Website ideas session preperation

As part of your professional development this semester you have been asked to produce a website that will act as a vital part of your online promotion during your career. On Wednesday 29th February we will be having an around-table session to discuss the group's ideas on personal professional websites, so we'd like you to do some research and concept work between now and then to bring along.

There are some key things you should think about and form some ideas around:

• Tone
  - What is the image you want to present to potential clients / employers? Where do you want your website to draw peoples attention to most: you as a professional, your work, your influences, your skills or a mixture of all of these? How do you want to balance formal with playful elements?
• Identity / Brand
  - Do you have a persona, screen name, business name that you currently work under or plan to be known by? What kind of logo and styling goes along with your brand? What makes your identity unique or stand out from other artists?
• Content
  - What information and work do you need to display? Where will this content be found online: directly on your website, embedded from content hosting websites or via links to your pages on other sites?
• Priority
  - Which elements of your content are the most important to ensure people remember? Which pieces of work are your strongest or have the most 'commmercial' potential? If someone views only 1/5th of your website which part do you want to guarantee they see?
• Upkeep
  - How easy do you need maintaining your website to be? What time commitment can you realistically give to updating content and information or changing elements round to keep it fresh and engaging as well as relevant and up-to-date with your latest work? What level of technical skill would you need for the design you want?
• Cost
  - What are you willing to invest in the creation and long term maintenance of your website? How  much control or design complexity are you willing to sacrifice for keeping the cost low or free?

Please bring with you to the Wednesday session any rough design sketches, concept art, lists of information or website links, idea notes etc. that you have.

Following the group discussion, Matthew will be taking bookings for Thursdays to work with students 1-on-1 to set-up a basic website or assisting with planning the pipeline for creating a more ambitious site.