Working on my website
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Ahoy, lovely humans!
A wonderful friend helped me set up my website a few months ago, and I've just updated it this morning - I was hoping some of you would be up for taking a look and letting me know if there's anything I should add, take away or change. What do you think?
https://robynhepburn.com
My main aim for the next few months is to work on the portfolio itself, so feel free to tell me what you think the weakest pieces are!Thanks in advance for all your help!
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Hey Robyn, the Website is looking nice, i just have a few suggestions.
• i personaly think the subscription block in the middle of the Website awkward.
i would go for a pop up or put it down in the footer.
if people have to scroll past the subscription, maybe people will not scroll that far down. Its not a good placement.• The Text on the Picture on the Sketchbook site is not good readable. i would delete it or put it somewhere else
• the instagram part on the contact site is kind of big. if you show everything there, why should somone go take a look at your instagram?
Also beneath the section is much white space, at least on my computer.Also the lettering is so big an screamy. i would make it smaller.
• there is a lot going on on your about page, the lettering in the picture is bothering me again. Also you already told about you shortly on your Portfolio page (why?), it says portfolio?
Also the lettering is so so big again.
If you can, leave more space to the left and the right.
You have so many different sizes for your text, you should go with 3 different sizes, 1 - Titel text - 2 subheading and 3 - normal text.• you should rename your about Page because it says general 1. It's an easy fix and easily overlooked. Also happens to me.
Overall your website looks a bit busy, you can have a look at pinterest for inspiration. i already found a lot with a quick search that got me in spired
Just dont take a look at my website, because its way to clean and its a work in progress. I would like to add more life and illustrations to it
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@Robyn-Hepburn You have a good start here, but I do have a few ideas:
You want your site as simple and easily navigable as possible, with your art as the star. Your colors are way too bright and saturated, taking the focus off the artworks. Also, let each page be its own entity, removing all other sections, using your top menu for that. In other words, the Contact page should only have the contact form, no other section. The Sketchbook page should only have your sketchbook art, no other section, etc, etc.
Your home page should just be your portfolio, and it should be the first thing a visitor sees below the menu. You need to make a different page for the posters/editorial illustrations. Looking at your IG feed, you have some stronger pieces there that could be swapped out for perhaps the Jungle Book cover (needs stronger title type treatment) and diamond thief on the ostrich. Include some more vignette illustrations like the dalmatian in different poses, or the 2 kids playing with the blocks.
Take all the text off of the header illustrations. It is difficult to read.
Like Julia says above, the newsletter box would work better either at the bottom of the page, or as a pop-up (tho I despise pop-ups myself).
For the About page, might be best to reduce that to one section, eliminating the visual autobiography. In your text in the "short" section, I would move the "I like to explore..." part to the end, and the "Born and raised..." section to after "...friendship." If you keep the "Visual Autobiography", I would remove the "...setting up this website because people keep saying it's important." It is not needed and comes across negatively.
On the Contact page, I would move the IG feed to the About page, and reduce it to only about 3-4 posts.
And the Sketchbook page, if you keep the text, take off the words "Everybody knows that". Would be stronger if you just start with "My sketchbooks...". Also, some of the art there looks like finished illustrations. Maybe curate that section to only include ideation sketches, or other art that doesn't look like it could fit in your portfolio.
lastly, in your footer, none of the links work.
Let us know if/when you update it!
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@tom-barrett @von_Nimmermehr
Thank you both very much for your replies! I really appreciate all the feedback. I'm taking all of that into consideration and will be working on it this weekend.
It's funny that you both said about the busy colours: my initial idea for the website was that it would just be white with black type and all the colour would be from the art, but somehow it sneaked its way in and I didn't even realise! So I've already taken all that out and gone all minimalist.
P.S. I loath pop-ups too! -
I just too a look at your website and these are my thoughts. Overall it has a nice clean aesthetic but some parts are still rather busy or unnecessary. First off the branding with the rainbow that says Robyn Hepburn is very small so the image doesn't read well and the font is also kinda messy and hard to read. So I'd make the branding bigger and choose a cleaner style of lettering. I'd also capitalize the first letters of your name. I would also lose the contact form that is repeated on multiple pages. There is nothing more impersonal and that gives people more doubt that they will ever hear anything back than using a contact form. Just provide your email address for how to contact you. I would also lose the testimonials. I know that sounds weird but I think people will not read them they will just think having testimonials seems spammy. I'd also lose the about banner at the top of the portfolio. You could put that on the about page instead. The portfolio page should be for the portfolio. Another suggestion thats kinda take it or leave it is you might consider lumping the sketchbook stuff in with you main portfolio and calling it personal work. Then putting the professional work either on a different page or in a separate gallery on one main portfolio page like you have now and just lose the sketchbook page. Lastly I would shorten your bio and make it less busy (reduce use of different text sizes and formats) Also just a minor note the "subscribe to my substack thingy" is overlapping a bit with the text above so that could be move down a bit.
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From what I've heard with agents and editors and other illustrators, you might benefit with having closer to 20 pieces in your portfolio. 10 might be too few especially if most of them are of the same projects (same characters) so maybe 1 or two more projects might help?
I am not an expert, I'm still working on my portfolio and haven't made an official website yet. So take it with a grain of salt and maybe look into it yourself on how many pieces publishers and agents want to see in a portfolio. -
@Robyn-Hepburn Updates look better!
I will say that your home page/portfolio still has too much on it. Simplify by removing the testimonials, contact form, newsletter sign-up, and posters.
The About page looks great. Only thing I might change there is the either add a drop shadow or light background color to the newsletter sign up block to break up the page a bit.
On the Contact page, you have the IG feed again, but it is longer and smaller. Like I said earlier, might work better to have it on just the About page.
On the Sketchbook page, you have lost the sign up text in that block.
Simplifying is the best thing to keep in mind on your site for ease of use for your visitors.
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It’s great.I’m trying to make one and this helps.
