This was a website design and development project for an independent artist who wanted to display their work and hope to sell their pieces to people online. This project was completed whilst working as a WordPress Developer at Impact IT Solutions.
The Process
The project was to initially get a portfolio gallery site live to display the artist’s exquisite work, background and social media. This was accompanied by a stretch goal to get a small e-commerce store online for Allan to sell printed copies of his art to people who may wish to buy them.
With this in mind, I decided to attack the project in two parts and split each part into 3 phases. Part 1 was for the main site, and the phases included, design, development and then maintenance and launch. Part 2 would then focus on the e-commerce side. The 3 parts would then be split into the same phases as part 1.
Design
The client had an idea as to how they wanted their site to look, so I used examples of other artist’s websites and a art gallery site to create a simple and minimal cross between a portfolio and art gallery site and the client was very happy. The e-commerce site was then kept consistent with the main site.
Development
The main website was developed using WordPress and Elementor Builder with a range of plugins. Elementor enables me to build the site in the correct layers and blocks and it allows the site to be responsive to all screen sizes.
Launch
The site is hosted on the company’s server using Plesk Obsidian. The launch of the site was smooth and will continue to get maintenance and updates as long as Plesk lasts.
Hindrances
There were some hindrances with this project. In specific, with the artists Instagram. I tried to embed their instagram feed into their site, however, I tried to follow GDPR as much as possible and tried to find ways to embed it without needing their personal details. However, it proved that I did need their details. So to comply with GDPR, I had not shred it with anyone else and I have the saved in a file which is locked behind a password that only I have access.
Conclusion
To conclude, this website proved to be a great project. What started out as a simple project ended up becoming a great opportunity to apply some stretch goals and expand my experience and boundaries. This is a great piece to have in my arsenal.
You can find the website here:
