Animation Demo Reel Guidelines:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WC-yGd1Frx8&t=5s
Your portfolio repels jobs
By: Jon JonesMost
artists make mistakes like these, but fortunately, they’re very simple to understand
and correct. I’ve come up with a quick and easy way to help artists think about
how to improve their chances of employment by building a better website.
The
core truth here is this:
Usability
is just as important as content.
A
portfolio website should be a simple, effective, uncluttered experience from
start to finish that leaves a lasting impression on the visitor. An incredible
number of websites fail to do this. And it’s always for silly, completely
avoidable reasons.
Your
website should be focused on one purpose, be easy to use, and offer a clear
line of action. Here are three simple questions to ask yourself:
1)
What’s my website’s focus?
Your website exists to get you a job.
Its only purpose is to showcase your art and present your contact information for potential employers.
You should make your
art and contact information so fantastically easy to see that someone find it
accidentally. If someone wants to talk to you about a job, don’t be hard to
find.
Include
your name and contact information at the top of every page of your site.
For
example, any visitor should understand clearly that you are an environment
artist and you intend to get a job as an environment artist. Anything else is
confusing. Silly MS Paint drawings, photos from trips you’ve taken or a blog
about your daily life have nothing to do with that, and should be removed.
These things are not added value. A portfolio is not a personality test! That’s
what an interview is for.
The
second common mistake is making a website that’s difficult to navigate. So ask
yourself this:
2)
Is my website easy to use?
You
might be thinking “but I’m an artist, not a web designer!” This is a poor but
common excuse for making a bad website. On the other side of the coin, many
artists that are web designers make their website so flamboyantly artsy
that it’s practically impossible to use.
The
first thing a visitor should see on your website is your art. First impressions
are formed in an instant. Attention spans can be shut off in an instant. Your
top priority should be to make that first instant be compelling enough to keep
the viewer looking and to give them what they’re looking for. Don’t tease… satisfy.
After
all, did I go to your website to look at a splash page, or art? The faster I
can see your content, the better.
Forget
splash pages and news pages or any other starting page that isn’t putting art
directly in my face.
Your
portfolio’s highest purpose is to show off your art quickly, easily, and with
the minimum of hassle. A good portfolio should be so easy to navigate that
someone could view your work accidentally.
Anything
that doesn’t support that basic goal breaks your focus and should be removed or
relocated. Make another website for your personal stuff if you have to, but
keep your portfolio clean and relevant. More isn’t better.
If
it doesn’t help show your art faster or sell you as an artist, it shouldn’t be
there.
Here’s
a quick list of aggravating features that are common in portfolio websites:
·
No image branding - Every image on the entire website should have
your name, email address and website URL on it. People save images off of
portfolios and forget where they got them. If one of your pieces of art finds
its way to a studio, how will they find you? Make each image stand on its own,
removed from context.
·
Vague thumbnails - A thumbnail exists to offer a relevant
preview of a larger image. Yet I see thumbnails of random parts of a model that
give me no indication of what I’m about to see. If I’m looking for medieval
characters, how does a grainy thumbnail of the bottom of his foot help me find
it?
·
Multiple layers - It’s as if bad portfolios follow a common
navigation pattern:
Splash
page -> News page -> Portfolio page -> 3D Art -> Characters ->
Man with Axe thumbnail -> Man with Axe enlarged.
Do
you expect me not to hate clicking through seven pages just to see your art?
Flatten your site. Put the art in my face and show me the quickest, simplest
possible way of navigating. One page full of art is better than any of the
multiple layers shown above.
·
Multiple popups - A splash page shouldn’t even exist, much less
stay open when you click on it to enter the website. Neither should a thumbnail
opening an image in a new window that I have to manually close. I’ve been to
websites that open as many as FIVE WINDOWS. That’s inconvenient, wasteful, and
downright hostile toward the visitor. Be a courteous host.
·
Poor navigation - Every page should offer buttons to go to the
next image, to the previous image, and to return to the main page. They don’t
pop up new windows unless it’s for an enlarged image, which should be extremely
easy to close to return to the thumbnails. It’s convenient, it’s considerate,
and it’s easy to implement. It also encourages them to keep looking forward at
more art instead of accidentally closing your site altogether. Keep guiding
them along a path.
·
Small images - Small images convey nothing. Keep it large enough
to be easily seen and understood. Also keep in mind that the average
screen resolution is usually around 1024×768, so make it reasonable from that
standpoint. Also, remove as much dead space as possible. Nothing irritates me
more than loading an enormous image that you only used ten percent of.
·
Bad lighting - Why would I hire you if your work is so badly lit
for me that I can’t even see it?
·
Obscure web plugins - Don’t make someone download a plugin to
view your website. This will ruffle some feathers but I find Flash websites to
be obnoxious and unnecessary, and most aren’t worth the time to navigate. There
are a lot of people that don’t even have Flash. Do you want to risk losing a
great job opportunity over that? Just keep it as simple as possible, but no
simpler.
Hiring
managers look through dozens of portfolios every day. All the portfolios they
see blend together. It’s just a job. You are either on the “Portfolios To Review”
list, or you’re not. A poorly designed website makes this poor hiring manager’s
job a little more annoying. Accordingly, he is less likely to invest the time
into looking at your entire portfolio. And he certainly won’t read your blog.
Is he hiring a Metallica fan or a level designer?
Imagine
that your target visitor is a tired, indifferent hiring manager whose only
desire is to find the shortest path possible to looking at your art. Nothing
else matters. So design your website for him. Give him what he wants. Remove
what he doesn’t care about. The clearer your message, the better.
For
example: “I am Phineas Fogbottom, environment artist. This is my art. Email me
at mastapimp420@yahoo.com”
That’s
all he needs to know. Keep it simple.
3)
Do I provide a clear line of action?
This
is also important. Sadly, good art doesn’t sell itself. It’s one thing to
present art, and it’s quite another to funnel them toward offering you a job.
First you serve up the art, and then you show them that they should offer you a
job, and here’s how to contact you. The easier this is, the better.
Here
are two huge mistakes people often make along these lines:
·
No stated desired position - The desired position usually isn’t
obvious. Most artists feel the need to put all their 2D art, 3D art, animation,
illustration, paintings and even poetry on their website. That makes it
impossible to divine what kind of position you’re looking for! Be specific.
Companies do not set out to hire generalists, they hire specialists. (Whether
or not they ultimately USE them as specialists is another matter entirely.)
If
they’re hiring a character artist, seeing you say “I do everything!” isn’t
going to make them think of you for the job. It’s easy: Be the guy they’re
looking for by being specific. If they’re looking for a character artist, the
more ways you can match the pattern they’re looking for, the better. A good
place to start is by saying “Hey, I’m a character artist.” :)
·
No contact information - If I like your work, how am I supposed
to contact you? Keep it visible at all times and don’t make them hunt for it.
If you’re concerned about spambots farming your favorite email address to add
to spam lists, make a new email address solely for job solicitations and just
deal with the spam.
That’s
all there is to it, really. It’s simple enough if you think about it, but
that’s the problem: Most people don’t. If you start thinking about it,
you’re already ahead of the game!
Comments
Post a Comment