This website’s design is in its third version. It’s been live for almost 2 years, and the blog has been up for just under a year and a half. While the current design is a huge improvement over the two previous versions (they used tables, for starters) I think there’s a lot of room for improvement.

Portfolio

1. For starters, it’s not very up-to-date. I really need to update it, get some fresh work on there. More importantly, I need to make some fresh work, first!
2. It’s currently all Flash, so it’s harder to maintain even with the XML file it currently uses.
3. I don’t think the term “portfolio” is ideal. Neither is “gallery.” “Portfolio” makes me think of the stock market. And a designer’s “book,” which is becoming more and more archaic. (How many veteran designers do you know still keep a physical portfolio up-to-date and show it to people? Seems like designers land more gigs through word of mouth than otherwise. Sure, it’s different when you’re starting out, but once you get started, that’s how you get new gigs.) And “gallery” seems to imply an art gallery, not one person’s work. So I think I’ll rename it something much more specific, like “Artwork” or “Paintings.” This is straight from Alyson Stanfield’s book I’d Rather Be in the Studio.
4. If it were design work, I think I would go the case studies route since that’s what makes more sense to clients: they want to see why/how a particular approach got results, not just pretty pictures.
5. I want to make the recent work section more dynamic. Maybe I can do something with WordPress, using special categories/tags. I want to move the entire site into WordPress, anyway.

Home Page

1. Needs more content. It feels empty, like there’s just not a lot there. It may as well be a splash/intro page. It pretty much is, with the big image and a little bit of text.
2. I think the home page needs to live up to it’s name — index — and tell what all is on the site, with little glimpses into what else is there. It should be a table of contents, if you will. I’m really proud of the home page I did for Talstone.com: it feels rich in content.

Artist’s Statement

1. Putting into words what motivates your art can be a struggle for pretty much any artist. I’m not satisified with what’s there right now. Furthermore, my work is kinda stagnant right now. It’s been some six to nine months since I’ve really done anything new in the studio. I’m also kind of rethinking my approach. I plan on blogging about it soon, maybe that will help.
2. At any rate, I need to tighten up my artist’s statement, and make it sharper and clearer and easier to understand.

Blog Design

1. I think the blog could be a lot more interesting from a design standpoint. It has the potential to be a sort of second home page, and it already is in a way.
2. Typographically, it is too spread out, there’s too much white space. The leading is too wide (line-height to you CSS wonks.) I’m pretty happy with the layout I’ve done for Mysterious Flame, with the meta information to the left of the post, in its own column.
3. It needs a tighter, cleaner grid.
4. The name “Vizjrnl” doesn’t really apply. When I started the blog, I thought I would use it as a sketchblog, or for digital journal collage pieces. I never really used it that way, except for the first few posts. It is something I could do from time to time. though.

Downloads

1. I’m debating whether this should go or stay. It doesn’t really get many hits, although I do get an occasional e-mail from someone who has downloaded a desktop background saying that they really like it. I guess the idea of downloadable desktop art is somewhat archaic to me.
2. I suppose I could keep it, but the main problem is that it requires a certain amount of commitment to keep generating desktop art every so often. I don’t really have time for it. I think I’d rather focus on making more art, something I certainly don’t do enough of.
3. The whole idea behind the desktop art is to give people something to remember me by, and to keep coming back for more, but isn’t that part of what the blog is intended to do? A well-maintained blog keeps you on people’s minds.

This is a pretty rough list, but I want to start blogging more, and while this may only matter to me, I do think sharing this will give some sort of insight as to what goes on in this curly-haired head of mine. What do you think? What on this site needs to be changed/updated/modified? Sound off in the comments below. Thanks!