Be sure to use your actual name in the name of your site. (not a nickname or superhero name, etc.) Otherwise search engines will not work for someone who is trying to find your work. You might also add the word “portfolio” or “art work” or “design work” etc. if you like.

You need to be a fan of the subject of your dog, grrr… I mean blog, err… I mean portfolio website. Although WIX can have a blog component as a part of several of its template designs, we are not creating a blog. Furthermore, we are creating a DOCUMENTARY Portfolio Website (which is different from a PRESENTATION Portfolio Website. The difference between the two is explained on the main assignment page, HERE.

You also need to be an artist. In order to have a successful website, you truly need to enjoy the subject as much as the others that will be reading it. If you’re enthusiastic, others can’t help but catch that excitement.

Your Pacific email account cannot be used to open a WIX account. Therefore you will need another to do so. A google account and email is the easiest alternative to your U.Pacific email, if you do not already have another email address. If you need to create a Google account and email follow this link before proceeding to WIX.

At any time should you have technical questions or need additional assistance with setting up your site take a look at the additional tips and tutorials links at the top of this page.

The list contains the most basic instructions to get started with your portfolio website on WIX. Details about specific requirements can be found HERE. Read all the way through this information before you go there and begin:

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Choosing a Theme
If you are new to WIX, then you first need to Sign Up, or create an account. This is free. Once your account is set up, select a design template to select a theme for your site. You can do this either in the manual setup mode or by letting the WIX template assistant help give you a start. Choose Manual Set-up. Here you can explore and select the visual theme of your choice. Look at each one for the features and options that will best suit your needs. Be aware that you will need to replicate this look on your business card and résumé as well. (You cannot easily change to another theme once you start, so try to choose carefully). Should you wish to change themes, follow the directions found at the end of this section.

WIX offers many templates to choose from. Select one that projects a creative, artistic or design look, but also one that is professional in nature and mature enough that others will take you seriously. You will want to select fitting colors and fonts to go along with your theme and subject. Do not select a theme based on the picture or images you see at first. These are merely examples of where and how your images would be placed according to that particular theme. You will be replacing these images with your own. Color, typeface and column choices are a bit more critical. Look carefully at these options within your chosen theme. You are making your choice of template theme primarily based on how it organizes and treats page headings, images, colors and typefaces.

Once you have made your selection you will activate it by clicking the “Edit” button where you begin to customize its look and add the features you wish to have seen by visitors.

Make things stand out but don’t make them tacky and gaudy. There’s a difference between colorful and bad taste. Your choice of images should help make your written words more meaningful and vice versa. Your purpose is not to create a lot of unnecessary “bells and whistles” but instead provide the user with the best and most organized way to understand the content that you add. Themes are the equivalent of a rough framework that initiates the appearance. You can, and should, further customize this appearance to better present/organize your information and material, making it easily accessible to your viewers. Again, a reminder that this appearance must also be replicated in the design of your résumé and business card.

Click the blue Publish button in the upper right-hand corner to make your site “live”. This will generate a site address or URL. Copy that URL and email to me.

To Change Themes

Unfortunately, WIX does not allow you to simply apply a new theme or switch themes once you have started working on a site. However, you should be able to tell if the template you began with will work they way you would like it to relatively soon in the process. This means that at this point, you should not have a great amount of content in the site anyway and will make starting over much easier. So, to change your template you need to start over by creating a new site from a new template.

To do this, you have a choice of reentering/uploading your data in a new design or importing/transferring SOME of the content from the old or first template. This process is basically Copy and Paste. Refer to the link below for details of how to do this.

https://support.wix.com/en/article/switching-your-editor-template

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You will need to include artwork as well as writing on your website. Your first assignments in class will be short essay assignments on “What is Art?”, “What is Craft” and “What is Design” and a compare/contrast essay on “Creativity and Knowledge” as well as your personal biography and a separate personal artist biography. The general art essays will be placed on the Writings page and the personal writings will be on the About Me Page. Similarly, a main page/tab where we will find images from your sketchbook might be called “Sketchbook Drawings”. You could further organize this by placing Sketchbook Drawings under a page/tab called “Artwork”. That Artwork Page will further contain other subpages that are titled by medium (Drawing, Painting, Video, Graphic Design, Sculpture, 3D, 2D, etc.). This work will be work that you create in all your other classes, not just work that you create in this class. You will develop your portfolio further by adding resources, information, images, etc. about everything related to your interests as a designer/artist.

The list of all specific website requirements an be found at this link:
ARTS 73 Website Requirements

Additional helpful info to understand: “Pages” create category Tabs. They are organization tools. In other words, you might have a “Page” entitled “Artists”. Under that category tab or “Page” one might find different papers or paragraphs that are each individually about different artists. Under a different “Page”, entitled “Techniques”, one might find methods for doing silkscreen, as well as digital printing or woodcarving. The number of pages and what they are called is mostly up to you. “Parent” pages are the main tabs that you want other content to fall under as a sub-page.

Remember that after any new addition you must hit the Save button for those new pages to show up. When you alter an already existing Page, remember to hit the Update button for those new changes to take effect. To make your site visible to others you must Publish it.

Hyperlink link allow you to connect to other sites on the internet or to other pages on your site directly by simply selecting any key word that you type in and assigning a web address to it. Add the web address by first selecting the key word then clicking the chain link in the menu section. 

It is up to you to be an artist and turn the site into something beautiful, useful and meaningful. Post your thoughts, add pictures, quotes, questions, links to other sources and articles, gallery exhibitions, innovative design, design firms, new products, new directions in design/art. Think about what things you want to know that will make you a better artist/designer. Go for it!

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SOME BASIC TIPS FOR WIX

Once you have a WIX account and selected a theme you are ready to begin your site! Be sure you are in the WIX Editor environment. If you are not you won’t be able to add pages/tabs or change/add content to those pages. You will know you are in the WIX Editor if you can see the Main Tools Menu on the left side of your screen. It will look like the image below with the vertical column of white circles containing large icons. You will also see dashed lines which define the main page area and the header area (anything in this area appears on all pages):

If you DO NOT see the above then you are probably not in the WIX Editor and are in the ADI Editor instead. To switch to the correct WIX Editor press on the “Site” tab and select the “Switch to WIX Editor” option located at the bottom of the menu.

It is also helpful to make the tool bar menu visible. Find this under the “Tools” tab and check the box in front of the “Toolbar” option. It will show up on the right hand side of your screen.

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To create a new page, or edit an existing one do the following:

• Click the page icon at the top of the column of icon/symbols (located on the upper left-hand side of the WIX editor) This will open the Site Menu Window.
• Click on an existing page title in the Site Menu window
• New pages will be added below your selected page
• You can drag pages to a new location to rearrange them in the Site Menu
• Click the ADD PAGE button at the bottom of the window (pay close attention to the small light blue icons located to the right of the ADD PAGE button. One adds a folder, not a page. The other allows you to add a URL address to other web content.)

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To Edit an existing Page do one of the following:

• Click the page drop down menu (located just to the right of the WIX logo)
• Click the page icon at the top of the column of icon/symbols (located on the upper left-hand side of the WIX editor) This will open the Site Menu Window.

 

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To add text (or images, buttons, shapes, videos, music, etc.) do the following:

• Go to the page you wish to add elements to (see above)
• Click the + button from the column of icon/symbols.
• Choose the kind of text treatment for the words you are adding (paragraph, heading, title) You can further change or tweak this look in the Edit Text window.

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Once text has been added, you can edit its look by doing the following:

• click in the text box to select it
• highlight individual words or phrases if necessary, otherwise your changes will apply to the entire text  box.
• click the small edit text button attached to the top of the text box
• make changes of size, typeface, alignment, color, hyperlinks to other web pages, etc.
  

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Follow this link to a short tutorial on how to add the Comments APP to your website. This will allow me to comment on your progress directly on your website pages. At the end of the semester you can delete this if you would like.

Then, click the blue Publish button in the upper right corner. Copy the URL from the resulting address bar and email that URL address to me. Be sure to type the words “Portfolio Website” in the subject line.

Be sure to activate the Comments option. This wil allow me to comment directly with you on your website. To do this, do the following:

• Add Apps
• Communication
• Comments
  

https://youtu.be/h7u44hJJrYg?si=u8krrleU-hSrhG3N

 

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Finally, you are ready to add specific information. Details for adding all this required information are found HERE..