to the plain text and background colours. This part of her page gets updated regularly.

Further down the page there is a long list of all of her instillation views and where they were held. This gives us a great idea of the popularity ofTaryns work and alos allows us the correct information to research different areas. I think its great that this is included in her website, and its an important part, but I am not sure that it has to be shown on the very first page. Although there is a drop down menu titled "insillation views" i dont feel that it is needed twice on the website.

 

 

I deicded to then click on 'Works' and look at how she has presented her famous series 'A living man declared dead and other chapters'. The link worked really quickly and with one click I was directed to a page full pf writing, with a page number at the bottom and arrows each side. Daughting at first site seeing a few paragraphs but i began to realise it was a c lever way of allowing people to read into the work, before they view the photographs. You can self-direct the photographs and move along the collection as quickly or as slowly as you want. The worst thing on a website is when they have a set up slideshow which cannot be viewed at your own pace!

The images when viewing them are nice and big, and i think that not having 10 all on the same page, where you click each image to enlarge it is very effective and allows you to concentrate on each photograph individually. It also allows you to be suprised with each image to come, as you have not seen them all on the popular grid before hand.

Her biography is very simple and allows a quick read, which is what everyone is looking for, it also has very simple font and colours keeping it minimal and bareable.
The contact page on Taryn Simons website is easily accessible and allows you to write to her information services via email to ask any questions.

Overall I think although the website seems to be packed full of stuff, it still seems to hold simplicity well due to the colours and fonts used. The links to get to each required destination on the page afre very easy to see, and the fact that the drop down menu text is the biggest on the page helps us to navigate around easier.

I think its a great pleasure to look at Taryn Simons work online, and read all about her due to the 'everyone friendly' layout and content.

Website Analysis 2 - Alec Soth

 

The second photographers website i decided to study was Alec Soths. Mainly because I am familair with his business blog 'Little Brown Mushroom'. His blog posts in my eyes are constantly pushing people to buy his work and this seems the only time its ever updated, therefore I wanted to see what his website was like in comparison.

The first time I went onto Soth's website I instantly thought it was trying to be quite humerous, and I didn't take it very seriously. Although this factor did make me want to look at more.

The layout of the website is very simple, with only blues whites and blacks used the first page doesn't put you off with a chaotic feel at all. We are given a very brief introduction and simply 6 drop down menus to the left hand side of the page. Easy to navigate to and effectivly quick.

The font Alec Soth has used for his introductory 3 sentences as ther most dominating part of the entery page fits in well with the content. Compared to other websites it is a slightly different less simle and professional font, but works well with what he has written nevertheless.

I decided to click on the Project tab along the side, where i was then confronted with 6 different bodies of work to look at. When clicking on one it simple comes up with 2 photographs. One being an image containing text which informs us of the project we are looking at (most of them being a book he has made), and the other is an exhibition of the work I want to look at. Although when I click on the photo it comes up slightly bigger, I still want to see each images big and individually instead. I found this quite dissapointing.

\The layout is fairly simple which is good, meaning its easy to navigate and know where to go back or forth on the page.

The CV tab includes a long list of Soth's work, commisions, and exhibitions. Along with this is a more in depth description of him and his work. A great place to go for research!

The Press section is very similar and includes tons of usful infromation which is layed out very simply which is inviting and doesn't seem to much to read due to the way each bit of information is seperate.

The contact section has a few different links to different people who we could contact regarding Soths work or for any information we want to know, this is a crutial and useful option on any website! Its layed out simple and allows us to navigate where we want to simply.

The links section is useful and allows us to visit different areas of LBM. Great marketing!

Overall i think this website it great when it comes to layout due to how simple and easily accessed it is to anyone wanting to view it. The only thing I don't like about the website is the lack of options to view his photographs seperatly. I think this is one of the most important factors, and when you can skip through images at your own pace it helps to satisfy us and keep us engaed with what we are looking at. Soths website could easily be mistaken for boring due to the simlicity, but does give us useful information on the photographer himself.