exegesis
Explaining the choices I have made when creating my web presence.
Since the appearance of Web 2.0, an extensive trail of information fragments about people can be accessed online instantly in a Google search. This has a significant influence on individual reputations because judgments are made based on a mosaic of information about people (Solove, 2007). But by taking advantage of the available Web 2.0 tools, it is possible to create a personal portfolio that gives us more control over the information about us presented online. For my personal web presence as aspiring illustrator, I have decided to create a website as the central node and link to several Web 2.0 tools as contributing nodes. From these contributing nodes I am also linking back to my website. I am currently studying Fine Arts and I see myself as amateur who wants to make a start presenting my works online and therefore decided to create a website where I can post images of completed and uncompleted works as well as videos. To construct my online personality, I have chosen various Web 2.0 tools that relate to the creative fields of art and illustration, but are also important social networking platforms.
After comparing the two freely available website builders Google Site Builder and Wix, I decided to create my central node using Wix because it features a relatively easy to use drag and drop editor. With both site builders you can choose a template and then edit your website as you wish without much technical knowledge. And although Google Site Builder offers a lot more editing options, I found it to be a little more difficult to jump right in and build my website. For the design of my website I chose one of my own paintings as background image and matched the colour of one of the pink drops with the font colour for the website title, navigational menu and links. By choosing the colour from my artwork for most of the fonts, I am aiming to achieve a visual consistency. “Creating a consistent visual system aids in predictability and eases reorientation” (Kahlbach, 2007, 241).
To keep my overall web presence consistent, I used a clipping from my background image as profile picture for all my contributing nodes. I chose a light green colour, complementary to pink for the page selectors. For the other subsequent pages, I chose a shaded background to differentiate an easy to read white font from the background, as I didn’t want to bring in any extra colours. The homepage features an image slider to give an insight into my work at a first glance. All in all I wanted to keep the website as minimalistic as possible to focus on my artworks without too much text.
I decided to add a variety of Web 2.0 tools and added black and white icons to the left hand side of every page. The black and white icons fit better into my personal design than the original coloured versions.
The first Web 2.0 tool I decided to use is Twitter, because I like the microblogging idea, sending out short snippets of information, as Leaver (2007) suggests: “In the world of social software, the coolest and probably the smallest is Twitter, which allows users to post entries of no more than 140 characters". I also find Twitter a great tool for following what other artists or illustrators have to say. Because I am relatively new to Twitter, I still have a small following base. The second contributing node is Del.icio.us, an online bookmarking and tagging tool, where I can share interesting websites, blogs or articles related to arts and illustration. The third Web 2.0 tool is Bēhance, a platform where artists can showcase their own and also discover other creative work. I have chosen Bēhance because it is currently one of the most popular online portfolio networks that is easy to use. As an amateur, I can share finalised projects and also works that I am currently working on. The fourth contributing node is Pinterest, a website where users can pin, organise and share “beautiful things’ they find interesting. I find that Pinterest is a good tool to find inspiration for my artworks. Although mainly focused on photography, I have also added Flickr to the list of contributing nodes, because it is such a popular platform and I believe that it can be helpful in finding recognition for my artworks at a later stage. I had previously posted a stop go animation video on Youtube for another University module and therefore decided to also include Youtube as contributing node.
On each contributing node I uniformly customised my profiles as much as possible. This included making sure they all show the same recognisable profile picure and the same information about me. I loaded images of my artworks onto Flickr and Bēhance and added tags to the content on Del.icio.us, Bēhance and Flickr.
According to Helmond (2010) “Search engines are often used to find people either for business or personal purposes and in an era in which “You’re a Nobody Unless Your Name Googles Well”, it is important to boost your visibility in search engines”. This is why the creation of my web presence is essential for creating a trustworthy online identity for me as an illustrator in the future. Together with my website as central node, the Web 2.0 tools Twitter, Del.icio.us, Behance, Pinterst, Flickr and Youtube will help to build an online reputation that I can manage, continuously enhance and most importantly have some kind of control over.
Bibliography:
Kahlbach, James ( 2007). Designing Web Navigation. Sebastopol, CA: O’Reilly Media
Solove, D., (2007). How the Free Flow of Information Liberates and Constrains Us, in The Future of Reputation: Gossip, Rumor and Privacy on the Internet. Retrieved from http://docs.law.gwu.edu/facweb/dsolove/Future-of-Reputation/text/futureofreputation-ch2.pdf
Tama Leaver (2007) ‘It’s a Small World After All: From Wired’s Minifesto to the Twitterati’, Tama Leaver dot Net, March 11. Retrieved from http://www.tamaleaver.net/2007/03/11/its-a-small-world-after-all-from-wireds-minifesto-to-the-twitterati/
Anne Helmond (2010) ' Identity 2.0: Constructing identity with cultural software.' Anne Helmond. New Media Research Blog. Retrieved from http://www.annehelmond.nl/wordpress/wp-content/uploads//2010/01/helmond_identity20_dmiconference.pdf