I reviewed five websites from past alumni from Siena Heights University. My perspective will be from a Graphic Design perspective and from owning my own .com and running my own site. I think the amount of information a visitor gets can be overwhelming. I think any site can display as much as they want but it might need to be spread across many pages so it can be read clearly and not to overwhelm the viewers eyes.
For Todd Marsee he had a lot of informational links, for me it was too much. He had a lot of great images but I felt there were too small and should be larger. Christina West's website was also very clean, maybe too clean. My eyes drifted to the white space too much. Her fonts were small and that might have something to do with it too. Nicholas Hullibarger's website was probably my favorite. Large photos, finally! His font size was good, and his site was clean. It had a good balance overall that I appreciated. Kenneth M Thompson ran a close 2nd among the four artists. Photo size was okay, his website was clean. The biggest difference was his was black and white letters and Nicholas Hullibarger's was the opposite colors. If I had to offer what I thought could be improved would be his name against the images. Name was a little hard to read, its visibility was the best. Now because of the opposite color scheme used, I felt that his Bio page was harder to read because of so many white letters bunched together. I think a larger fount would have helped in this aspect. These are similar qualities I strive with my own website so it draws visitors to keep clicking links. To respond to the question of what is more important the quality of the work or the quality of the website. Its the website, you wouldnt enter a steakhouse if the building was falling apart or the whole parking lot looks sketchy. Its the look that draws people in, along with good marketing. This was an exercise that I will apply to my own website or ask others to critique for me.
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This weekend I was able to reflect on what I learned from Art-A-Licious.
I had a chance to visit the event and browse many artists. I did take a moment to step back and look at it as a whole to critique it. I felt that while it was great to see it across the four corners of downtown but I felt that a theme maybe was missing or a better way to tell what was where? I think about how many forms of art there is including the food vendors. I guess I always look for the 2.0 version of remaking something. I would have to say of all of the artists that I saw I was mostly fascinated with anyones work with ceramics. I think its because I have never done it before and I am learning to appreciate the effort it takes to make it and the technique and amount of time it takes to develop that skill. I think being on a committee for an event like this would be a great experience to be a part of. When creating this list I reviewed who had connections to myself and or my artwork. From there I placed who were in different categories based on knowing me or not and have they ever been exposed to my artwork. I wanted to focused on who were my core supporters were. The idea to this exercise was to increase more exposure, to build connections and to eventually have a larger core support to help me as an artist.
My core supporters at this point are my wife, my family, a few co-workers, and my professors here at Siena Heights University or at Jackson College. When it comes to my list of who are connected to to my work, these people would be past clients for my photography or anyone that I have done graphic design work in the past. Originally I under valued my connected people and only saw them as those exposed to my work. Once I placed these people correctly I felt that my connected people were larger than my core supporters. Using social media I am trying to connect myself to the world and bringing in those that are unexposed to see my work. Instagram seems to be a driving force to bring those closer to my work. After looking at all of those professional relationships I decided to interview Chrissy Hughes. Chrissy was my professor at Jackson College. During my interview with Cindy I was asked to speak to her students about what it is like and what to expect to do if they transfer to Siena Heights University. This was helpful to test how comfortable I would be talking in front of a classroom. Since I work at a high school this seemed fairly easy. Afterwards I talked with Chrissy and she expressed that I would be ideal to teach at the Adrian Campus for Jackson College. That my BFA would be okay to work as an adjunct instructor. I would consider doing this in the summer and perhaps during the school year at night. I in my current job I love working with students, teaching at a community college would allow me to continue working with students. I feel that this is a good position for me in life and I can continue to work on my photography and work on creating art. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. Archives
March 2019
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