livebooks blog

Photographer Bruce Racine has one of the coolest homepages we’ve ever seen – and that’s just the beginning of his fantastic website. Read on to get a glimpse of his site and head on over to www.bruceracine.com to see more!

Q: How would you describe the aesthetic of your website in three words?

BR: Simple Delivery Vehicle (for the complexity of photography)

Q: How do you choose the imagery for your homepage?

BR: I use a flash graphic that is a holdover from my previous liveBooks website. I like having a more generic welcome to the site that graphically represents the photo process.

Q: How often do you update your website?

BR: I aim for every eight weeks but have taken up to six months due to being too busy.

Q: What is your favorite feature that liveBooks offers?

BR: The editSuite. Very simple uploading and organizational process that has a visual interaction basis. I also like that I know exactly how the images will fit into the design of the website without continual redesign.

Q: What’s one piece of advice you’d offer to someone designing their website?

BR: In the case of photography, make sure the design doesn’t overpower the imagery. Keep it simple to let the work you are trying to promote speak for itself.

Have a website you’d like us to feature? Email us at social@livebooks.com.

Photo-stylist Lisi has an incredibly bright, colorful, and eye-catching website. We just love the pop in her images and the way it draws us in and makes us keep clicking – we had to share it with you as our featured website this week.

Check out the sneak peak below and head on over to www.lisidesigns.com to see the full site!

Q: How would you describe the aesthetic of your website in three words?

LD: I would describe my website as colorful, simple-clean, and stylish.

Q: How do you choose the photos that you display on your homepage?

LD: I select images that represent me. As a stylist I receive images from different sources and for that reason, I have two ways of selecting the images that will go on my site. When the images are either from a client or a photographer I make my selection when I feel a profound connection with the image. I don’t necessarily select an image because I worked on it or even because it’s published. Sometimes in the same story there is an overwhelming amount of variations of the same image so I select the image that speaks to me…the one that makes me the happiest. When there is an image that I personally photographed and styled, I choose the image that I connect with and that feels good. I call it “complete” when I don’t get tired of staring at it. I also use the same strategy when I rotate images out of the website. If I’m tired of looking at the image, it’s time to rotate it or time to replace it.

Q: How often do you update your website?

LD: As soon as I finish a job that I’m super proud of, I just cannot wait to add the new images to my site. So, with that being said, as soon as the images are ready I make the time to include them in the site. Sometimes as often as weekly.

Q: What is your favorite feature that liveBooks offers?

LD: My favorite feature that liveBooks offers has to be the editSuite and the navigation. In my industry when looking for talent you only have a minute to look through hundreds of websites, so having an easy-to-navigate structure is a plus for a client; you really want that person to concentrate on the illustrated work.

Q: What’s one piece of advice you’d offer to someone designing their website?

LD: To somebody designing their website I would suggest to look at sites that they like and gather a list of “whys.” Then contact a support specialist at liveBooks to discuss the design. liveBooks has an incredible amount of great templates that are simple and easy to manage. Another piece of advice is to keep the web design simple. At times a simply designed template and a good support specialist is all that’s needed or at least a great start.

Have a website you’d like us to feature? Email us at social@livebooks.com!

Eric Smith, an award-winning director, designer, and photographer, has not only gorgeous images but an incredibly clean and focused website that we are honored to feature this week.

Q: What type of work do you specialize in?

ES: I am a professional photographer working for EcoMedia, a division of CBS, but I have a passion for fine art photography and wanted a place to showcase that aspect of my work. Image making is my life and liveBooks helped me to bring a beautiful website to life without enormous expense or weeks of work.

Q: Did you use a pre-designed template or was it custom-built?

ES: I used a pre-designed template with some customization.

Q: How long did it take you to create your site?

ES: 1-2 weeks to generate all the content. The actual launch of the site took about a week.

Q: What’s your favorite aspect of your site thus far?

ES: I love that the site is clean and not overly designed. The images are the stars. I have also gotten feedback that the site is really easy to navigate. The rotating images on the homepage keep the site fresh. I’m also a fan of how easily the CMS allows me to add content. Uploading a new photo set is a breeze, so the name liveBooks is very appropriate. www.esmithimages.com is truly a living catalog of my craft.

Have a website you’d like us to feature? Email us at social@liveBooks.com.

We have one word for photographer Blair Bunting’s website: stunning. Not only because of the stellar visuals and imagery, but we love the fluid, easy-to-navigate design that simply pulls the user in.

Read on to get the inside scoop in his site’s creation, and don’t forget to go to www.blairbunting.com to see more!

Q: How would you describe the aesthetic of your website in three words?

BB: Simple, Symmetric, Solid.

Q: How do you choose the photos that you display on your homepage?

BB: The images on the landing page were chosen over a period of months. We would go through tons of images and specific crops of those images to see if the angles and colors were catching. When it was all said and done, we were lucky that the selection that was made also had a broad representation of my portfolio.

Q: How often do you update your website?

BB: I update some aspects of my site, like the blog, quite regularly. During the busier times of the year, I will add one to two posts a week. As for the main site, I update it when new work is allowed to be shown (usually after an embargo).

Q: What is your favorite feature that liveBooks offers?

BB: By far my favorite aspect of liveBooks is their customer support. I spent many hours on the phone and corresponding through emails with them to make the site perfect. Not only did they make changes quickly, but they helped to give ideas to creative and stylistic ways to implement the changes.

Q: What’s one piece of advice you’d offer to someone designing their website?

BB: Make sure it represents you. All too often sites for photographers seem to be showing off the website designer’s strengths at the cost of showing the photographer’s portfolio in a way that is not distracting. When we designed my site, we asked ourselves, “what does it need to show?” Anything that wasn’t a necessity was left out, and what resulted was truly a clean representation of my work.

Have a website you’d like us to feature? Email us at social@livebooks.com!