Here are a few websites I have looked at for inspiration for my own.
Patricia Piccinini
http://www.patriciapiccinini.net
When first entering this site you are greeted with this title page and three basic options to start exploring the sight. The Large images in the background play like a slideshow, changing, which instantly shows visitors to the site what this artists work is all about and the variety. This opening page is simplistic with its options and is a good opening page, to help introduce and direct people to what they want to see/find.
After clicking on an option and looking at her works, you are introduced with a large central background image and a scrolling list of her art in date order. This scrolling list of titles, is an interesting way to explore Piccinini’s work, if you want to know about or see a specific work you can and easily (though you need to know the title). – I might have a drop down list like this in my own website, so people can easily find the piece of work they are searching for. Though I also want to have a central art page that displays images of a variety of my pieces. This way if they are not searching for anything in particular they can still see all my different pieces.
This site also has a timeline at the top that appears when you hover over it, so if don’t actually know the title of a piece, but know the year you saw it you can still find it. I found all this drop down menus and things that appearance when you hover over something very over whelming, at one point I clicked on something expecting to get information but then I got a image of a totally different piece of work.
At the bottom of the site though there is a clear menu in a line with different options. This part if very clear and you can easily pick something you want to see.
This site made me realise that all these drop down menus and slideshows can get very confusing and overwhelming. If there are too much of these clarity is lost and it is hard to explore the site. When i was looking through the site I also felt that I was struggling to find information, I knew it was there somewhere but because I had trouble navigating I quickly gave up trying to find it. I feel that the simplistic title page though was very easy to navigate and I will be taking inspiration from it when I create my own website.
Marilyn Minter
http://www.marilynminter.net/
This opening page is simplistic with easy menus for navigation at the top. You can easily get to what you want to see. She does not just have one artwork option spreading it out into three(the three mediums her work consists of). This is because of the large amount of work the artist has for each section and again so that the person visiting can easily find the piece of work they want to find, be it painting or a photograph. – In my website though I would prefer to have just one artwork option and then maybe a drop down with mediums on it.
Again this artist has gone for the large background image. I really like this idea as it shows a piece of work clearly on large scale and gives a quick intro into what sort of artwork they person creates. -I will be using this on my website.
When clicking on one of the medium options you are given a selection of images to click on and get a larger view of and in some case a small description (though some images do not have one, only a material/medium list). – I like how you can see the variety of images and then choose to see them on a larger scale. It makes navigating easy, you do not need to know each individual pieces name to explore the site, something I did not like in Patricia Piccinini’s website.
The exhibition menu is set out in a similar way (The design is strong throughout the site, does not change). This time with the title of each exhibition below and a image of the work in the space. This is very clear to navigate.
When you click on a exhibition image you get this information and more images of the work in the space. This makes it easy for you to find information about an exhibition and also see a wider range of images to see how the work looked in the space and how it was displayed (something I hope to create, though I lack the high image quality this artist has of her exhibitions).
Overall this sight is easy to navigate, with clear options at the top of the site. it is also easy to find information about every individual exhibition. Minter also only uses the highest quality images, something that is very important (Good images will show art clearly and at its best, bad ones show a disregard to detail and make work look rubbish).
Compared to Patricia Piccinini’s site this one is very easy to explore, when I was looking through Piccinini’s I felt confused and overwhelmed. I think that it is easy to go over the top with the effects and add-on, I need to make sure that when I create my site I keep it simplistic with a clear menu. Looking at these two sites I have also found that I really like the way you can click on images and open up more information. This feature allows someone who clicks on the image out of interest to find out more about it easily, this is something I will be adding to my website.
Good Things to Have on a Site
-Large background Image on title page that gives a basic idea of work
– Images that take you too another page with information
– Same design throughout (Does not change and make the site confusing)
– Clear and crisp images (Looks Professional)
– Easy to navigate(easy to find info on artist, clear menu options), clear drop down menus
– No overwhelming effects (Everyone can explore easily)
– Simplistic design
– Link back to title page
– Good grammar (will look unprofessional if there are spelling mistakes)
– Variety of images (in the space/exhibition images, show how you displayed work)
Many of these artists did not have too much of a description about their artwork, they leave it open to interpretation. I also want to do this with my website, it will allow people to find their own meanings in m y artworks.