Website Construction for Visual Artists

DIY: Why?

Artist do love to scheme and strategize over available channels of communication -- including marketing materials, lighting, personal attire, etc. -- and it is very strange when those same individuals become negligent of the Web, as if the general public had never become deeply invested in it. There are many solutions in lieu of hands-on web-design, but all of these tend convey the look and feel of an acquired product, rather than something holistically integrated in an artist's working method and career aesthetics.

In addition, web-design is an aesthetic endeavor. It needn't be mistaken as a descendent of brochure design -- it's part of a design problem in the larger sense: how to weave social space and digital opportunities into a practice that may thrive on physical space and resonance.

Web-design applications

There are many of these, including Dreamweaver, Adobe GoLive, iWeb, Microsoft Expression Studio (formerly, FrontPage). These are known as WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) applications. They have a CMS interface that allows the author to create and design pages, place images, establish links, etc. In the past, the apps. were troublesome and wrote terrible HTML scripting, but they have become better.

The first problem is that you need access to one of these programs in the first place (btw -- NVU is a free and open-source alternative). If one comes bundled with your operating system, you probably shouldn't expect sophisticated results.

The second problem is that they are based upon consumer-grade templates that have proven acceptance for a wide audience. If you're really practicing deep goal-oriented design, selecting from an array of template structures may prove unsuitable.

The third problem is that a CMS interface distances the author from the real meat of web-design. Writing HTML is a simple way to maintain a vantage point from behind the system, and not just on its skin. This may sound like hairsplitting, but I'll argue (from observations) that it makes a difference between web-design as a chore and web-design as a medium among your arsenal of other media.

DIY: How?

To make your own websites, you only need the following:

• Text editor: These are very basic, very slim programs for typing text that are far more rudimentary than a word processing application (which is important, because HTML scripting shouldn't be encumbered with excessive data). Windows has Notepad and Wordpad built-in, but I would recommend downloading SciTE for free, since it color-codes the different types of HTML script you are typing (and uses red when it suspects an error). Mac OSX has TextEdit, which sucks, so instead get your free download of TextWrangler or Smultron.
  
  
• Image editor: Photoshop is the standard, but there are cheaper alternatives (or free alternatives, like Gimp), especially if you search for applications that are limited to digital image creation.
  
  
• Server space: You'll need to upload your site files on a server to make them accessible via the Web. Server space something that is purchased on a monthly/yearly basis from a web-hosting service.
  More on server space.
  
  
• FTP application: These are programs that allow you to access your server account space. You log in with your access key, and then drag-and-drop files from your hard-drive to the target hard-drive. These programs are free: Filezilla, WinSCP (Windows) or Cyberduck (Mac OSX).
  
  
• Domain name: Nowadays, this is typically included as part of your web-hosting package, but if you're are getting free server space via work or school and would prefer a customized domain, then you can look into a service like Godaddy which allow you to register a domain name that can be forwarded to your existing URL.

The proceeding pages of this tutorial will address using a text-editor and image-editor to hand-script your own webpages with HTML and CSS.

A note on simplicity and efficiency

The sophisticated websites that we see online today are a cluster of numerous available technologies (HTML, CSS, XML, Flash, JavaScript, PHP, MySQL... the list goes on). Decorous interactive systems that allow us to search, tag or reorganize data interactively are expensive products. Before feeling like you have to compete with all of the professional accomplishments on the Web, just keep in mind what other people really need from you when investigating your work online:

1. Media files (images, video, etc.)
2. Text information
3. Contact information

All of these can be easily rendered with simple HTML. I've heard a number of gallerists complain about having to swim through Flash intros, confusing deconstructive gimmicks, JavaScript hurdles and other forms of extraneous bullshit in order to reach these three basic things.

HTML and CSS will allow you to make your data accessible, provide the links that are needed, and to manipulate typography, color and composition. With careful attention to these bedrock components, you have all that you need to enact professionalism, elegance and aesthetic impact. And, most importantly, create a site environment that feels integrated with the data/media within, and not a "rented tux" of professional gloss.


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