Matt Wells is a talented illustrator who is extremely active in the local art community. I always enjoy the chance to work with him and occasionally partake in some fine beer drinking. From providing illustration and design for annual events like the Red Hot Art Festival, to his own successful art shows, like 2009’s Rush Hour, he always produces high-quality noteworthy artwork. Some may also have noticed his work for 2008’s Doomtree release Hand Over Fist, which made my top 15 of that year.
I had designed and coded a very simple website for Matt years ago. It was completely static and tedious to update. Over the past few months he came to me for some new thoughts and advice in resolving some server problems. I suggested we migrate his current site into Wordpress. The biggest reason, his previous hosting provider was not secure. His website became listed as having malicious content (in Google’s eyes) and as a result, his domain was developing a bad reputation. I suggested he ditch that hosting provider because they obviously couldn’t resolve the security issues. After he received a humorous email from some Motorcyle-enthusiast wanting a link exchange it became increasingly necessary. He clicked the link in the email and was directed to a page on his site that was essentially a link farm. This was baffling to me and I have never seen this happen before. Long story short, he is now hosted elsewhere, securely and has Wordpress as a content management system.
Design Notes
The layout is extremely minimal, clean, holding some subtle touches. Above everything, it serves to provide the public with an overview of his stunning work. That was the most important goal of the website, as it should be with any artist portfolio site. I am a huge fan of big bold headings, in this case I used Helvetica. I feel the site is now professional, clean, easy to navigate and simple. His work can really shine and updating the various galleries of work could not be easier.
Visit: The New Lizardman Art Website
Let me know what you think!
