Websites with Squarespace – Your Online CV

Design, Build, Share. This Squarespace design class will help you build a portfolio / CV website from start to finish. Using the Squarespace online platform, you will learn how to select and register a domain name, work with page layout templates and design, add your portfolio images and text content, style your site and ultimately publish it to the web.

As an artist, you’ve certainly accumulated a body of work.  You keep a running CV, post on social media and perhaps, exhibit your creations. But, having a permanent place online to display your work, describe your goals and keep people up to speed on what you’re doing can be not only a critical step in advancing your reach but also very rewarding. Having a website is a great way to share your work easily.

With Squarespace and it’s a unique visual design tool, you can create content using a very DIY approach. Themes and layouts are easily accessible via the interface and present various page layout and design starting points. Squarespace is known for it’s clean, simple and modern looking designs so it lends itself quite well to creatives and artists. The page designs can be edited globally so that a uniform design look can be easily maintained. Adding and changing content is simple and intuitive, as the content is separated from design. Need to add images, or modify text? Just change or add the content and the styling is already there.

Materials required:

• Materials required:
  Registered Squarespace account. If you’re unsure of this step, you may wait, as we will go through all the options, pros/cons, etc during Week 1.
• Minimum of 10 jpeg images (min 1800px) of your work to use in the site design. Bring more if you wish, but please choose images you want to use ahead of time.
• Full or partial CV to work with.
• Draft “Bio” and “Artist Statement”
• Website examples you like.

Class Outline:
Week 1
– Setup
– Squarespace 7.1 (latest version) intro, what is Squarespace (SaaS)
– Choosing domain name
– Choosing a plan
   https://www.squarespace.com/pricing
– Templates Intro
– Create a sitemap (wireframe), rough site content / assets
– Start – site content, about / cv / statement, assets, logo, colors, fonts
– 30 min Q&A / Lab / Assignment (each week)

Week 2
– 15 min Q&A / help (each week)
– Dashboard Tour
– Templates
– Style themes – Global style changes to your site, section styles.
– Versatile template – Templates interchangable
– Add pages / understanding navigation
– 30 min Q&A / Lab / Assignment (each week)

Week 3
– Page Sections
– Block, Gallery, Collection, Footer Sections
– Squarespace support and knowledge articles- Complete site content, about / cv / statement content, etc

Week 4
– Header / Footer
– Header and footer layouts
– Banner Sections
– Banner images – Add banners to any page
– Mobile Styling editable parameters, and automatic mobile styling – sites adapting to mobile view.

Week 5
– Pages and content
– Images and video
– Design, Logo & Title / Design, Site Styles
– Site Design & Styles, Texts, Buttons

Week 6
– Blog / Ecommerce
– SEO / Marketing
– Settings, Social Links
– Google Search, Google Search Console (submitting to indexes)
– Site Maintenance
– Questions, Final Presentation