Artist Websites

 

A portfolio website gives you a dedicated place to present your work, explain your practice and make it easy for people to contact you. For artists and creative practitioners, it can function as a portfolio, professional profile and point of contact in one place.

Unlike social media or third-party platforms, your website gives you control over how your work is organised, what information people see first and how your practice is presented. It can support applications, commissions, employment, collaborations, media enquiries and gallery or client research, while also providing a reliable place for people to return to over time.

This guide covers the key elements of a portfolio website, how to select and organise your work, and what to consider when building and maintaining your site.

 

 

What is a portfolio website?

A portfolio website is an online collection of selected work that represents your current practice, experience and professional direction.

It can include images, video, text, project descriptions, exhibition information, client work, commissions or other examples relevant to your discipline. Unlike a PDF portfolio, which is usually prepared for a particular application or opportunity, a website is publicly accessible and can be updated as your practice develops.

Your website does not need to include everything you have ever made. Its purpose is to provide a clear and considered introduction to your work.

 

Why have a portfolio website?

Social media and third-party platforms can be useful for reaching audiences, but they should not necessarily be the only place where your work exists online.

A personal website gives you greater control over your professional presence and provides a central place to direct people who want to learn more about your work.

 

Control how your work is presented

A website allows you to decide how visitors move through your work, which projects receive the most attention and what information accompanies them.

You are not restricted by a social media feed, algorithm or platform template, which means you can organise your work in a way that makes sense for your particular practice.

 

Create a professional point of reference

People may visit your website after meeting you at an exhibition, receiving an application, seeing your work online or hearing about you through someone else.

A clear and current website allows them to quickly understand who you are, what you do and how to contact you.

 

Improve your online visibility

A website can also help people find you through search engines, particularly if your name, location, discipline and areas of practice are clearly described throughout the site.

This becomes increasingly useful as your career develops and people begin searching for your name directly.

 

Keep your work in one reliable place

Social media platforms can change, accounts can be restricted or lost, and the way your work is displayed is controlled by the platform.

Your website provides a more stable home for your professional information and gives you greater control over what remains publicly accessible.

 

 

What should your portfolio website include?

The exact structure will depend on your practice, but most artist and creative portfolio websites benefit from a few core pages.

 

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Homepage

Your homepage should quickly communicate who you are and what you do.

This might include your name, discipline, location, a short introduction and a selection of strong images or recent projects.

Avoid trying to place every piece of information on the homepage. Its purpose is to introduce your practice and direct visitors towards the areas of the website that are most relevant to them.

 

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Works or Projects or Gallery

This is where visitors can explore your work in more detail.

You might organise projects chronologically, by medium, by project or by body of work. Choose a structure that makes sense for your practice rather than creating categories simply because a template includes them.

Each project page should provide enough context for someone unfamiliar with your work to understand what they are looking at.

 

Depending on the project, this might include:

• project or artwork title
• year
• medium or materials
• dimensions
• location
• collaborators
• commissioner or client
• exhibition information
• a short project description
• high-quality documentation. 

For larger projects, provide a concise explanation of the idea, process or context rather than relying entirely on images.

 

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About

Your About page should explain who you are, what your practice involves and the context in which you work.

For an artist, this may include an artist biography and short statement. For a designer, photographer or other creative practitioner, it may focus more heavily on professional experience, services and areas of specialisation.

You can also include selected awards, clients, exhibitions, residencies or qualifications if they are relevant, but avoid turning the page into a complete CV.

If a full CV is important to your practice, consider providing it as a separate page or downloadable PDF.

 

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Contact

Make it straightforward for someone to contact you.

Include a direct email address, contact form or both, and clearly indicate the kinds of enquiries you welcome, such as commissions, collaborations, exhibitions, speaking opportunities or professional work.

Do not make visitors search through several pages to find your contact details.

 

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Footer

A simple footer can provide consistent access to important information across the site.

This may include:

• your name and copyright
• contact details
• social media links
• newsletter signup
• navigation links
• privacy policy
• terms or other legal information where relevant.

Keep it functional rather than filling it with information already available elsewhere.

 

 

 

How to curate your work

One of the most important parts of building a portfolio website is deciding what not to include.

Your website should represent the direction of your practice now, rather than functioning as a complete archive of everything you have produced.

 

Select your strongest work

Choose projects that demonstrate the quality of your practice and the type of work you want to be known for.

A smaller selection of strong projects will usually communicate more effectively than a large collection containing work of uneven quality.

 

Show the work you want to do more of

Your website influences the opportunities people associate with you.

If you want more public art commissions, illustration work, exhibitions, photography projects or collaborations, make sure visitors can see strong examples of that work.

Your portfolio should not only represent your past. It should also support where you want your practice to go next.

 

Remove work that no longer represents you

As your practice develops, older projects may no longer reflect the quality, style or direction of your current work.

You do not need to keep everything online simply because it was once important to your career.

Review your portfolio periodically and remove work that is no longer helping people understand your practice.

 

Include personal and self-initiated work where relevant

Not every project needs to have been commissioned, exhibited or produced for a client.

Self-directed projects can demonstrate your interests, ideas and approach particularly well, especially when they reflect the kind of work you would like to develop further.

 

 

Designing your website

Good portfolio design should make your work easier to understand rather than competing with it.

 

Keep the navigation simple

Visitors should be able to move between your main pages without having to work out how the website functions.

Use clear navigation labels such as Work, About, CV and Contact rather than overly creative names that may make sense to you but not to a first-time visitor.

 

Let the work lead the design

Typography, colour and layout can reflect your creative identity, but they should support rather than overpower the portfolio itself.

Give images enough space, keep text readable and use a consistent visual structure across the site.

 

Design for mobile

A significant number of people will view your website on a phone.

Check every page on both desktop and mobile, particularly image galleries, menus, contact forms and text-heavy pages.

Do not assume that a template automatically looks good across every screen size.

 

Consider accessibility

Your website should be usable by as many people as possible.

Use readable text sizes, strong contrast, clear headings, descriptive link text and alternative text for important images. Avoid excessive animation, autoplaying media or design choices that make basic navigation difficult.

Accessibility should be considered as part of the design process rather than added later.

 

 

Preparing images for your website

High-quality documentation is particularly important for visual artists and designers, but larger image files can also make a website unnecessarily slow.

Resize and compress images before uploading them so they remain clear without creating long load times.

Use consistent image quality across the website and avoid uploading screenshots or poorly cropped photographs when professional documentation is available.

For artwork, include accurate captions where relevant. Titles, materials, dimensions and year can provide useful context and make the website more useful to galleries, curators, collectors and other arts professionals.

  

Bringing your website to life

You do not need coding experience to build a professional portfolio website.

Platforms such as Squarespace, Wix, Shopify and other website builders provide templates that can be customised without building the site from scratch.

The right platform depends on what you need the website to do.

A simple portfolio site may only require pages for work, information and contact details. An artist selling work directly may need ecommerce, inventory management and shipping. A photographer or designer may want client galleries or booking functionality.

Before choosing a platform, compare:

• ongoing subscription costs
• templates and design flexibility
• ecommerce fees
• storage
• image galleries
• mobile functionality
• SEO tools
• email marketing integrations
• ease of updating the website yourself.

Choose the simplest platform that comfortably supports what you need.

 

 

Choosing a domain name

Your domain should be easy to remember, easy to type and closely connected to your professional identity.

For many artists, the simplest option is their name, such as janesmith.com.au or janesmithart.com.

If your name is unavailable, consider a clear variation rather than adding unnecessary words, symbols or numbers.

You can purchase domains through domain registrars or directly through many website platforms. Regardless of where you purchase it, make sure the domain is registered in your name or business and that you retain access to the account used to manage it.

 

 

Search engine optimisation

Search engine optimisation, or SEO, helps search engines understand your website and can improve the likelihood of your pages appearing in relevant search results.

You do not need to become an SEO specialist, but there are several basic things you can do.

Use clear page titles and headings, write descriptive page summaries and include relevant information about your location, discipline and practice throughout the site.

For example, a page title such as Jane Smith | Ceramic artist | Brisbane provides more useful information than simply calling the page Home.

Give image files descriptive names where practical and include alternative text that accurately describes important images.

SEO is generally more effective when the website itself contains useful, specific information rather than repeatedly inserting keywords into otherwise unnatural text.

 

 

Include a clear next step

Think about what you want someone to do after viewing your portfolio.

Depending on your practice, this might be:

• contact you
• enquire about a commission
• purchase work
• view your CV
• join your mailing list
• book a service
• visit an exhibition
• follow your work elsewhere.

You do not need aggressive calls to action across every page, but visitors should not reach the end of your website without knowing how to continue the relationship.

 

 

Maintaining your portfolio

A portfolio website should change as your practice develops.

Set aside time periodically to add recent projects, remove outdated work, update your biography and CV, check links and make sure your contact information is correct.

It is also worth reviewing the website from the perspective of someone encountering your work for the first time.

Can they quickly understand what you do? Is your strongest work easy to find? Is the information current? Can they contact you without difficulty?

You do not need to redesign your website every year. Regular small updates are usually more useful than allowing the site to become outdated and rebuilding it from scratch several years later.

Your website should provide an accurate, current and easy-to-navigate representation of your practice. If it does that well, it is doing its job.