Webador vs Squarespace?

For the past two years on PJD, I have used Webador as my website provider for my blog posts. The reason I chose Webador is for many reasons including aesthetics, selection of choice before needed to pay, accessibility and user friendliness. Webador has been amazing, however I decided that personally it worked much better as a blog than a professional photography website. For a professional website it has too much choice and I found myself spending too much time on the aesthetics rather than its professionalness. In class Squarespace was put to us as a great website provider and many examples were provided (professional photographers). I decided it was simple and not enough choices to get distracted. It was simple and straight forward. 

Putting my website together and now having it finally finished, (not quite sure it will ever be finished) and live, I am very excited to say that I now come across as a professional photographer and I can positively put myself forward on social media as one.

Why not Wix, Weebly or other providers?

In the past at University I went through many website providers such as Wix and Weebly and found them too complex and expensive. I spent too much time trying to figure out how to work the websites than actually creating. 

Published Works Page

This page was my latest edition to my website. I decided at the end of the module once making sure all of my socials were up to date that I didn't have either of my photobooks or advertisements on display so I decided to see how I could add this but as a separate page. I was quite happy when I realised I could link my Issuu PDFs and one of my project pages to this page for easy access to my publications. I don't sell anyone my work at this point but I feel it's still important to sell my brand online and to show my progression, which I felt this page was a good way of doing. 

Three OR Four Columns - Project/Home Page

I originally had three columns for my website. This was the design layouts default. I hadn't thought about changing the columns till much later. Throughout this module the amounts of projects added and their content has changed significantly, from horizonal and vertical spacing to text alignment to layout to backgrounds, socials and more. 

Later on this module I was talking to one of my peers about having eight projects and having a 3x3 grid leaving a gap at the bottom right which I wasn't happy about and they suggest changing the columns which I hadn't given any thought to. So I headed to my home page to change this and see what amount of columns worked the best.  I decided that for the time being at least four columns worked the smartest and looked more professional. Upon entering my site you can see and have a taste of each project and what content my website would hold.

Clients Page

I struggled lots with this page. For starters I could not decide on a picture from either my own collection or from the free stock images, all the images I found clashed either with what the page is about or with the title position. I decided to go for a stacked layout for the quotes, as some of them are longer and I felt this way more could be viewed easier at the same time. 

Madia and Madia, a sustainable fashion company that I completed an internship with at college and Hannah Bradley someone I worked with for Barnwood Trust wrote a testimonial for me following an email I sent asking if writing a testimonial for me would be something that they could kindly endorse. In addition, I got in contact with other clients that I have worked with more recently to ask if they would be willing to write me a testimonial, which all of them kindly did and I then added to my website. I think that testimonials are a great way to show future clients that you are pleasant to work with and have a good measure of capability and trust. 

About Page

I've come back to this layout a few times now. Originally the text and photo were the other way around and I had neither full bleed background header nor page title. Something was bugging me about this page and once I had decided to add a background header and tile I was much happier, but it took me a long time to realise that, that's why it looked so out of place. At first I was reserved about the image of myself with my camera in that position because of where the title is. Unfortunately you cannot move the title up or down, only to either side. 

I have reworded my bio time and time again and I feel now it is the most professional its been all year, I have also updated my LinkedIn and CV accordingly. I decided to add qualifications from my time working at The Pulse, Dursley also to show those particular skills which to me employers will always view as a plus such as safeguarding, first aid, AED and CPR. 

Contact Page 

Originally I had my header as a inset header rather than full bleed originally, no reason, I think I had just selected the wrong header and decided to leave it. I also had my title as contact, but in the end I decided I was just reiterating the page title so I decided to make the most of the space and type something inviting whilst changing the header to a full bleed one instead.

I had made one mistake on the contact form also which Paul kindly pointed out, I had set the email slot as my own email, which afterwards I changed it back to email. I had put th image before as one I had taken in Whitemead looking up at trees as it complimented my header, which Paul said he liked but I have now realised I have removed my logo from everything other than my business cards and all of my forms e.g. model release forms and photography contracts. So I decided it was the perfect place to add it and have since decided that it looks more professional, is good branding and it looks good. 

Website Evaluation and my Future