Notes on artist websites

I wanted to put together a few simple notes drawn from designing and building websites for artists and galleries over the years.

A bespoke website is not only about design. It is also about how the content is organised, how easily it can be updated, and the tools that might be useful to each artist.

It isn’t a manual, but a few reflections on what a website can offer beyond a portfolio.

Instagram is immediate. It is the poster: a new work, a glimpse of the studio, an exhibition announcement.

A website is the book. It brings works, exhibitions and texts into a structured relationship, with room for context and time to explore.

The poster draws someone in; the book lets them stay. Both matter, and each has its role.

How should the work be encountered? As individual pieces, a sequence, or through the context of an exhibition?

I like to begin with these questions when designing an artist website.

Image proportions, typography, navigation and the rhythm of the page are considered together. Space gives rhythm, just as silence gives meaning in music.

The interface should never compete with the work. It should give it the right setting.

A CMS, or content management system, organises the content behind a website.

For an artist, it can begin with a central archive of artworks: images, titles, dates, materials, dimensions and edition details.

With a carefully built structure, this information can serve the work pages, exhibitions, online shop and private selections, rather than being assembled again for each purpose.

The archive becomes a starting point, not simply a record.

Updating the website should not mean redesigning it.

To add an artwork or exhibition, you enter the information and upload the images through a simple online form in the CMS.

I organise the collections and fields around the artist’s practice, so that the editing space is clear and relevant.

Once published, the content appears within the layouts already designed for it. There is no need to touch the structure of the site or write any code.

Not everything needs to be presented to everyone.

A private view can bring together works for a collector, a curator or a future exhibition, with the appropriate images, details and introductory text.

Selections can be drawn from the existing archive and shared through a dedicated page, with access protection where needed. It is a way of giving a particular conversation its own online space.

An online shop should feel like part of the website, not a separate environment.

Some works may be available to purchase directly. Others may invite an enquiry. Selected works can also be offered through privately shared pages, outside the public shop.

These approaches can coexist. The choice is not only about price, but about how the artist wishes to sell and the relationship surrounding the work.

The website can also support the documents that accompany an artwork.

With a bespoke setup, artwork and edition details held in the online archive can be used to generate a certificate of authenticity directly within the website, formatted for printing or saving as a PDF.

Information already recorded becomes useful beyond the screen, without preparing each document from scratch.

Different platforms serve different needs. For a simple portfolio, a template may be enough.

Artlogic brings websites and broader art-management tools together within an established system. It offers ready-made themes, with bespoke website design available as a separate service.

I like working with Webflow because it allows me to shape the design and the CMS together, with room to build specific tools around the artist’s needs.

The question is not which platform offers the most features, but which approach fits the way the artist works.

With AI tools, generating a website from a few instructions is an appealing possibility. But I am just as interested in what happens after that first version.

How will new work be added? How are changes published? Who looks after hosting and security?

This is another reason I value a managed platform such as Webflow: the artist has a clear way to edit and publish content, while the provider manages hosting and platform security.

For me, the freedom to create something individual should not come at the cost of a complicated website to maintain.

Creating a website is one thing. Living with it is another.

Each artist has their own rhythm. The role of a website is not to impose, but to reveal it.

Not every feature belongs in every website. What matters is choosing what serves the practice, now and as it evolves.

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