An Effective Flash Site

We are frequently critical of Flash websites, which overly complicate the user interface for no good reason, but velbenstudio.com demonstrates that it is possible to create a clean, easy-to-navigate site using Flash.

The site features the "standard" navigational menu, consistently placed on all pages.  It's clean, easy to use, and FAST, and the very simple design provides a great showcase for the artist's colorful work.

Visit to Gallery leads to Attractive Website

I first saw Marsha Rafter's work in a gallery in Auburn, California. I was intrigued by her technique, and afterwards visited her website, marsharafter.com.

It's important for artists to understand this increasingly common  scenario...  people today often visit the artist's site after seeing his or her work, to learn more about the artist.  The website provides a way for the artist to build a stronger connection with the visitor, leading to future sales.

The home page shows the artist at work, along with several good-sized thumbnails of her work with links to the gallery pages.

Clear and simply navigation choices on the left side of the page lead to information about the artist, her process, gallery pages, events, representation and ordering information.

The site's bold color is eye-catching and works well with the artist's mosaic creation, and the pictures of the artist give the site a personal feel.  

More importantly, the information on the site - the artist's background, technique, and other places to see her work - were exactly what I was looking for.

Congratulations Martha on an effective website.

Simple, Attractive Site Showcases Art Gallery

As we've often seen, a website doesn't need to be high-tech to be effective. Olde Towne Art has a clean, easy to navigate website (OldeTowneArt.com) that provides a good overview of the gallery, and showcases the work of each of the member artists.

The site also has a nice map and directions to the gallery - a must for an organization with a physical location. There's also a calendar with info on classes taught by the artists.

The color scheme of the site is bold, but the overall design is quite simple, and it manages to not distract from the artwork in the "Artists" section.

An artist or art group website need to present information and showcase artwork... anything beyond that risks becoming a distraction. Olde Towne Art gets it right with a simple and effective site.

Clean Design Showcases Collage Work

Megan Coyle produces unique works of collage art, using a technique she calls "painting with paper." Each work is made up of myriad bits of colored paper.

In contrast, the design of her website - mcoyle.com - is quite simple, with a minimum of color, so her work really "pops" from the page. The site contains a great deal of information about the artist, her work, and even caring for collage art. The Art (portfolio) section shows a good select of Megan's work; many of the individual pieces include links to purchase a print.

The artist also has a mailing list, RSS feed, and pages on FaceBook, MySpace, Twitter, Flickr and YouTube, all of which can be reached through links on the footer of each page.