WTT/LFS: Will art for website

[retribution]

EDIT: Working with Scourge. Thanks for the input/help, everyone


Edit: Pulled the info from replies into first post.

So, I need a site built - something small and simple that I can use as a professional website to host my work at. It occurred to me that there are a lot of folks around here that could probably do this much more easily than I could - so here we are. I can provide most all of the graphics and have a solid idea of what I want, but am open to suggestions too.

[update]In terms of compensation, I will provide designs or illustrations for whatever you need - I'll put in a comparable number of hours as are put into the site, though I need an estimate at the start and a solid description of what you want and when you'd like it by.

[update]The site itself is small: an index/news page, an about/contact page, a links page, and a gallery page. The index/news and gallery need to use some kind of CMS (or similar) so that I can update them easily in the future, and I'd like to do the entire site with no frames and no flash. The gallery itself I'd like to keep as one page -- the image currently being viewed should take up most of the middle, with thumbnails by catagory running along the left side. I'm not married to that layout/setup, I'm really just concerned about simplicity and ease of use. I'd like the layout of the pages to be simple and clean, to send a professional kind of "here is my work" message. All of the navigation elements must be unobtrusive and in the same place on-screen in every page.

[update]Stylistically I want to do the whole site in extremely muted colors with graphics that have just a touch of texturey/rough goodness. Maybe its designed so that the backgrounds have an extremely faint canvas texture and all of the buttons have a faint iron texture and look like they're making a slight depression on the canvas. Dunno, just a thought.

[update 2]Extremely rough layout/design idea. Very preliminary, not attached to anything seen here.

What I like about this is
A:you can navigate either by clicking thumbnails or the arrows L/R on the image
B:the thumbnails are still present, even in the large image view
C:you can jump anywhere on the site from any page on the site

[update]Here are some websites I like and why I like them:
Howard Lyon - Main Page You can get to any of the galleries from the main page, and the layout is sparse without losing character. He's got nice buttons too.
Justin Sweet Simple but with some neat texture stuff running around everywhere.
Tinfoil Games - Daniel Dociu Cool design- neat layout.
Matt Gaser - Concept Artist Stylistically this site is extremely cool. Nice layout too. Not a fan of the way the galleries work using flash though.

I already have a host/domain ([update] steadfast.net. I've been happy with them but if there was a good reason to switch I'd be fine with that too). Here are a couple of samples of what I've been doing recently:

 

[Shadow(of)Death]

Who is the Host?

 

[scandal]

Those drawings look really sweet. Just wondering, could you give us an idea of how complicated you want your website to be? Some example websites would really help.

 

[retribution]

Shadow: I've been using steadfast.net .. At this point I've been happy with them but wouldn't mind a change if there was good reason for it.

Scandal: something more simple like Art of Mike Lee would be fine - certainly not opposed to something more flashy like Feng Zhu Design though.
Basically, I need three main pages- an index/news page, an about/contact page, and a gallery page. The gallery is the tricky part: most of the gallery page should be taken up by the image currently being viewed, along with arrows to cycle previous/next, and thumbnails in catagories running along one of the sides. I'd like to do this without flash and without frames (I'm going to toss a little watermark with a link on the bottom of every image and I'd like people to be able to download them. People also need to be able to link directly to a specific image on the site without having to navigate through flash stuff to get to it). And in a perfect world there'd be some kind of CMS involved that would automate the process of setting an image up with a thumb and its place in the gallery so I wouldn't have to add a bunch of code with each update.

 

[Terra]

I don't want to derail the thread here, but those look amazing, retribution.

Best of luck in your bright career.

 

[retribution]

thanks!

 

[Data]

You need to be very clear and very public about what you're looking for, how you want it to function, what (if any) upkeep and maintenance you're expecting, and the compensation you're offering. Consider any acceptance of work or any agreement to work as a verbal contract. Don't do this half-assed or people are going to get burned.

 

[retribution]

Part of the issue is that while I have a strong idea of what I want in concept, I really don't know how to implement it; I can't say exactly how it ought to work because I was expecting to hash that out with someone who has more experience in web design/coding than I do.

As far as upkeep/maintenance at this point lets say that after the site is up and running the job is done. In terms of compensation, I'll offer up a comparable amount of hours into an art/design task as are being put into the site - I'd like an estimate at the beginning of the project along with a description of what you'd like me to do and a timeline for when you'd like it done. For the record I'd like the website up by the end of April.

 

[succi]

If you have a strong idea, even try to sketch it out and explain the functionality you want. Create a little project brief you can hand off to someone and have them do a pass with their take on it. Even go so far as style, themes and visual effects you would like to try to see. Basically push their thought process on the the same page our on.

Also if you do try to get a CMS setup for it, you'll be looking at quite a heftier price tag. I'd go one step past what Data said and get a written contract going with deliverables and timeline, its good practice to not leave things floating as verbal contracts. It will show both people what needs to get done. If you want some legal shit I can give you a template of my older contracts for this type of work.

 

[retribution]

Succi: mmm.. Good idea. Will keep adding to OP. As CMSs go, I'd be fine with something like coppermine for the images and wordpress for the news, so long as it doesn't look like they came straight out of the box -- how much harder is it to do something like that?

If you could send a contract this way I'd be much obliged - and if you had any other advice or useful anythings I'd like to hear 'em too.

 

[Data]

It sounds like you already have a good idea what you want. If you're borrowing ideas from other sites then it's safe to assume it can be done. Just communicate... so this doesn't turn into another failed TW collaboration.