Artist Website – Linda Stephen, Origami Artist

This artist website needed to feature the artwork, highlight public events, and display the children's book she illustrated, all while being easy for the artist to update herself as needed.

Tools Used in this Project:

Adobe PhotoShop • Adobe XD • Crocoblock • CSS • Custom Code • Elementor Theme Builder • Google Analytics • Google Search Console • Google Tag Manager • HTML • JetEngine • JetSmartFilters • RankMath SEO • WordPress

Web Design Project Features:

Advanced Filtering by Topic • Blog • Custom Event Calendar • Dynamic Templates • Gallery With Lightbox • Relationally Connected Content • Table of Contents

Introduction

Artist Websites should allow the artist’s own artwork to take center stage. The website design needs to let visitors view the pieces without too much distraction.

In the case of Linda’s website, we had two additional needs. Linda regularly takes part in events and public art projects, which she wanted to highlight. She also used her origami skills to illustrate a book, which she wanted to display on her website too.

Linda Stephen is an origami artist, creating breathtaking origami murals and paintings.

Creating a website design that lets the artwork take center stage

Goal: Develop an attractive, user-friendly website that doesn't overpower the artwork

A common problem I see with artist websites is this: artists tend to want to lean heavily on their creative side, and wind up making a website that becomes overwhelming to look at. I'm all for maximalist design when done well. However, for artists, the real goal should be to allow the artwork to be the central focus. We needed to strike the balance that highlighted the artwork but also showcased the other features.

Solution: Minimalist in all the right places

For Linda's website, I kept the colors simple, and on brand for her, with a white background and lots of whitespace. I also outlined her artwork pieces in a black border to help them stand out better.

Showcasing a published book

Goal: Draw attention to the book Linda illustrated with her origami artwork

Linda illustrated the book The Day We Went to the Park with Christine Manno, which has one several awards, including 2021 Nebraska Book Award for illustration. Understandably, she wanted to highlight this book on the website, without overshadowing her artwork.

Solution: The landing page for The Day We Went to the Park

The landing page for The Day We Went to the Park highlights the book, book reviews, a video interview with Linda and other pertinent information about the book. The page also has a gallery of the images in the book. I also displayed Linda's book as part of her About section on the home page, choosing to use a photo of her, standing in the park that inspired the book, holding a copy of her book.

Artist Website: landing page for the book the artist illustrated, including reviews, video interview, and other information.

Custom Event Calendar

Goal: Share upcoming public events on a calendar

For this artist website, we wanted to be able to share upcoming events on a calendar. The calendar needed to be easily editable for non-techies, since they were going to add to this and the artwork section regularly.

Solution: Easily editable upcoming events calendar and events pages

My solution was to use Crocoblock Jet Engine and Elementor's theme builder to create custom form fields on the administrator end of the website for Linda to fill out, which then displayed in a custom template created just for events. This way, she inputted the information, without concern for how it would look. The display was already settled when we created the page template which dynamically loads the information from the fields. I like to tell my clients this is kind of like the Mad Libs approach. Just fill in the information, hit save, and when you look at the page it magically displays like all the other events.

The Art Takes Center Stage

Goal: Displaying the Art for Maximum Effect and Easy updating

The goal for this website was to not only display the artwork in a way that allowed it to outshine all else, but to also make it easy for Linda to update herself as needed.

Solution: Dynamic Page Templates and Custom Fields for the win

This effect was accomplished by creating form fields for all posts about her artwork pieces. These form fields allowed her to fill out a form on the back end of the website (the administrator dashboard) so that the information she inputted could be displayed on the front end using a page template. I created a custom page template for all of her artwork, which pulled in the information from form fields dynamically, so Linda didn't have to bother with anything except the content. A Lightbox gallery under the featured image allows the website to display different views for the artwork.

You don't have to do everything in your business yourself.

Let me take your website design project off your already-too-full hands

This artist website needed to feature the artwork, highlight public events, and display the children's book she illustrated, all while being easy for the artist to update herself as needed.

Creating a website design that lets the artwork take center stage

Goal: Develop an attractive, user-friendly website that doesn't overpower the artwork

Solution: Minimalist in all the right places

Showcasing a published book

Goal: Draw attention to the book Linda illustrated with her origami artwork

Solution: The landing page for The Day We Went to the Park

Custom Event Calendar

Goal: Share upcoming public events on a calendar

Solution: Easily editable upcoming events calendar and events pages

The Art Takes Center Stage

Goal: Displaying the Art for Maximum Effect and Easy updating

Solution: Dynamic Page Templates and Custom Fields for the win

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