Expected duration: 1 - 2 weeks MICHAEL WHARLEY - WEBSITE DESIGN BRIEF August 2020
Brief: design and deliver either an upgrade to an existing wordpress photography site, a new theme adaptation for wordpress, or a site built on another architecture, that can be maintained, updated and populated with text and image content by me after rollout.
About:
- 10 year-old photography business www.michaelwharleyphoto.com
- portrait & advertising photography for brands, ad agencies & stage & screen sector.
- Previous brand at current site.
Currently being reworked by designer as understated, text-only version. 'Michael Wharley'
Colours:
Probably black and white, blue and white or grey and white.
Pages to include:
About, News and Galleries essential.
Current page layout of site is about right: overview/portraits/stage&screen/projects
There may be fewer galleries under projects or a different way to arrange the contents, depending on the way the
technical requirement 1) (below) is fulfilled. Stage and screen could be rationalised into portraits, with a separate
'commissioned' gallery for all the poster work.
Essential requirements:
- As I shoot different styles of work, I want the images to stand out with more backspace than on my current site, but I also want users to be able to click through to the work they are interested in as seamlessly/quickly as possible.
I imagine some arrangement whereby a single, well-proportioned image that features in a gallery, when clicked, opens up all of a project, or all of the images assigned to that image.
In this way, I can have fewer images in my galleries and allow people to navigate the what interests them. I haven't seen a site that does it really well yet, though a number have versions ( see below)
- Simple and classy appearance, allowing images to be foregrounded and navigation to be clear but out of the way
- Maintainable/adjustable by me after rollout, including facility to add pages and alter all menu headings.
- Easy SEO management.
- Newsletter sign up (currently achieved through mailchimp plug in and exit-related pop up).
- Socials and logos for twitter & insta only
- Sure this is obvious, but as slick on mobiles as laptop/desktop
Audience:
- Very niche audience: highly visually-literate audience of art buyers, advertising creatives and film/TV/theatre marketers. Looking to hire me for high-end work based on my photographic aesthetic, skill and professionalism.
- Clients find me through recommendations, direct mailing, referrals etc (rather than web searches in a crowded & competitive niche like the actors headshot or wedding photography fields), so while the site needs to be quietly effective and memorable, no sales, commerce or visitor-conversion infrastructure needed.
Competitors/References: * = favourite
https://alextelfer.com/ - simple navigation. Has the one-image-to-a-gallery technique, but the wide header image and the square thumbs layout not what I'm after.
* http://www.fiscusphoto.com/- like the scroll-down responsiveness and the 'rollover and reveal' gallery technique. He is so focused on just screen work that this maybe be a trifle bold for me, but do like it.
* http://deanrogers.co.uk/ - simple & classy, love the bold initial navigation and the way the menu minimises and expands. The way the galleries have one-image to reveal more is good, but the initial images seem a small,
http://guy-farrow.co.uk/ - like the widescreen initial image and the responsive loading scroll down, also, the one-image-for many is good. Navigation nice and simple, and the ability to filter work by type is nice. Maybe a little busy for my taste
* https://www.sebastiannevols.com/ -- really like the layout and simplicity of the site, and the way the images stand out individually, but also as hero images for a project. The click through to the gallery is nice. And this site structure means there don't have to be galleries of sorts of work.
https://philfisk.com/ - find this a bit hard to navigate
https://www.jasonbellphoto.com/ - the absolute don of my line of work. Very understated and a bit old school layout, but he can afford to be.
Budget and timeframe: up for discussing this, I've had an estimate at the time and work involved, but would appreciate a frank conversation with anyone who is up for fulfilling what I need, and paying fairly for the time and effort involved.
