It is hard to know where to begin with your online portfolio. I always tell creatives to start by imagining where they would like to end up–what are your career goals?
Are you a fine artist hoping to exhibit your work?
Are you an editorial photographer or graphic designer looking to sell your services to publications, agencies, or other professional clients?
Or are you a family and event photographer, shooting weddings, portraits and more, and looking to connect directly with customers?
Identifying your goals can help to focus the content and design of your website.
It all starts with your theme selection. The theme of your site will determine the layout of your site menu, image galleries and collection pages (or image navigation). But, the theme also dictates the type of viewing experience that someone will have when looking at your work.
Exhibition-Inspired Themes for Fine Artists
For example, for a fine artist, think of your website like an online exhibition–give the images room to breathe. For this type of site I would recommend a large-scale vertical or horizontal scroll, like Ora or Panorama. Or, add some drama with a staggered display, with a theme like Meadre.
Themes With Professionally-Geared Overviews
For a portfolio geared towards professional clients you want a faster viewing experience. Agencies and publications might be reviewing the sites of multiple professionals so you only have a short window of time to make an impact. For these types of sites I would recommend themes with a titled overview so that visitors can quickly get a sense for your style and compositions. Themes like Hue, Peak and Amazon offer visual impact with a quick overview of images.
Themes for Improved Customer Connections
For customer facing sites–like portrait and event photography–you might want to start with a homepage that gives a quick introduction to you, your services and your work. If someone is hiring you for a special event, they like to know who is behind the camera. For these sites use themes like Clarity and Contact with clean, accessible site menus. For your homepage, try using a custom page with image and text blocks or slideshows to give highlights of your services and your approach to shooting.
If you need help selecting a theme for your Format website, reach out to our Customer Experience Team and they would be happy to help.
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