adminAs an aspiring artist or designer, your work is your most important thing. The thing you will be known for and respected for is your work which is entirely visual and for it to be displayed it requires a great platform. A rarely-visited site nobody knows off and is on the tenth page of a search engine in unlikely to gain you any followers or customers.
Every artist and designer needs a good portfolio site, where they can display their work, knowing that it is likely to be seen by interested customers and admirers alike.
Here are some great portfolio sites for both designers and artists alike:
Deviant Art
This site has been around for a while, since 2000 to be precise, and they offer more than just a display case for photos and drawings, but also videos and various types of digital art. It has over 35 million users who display their art which is categorized differently. You can make your own profile shine by organizing your art into different folders, putting what matters at the top. It is a very interactive and socially oriented site which is sure to attract people.
Behance
This is another site that you absolutely must visit. It has many different options but its most notable is that it is more like a social media than just a portfolio site. You can have contacts, “appreciates”, find job postings and get in touch with actual galleries for a show. Your art will definitely find a home on this site, especially with how easy it is to sign up and organize your profile.
SmugMug
This is an online image hosting service which also allows for video uploads and facilitates sales of said images and videos. You can add watermarks and logos to your stuff and password protect it should the need be. Some images can be shared with only the people you know or want to share, as another layer of protection. SmugMug is the owner of Flickr, another great site for sharing art.
Squarespace
This site offers you not only the option to make your own templates and sell them to customers but to basically point and click and drag and drop to make a site. This works for developers who are yet to learn some essentials to coding and even more so for designers focused on art and design rather than the code itself.
Google+
Google+ is a social media which is well integrated on many sites and offers you a variety of circles on which you can showcase both your sites and your art. The +1 button is also integrated on many sites and can also be linked back to your profile and your work. While not a store, it can help you find customers and admirers very easily, which is great given that the access is free.
Designers and artists need their portfolios and online is the best way for the said portfolios to be seen. These sites will help you show off your work.