As art enthusiasts, we all love visiting display galleries where artists put up their work. But this is all very location limited. To reach a broad audience you need to be online. So, how to sell art online is the question?
A website can help an artist showcase and sell their works. An online website is an important tool that you can use to spread awareness of your work.
However, as a creative, you probably want to spend most of your time creating art, not building a website. Still, a website is one of the largest collaterals for your art business.
Fortunately, there is no shortage of web design companies that are able to help creative people reach their artistic goals in the virtual space. If you are in the United Kingdom, a good alternative to building a website by yourself would be to try working with a UK web design company which can be of great assistance when building a website from scratch.
A website allows you to showcase your work internationally, and make it possible for people to discover you online. It’s also a means for prospective patrons to get in touch with you and purchase your work.
In this post, we’ll walk you through how to sell art online through good website design.
6 First Steps For How To Sell Art Online:
1. Choose your website platform
A website platform makes it simple for non-technical people to build a site. It needs little coding and design skills on your part.
One of the most popular online platforms out there is WordPress. The best thing about it is that beginner-friendly and that it’s free.
Here, you can access thousands of free site designs to help you build the site you want with just a click of a button. Moreover, one of the best things about WordPress is that it’s relatively simple to install new designs and plug-ins.
Plug-ins are add-ons to your site in the form of galleries, social share buttons, and much more. There’s currently a plug-in directory on WordPress with more than 46,000 plug-ins, which grows every day.
For non-technical people, WordPress makes it easy and fun to build websites. Not to mention, there’s a large community of developers, free how-to guides, and videos everywhere on the internet.
2. Get your domain name and hosting
You’d find that free web hosting is seldom free. “Free” sites will barrage you with the most distracting ads, texts, and graphics.
Half of your screen will show your art, while the other half will look like a circus. If your art ends up here, your site will be competing against ads, and your art won’t look great under the circumstances.
Moreover, free sites also give the impression that you either can’t afford to buy your own domain or site. Or worse, you don’t care enough about your art to even bother purchasing your domain or paying for hosting that will look good online.
Fortunately, primary sites with great functionality hardly cost anything these days. There are plenty of great web hosts out there.
3. Keep your design balanced
By balance, we mean that your site doesn’t tip on one side. It’s like balancing the weight to achieve symmetry or asymmetry.
Achieving asymmetrical balance takes time to fine-tune and requires a trained eye to pull off. If you aren’t too careful about how you lay things out, the design will become unbalanced. You can try to manipulate the visual weight in many ways in terms of color, size, or either an addition or removal of elements.
Asymmetrical balance might be harder to pull off, although it can be playful. On the other hand, most of the texts are layered in symmetrical columns. Most of the page has a well-constructed balance beneath it.
4. Collect website content
The next thing that you need to do is to look for content that you’ll be using on your site. One of the key actions is to take high-quality photos of your art, then upload them to the CMS.
Apart from that, you’ll have to consider the website sections you’ll need based on your objectives. For instance, if you want to invite or draw people to your upcoming exhibition, you might need to create a separate events page to list the location or venue where people can view your art in person.
5. Build the website
Now, building your site is pretty straightforward. The platform that you pick will walk you through the process. You must follow the steps, upload your content there, and go live. It’s that simple!
However, there might be other details that you need to consider, such as the functionality that you choose and which platform you’ll be using. Let’s say you want to integrate search engine optimization (SEO) to your site to make it visible in online searches.
SEO is a technical ability for search engines like Google to look at and show your site to users searching for artists. Because most sites are mostly discovered on search engines, SEO is vital. Many platforms usually include SEO functionality as part of the package.
6. Design elements make a good art website design
Sytian Productions are specialist website designers and they always tell clients that designing your art website goes beyond visual elements and aesthetics. In fact, it has the power to affect your SEO and rankings, empower people’s perception of your brand, and influence people. A good site design and layout can affect your overall web presence.
Here are the design elements that make up great art website design:
Color scheme
For your color scheme, you have to pay attention to your brand and industry perspectives and your target audience demographics. Once you’ve picked the primary color you’ll be using, you must choose the type of color palette you want.
Let’s say you wanted to zero in on a particular piece of content or button or elicit a specific reaction. If this is the case, then you might want to choose a complimentary color from the other side of the color wheel.
Unique typography
Most companies use a particular font or typography that will allow their customer to identify them immediately over their competitors. It should also complement your overall design and layout while balancing normalcy with freshness. Texts should also be readable, and the body copy around 16 pixels.
Although a complementary font can be ideal for accents and headings, don’t try to go beyond three typefaces and make any unnecessary adjustments in the sizing.
Line
Lines are one essential element of design. In the drawing, this is a stroke of the pen or pencil. But in the world of graphic design, it’s usually any two connected points.
Lines are handy for dividing space and drawing the eyes to a particular direction or area.
Shape
Shapes are often defined by boundaries, such as colors and lines. They emphasize a page’s portion. Everything is shaped. So you have to consider how different elements in your design create shapes and how they interact.
White space
This is often used in web design. However, it is now an essential feature for a modern design framework. When you balance content such as links, videos, texts, and white space, users will be naturally drawn to vital elements in your site.
SEO
Whilst the above visual elements are important, it's the hidden search engine optimization elements that will get your website on the map and visible in search results like Google. Be sure to ensure that your art website is designed to be SEO friendly and it maybe worth having an expert like Human Proof Designs do this for you, if you're not experienced in SEO.
Important features to include in your website
Live 3D previews of media options
A Live 3D Preview is a visual representation of what a media type will look like.
When the buyer clicks the “canvas gallery wrap,” they’ll see the image’s three-dimensional representation. It basically looks like a canvas gallery wrap that hangs on a wall.
Live framing previews
If you’re selling frames, showcasing the live 3D preview of the image in the frame works wonders! Not only you’re selling the print, but the print in the frame as well.
Augmented reality
Every artist who wants to sell their art online must use this technology. Buyers on a site with a live preview can quickly jump into augmented reality from the web page. This is a highly natural and effortless experience.
Users can look at images they like using their smartphones or tablets and try them out on their own. They can also resize and move it to their ideal location.
Single page checkout for guests
Don’t force visitors to go through a series of steps to go through with the purchase. Instead, try to do it on one convenient page. Doing so leads to less cart abandonment and higher sales.
FAQ
1. How do you define an online artist?
Online artists are people who have transformed their passion, making it a unique business and present this for sale or for display via a website or social media.
2. What’s an artist website?
From amateurs to professionals, the key to finding success in the art world is to showcase your work and create an artist website. An artist’s website is like a virtual visit to your studio. People have the opportunity to see and admire your work. At the same time, learn more about you as an artist.
3. What makes an artist website different or special?
They often reflect or show the personality or style of the artist or owner of the site.
4. What’s the difference between a studio visit and an artist website?
What’s the primary difference between the two? Well, a website is always open for anyone (as long as they’re online!) to see as well as being available for anyone in the world to view and interact with.
Over to You
Your site serves as your artist portfolio. It also acts as your business card and marketing centrepiece. Thus, investing in a beautiful site showcasing your work is worth it.
Hopefully, you’ve learned the mistakes you need to avoid and how to enhance your site’s visitor experience.
A well-constructed and well-thought-out website and your marketing efforts, will drive more people in, grow your audience, and raise online awareness about your works. Good luck!
The guest post was written by Kenneth Sytian, who is the Owner and CEO of Sytian Productions Web Design Philippines. He has been designing websites and developing web apps for more than a decade. He is the driving force behind the company and influencer in the industry of web design and development in the Philippines.
