Creating a Website

An online presence is a very important part of marketing myself in the animation industry. I decided to setup a personal website with the intention of it being a place where all my best work is stored an easy to view for anyone. I had created websites in the past but this was before I went to university so my strategy was not particularly ideal or professional. Furthermore, the websites I had used in the past to attempt to create a website were often not particularly aesthetically pleasing and often looked too visually simplistic.

My friend had developed a website not so long ago for his new music magazine Smashed Vinyl. I had created some of the assets for the website including the logo and page headings. My friend was in no way a graphic designer or had a particularly strong visual eye yet he was able to create a website that I felt was visually very successful.

He had used the website building site Wix so I decided to do the same. Developing the website was fairly simple. First and foremost I wanted to create a site that was above all simple to use and simple in design.

On the homepage, I placed my showreel, that way if I was ever in the middle of networking and wanted to show someone some of my work, my best work would be the first thing they see on the site. The other pages I put on the website was my work including all the animations I've created at university and all the work I've created outside of university as well.

I also created an About page of which contained all the important information including a description of my skill set, my contact details and links to me on social media.

Upon reflection I feel the website is very successful. It's visually simple yet interesting and most importantly looks like it's been created by me yet also looks professional. I regret to say that in the months since it's creation I have failed to keep the website regularly updated. This is not good since I have a blog, but after speaking to fellow animator Craig who also has a website of which I feel is of a very professional standard, he informed me that it might not be worth even having a blog if I need to keep my university blog regularly updated.