- I once spent time helping a book designer on his website.
The work was beautiful with a wide range of subjects.
I looked forward to the challenge
to work with a purely print and typographic designer
in a screen based media.
Rather than having his books photographed,
he videotaped each one as the pages were turned.
This sounds like a nice idea,
but was like watching grass grow.
Fortunately, I was able to persuade him
to forego the endless page turning
and make beautiful still images.
With only a few seconds to tell a story,
your projects need to be clear, direct, and seductive.
First, let's presume everyone's screen
may be calibrated differently.
Orange on my screen
might look slightly yellow,
but slightly red on yours.
Second, someone will be looking at your site
on a mobile device.
This requires images to be clear
and easy to read at a small scale.
A bright poster will be easier to read
than a typographic book project.
In the instance of a project
that has beautiful typographic details,
create images that show these up close.
Show us an image of an advertisement in a magazine,
not the illustrator file.
The more real something looks,
the more compelling it becomes.
Show projects in context.
Rather than presenting the flat art for a poster,
show the poster in its environment.
You're telling a story with each project.
Ask yourself, what is that story?
The bright poster says
I understand scale, color, and ideas.
The book says I love refined typography
and interesting content.
A signage project says
I know how to help people navigate in an environment.
Each project should have as many images
as necessary to tell that story.
If you need to represent every spread in a manual
to make it clear that project had depth, do it.
Of course, show no more than is needed.
200 pages of similar pages in a book
might be overkill.
I'm often asked, how many projects should I have?
Some people say five, others say eight.
I determine the amount by what best demonstrates
your brand and capabilities.
If you have five great projects, that's enough.
If you have 50, that's good too.
As long as the work is good, use it.
If you have a large amount, organize them clearly,
and highlight a few in a section, such as new work.
Your projects are like Lego pieces.
The site is a place to shuffle them around.
If one project is getting a huge amount of interest,
move it up front.
Move your old project to another area
and replace it with something else later.
We often think that once something is designed,
it's done, set in concrete,
but the website is dynamic.
It can and should be modified.
Feel free to replace projects, add to them,
or swap out images for better ones.
Remember, the projects you choose
tell a viewer who you are, what you can do,
and why you do it.
No more than that.
The site is not a database of everything you've ever made.
It's a gallery of your best work.
So, curate carefully.