livebooks blog

Darryl Anderson is a 26-year-old fashion and product stylist from New Orleans, LA. He started out at the age of 16 and has been fortunate enough to consistently work in his field. Darryl originally started off styling local fashion shows, but then moved away and started marketing himself as a stylist. Like any journey, he is constantly looking to grow and level up!

Q1: How would you describe the aesthetic of your website in three words?

DA: My website is 3 words. Precise, Chic,Timeless.

Q2: How often do you typically update your website?

DA: I update my website often, usually as new work is released. You never know who is looking so I like to keep it fresh and inspiring!

Q3: How do you choose the photos that you display on your homepage?

DA: For my homepage I tried to choose a few images that represent the overall feel of my work taking some of my best images from each genre of my styling is usually the route I take. Showcasing all races is very important to me. I am stylist for the people!

Q4: What is your favorite feature of liveBooks?

DA: My favorite features would be just the overall customization the new font options and layouts are super nice definitely has a more professional feel!

Q5: What’s one piece of advice you’d offer to someone designing their website?

DA: Keep it clean. I’ve had a website for about 7 years now and I’ve tried a ton of different varieties from music to loud colors. I would say based it around your business look at other sites that provide the same service you do just to get ideas. Over the years I have found simple is the best, keep it about the work with clear communication for your viewers on how to get in contact with you!

See more of Darryl Anderson’s work here: www.styledbydarryl.com

Cassandra Plavoukos was born and raised in southern New Jersey. Her interest in photography started in grade school and continued throughout high school, shooting film back then. When she graduated, she moved to New York City to pursue a career in the business side of fashion, as she didn’t think that a career in photography was possible at that time. Cassandra lived and worked in New York City for 16 years.

Cassandra Plavoukos continued taking pictures, and was shooting digitally by this time. She relocated to Los Angeles in 2003 and continued working in the fashion industry, taking pictures on the weekends to fulfill my creative passion.

Then, her first child was born in 2005. Instead of a traditional “baby book”, she self-published a book of poems entitled, When You Grow Up, which expressed her hopes and dreams for his childhood and beyond. She illustrated the book with images that she had taken of his first-year milestones. The images were taken with a point and shoot camera. The book was successful among family and friends and was sold online as well. The book was also accepted into a book fair. To celebrate, her husband bought me my first DSLR, a Nikon D90, and encouraged her to continue shooting. With a new camera, she knew she had to up her game.

Cassandra Plavoukos began to really look at her images with a critical eye. She knew she could do better. Her mentality shifted. She began to focus on “making” pictures instead of “taking” them. She started looking for photography classes to learn more about photography and landed at UCLA extension where an instructor by the name of Josh Sanseri encouraged and inspired her even further.

After completing the Environmental Portraiture class there, she wanted more intense study, and enrolled in the certificate of photography program at Santa Monica College. After completing that program, she started taking classes at Julia Dean, which is now the Los Angeles Center Of Photography. Her daughter was born in 2009 and knew by then that photography was something she wanted to pursue full time. She decided to leave the fashion industry. Then, she incorporated Cassandra Plavoukos Photography, got a liveBooks website, business license, tax registration, and never looked back!

Cassandra Plavoukos now focuses on dance, athletic, fine art fitness and creative portraiture and couldn’t be happier doing what she loves.

Q&A with Cassandra Plavoukos

Q1: How would you describe the aesthetic of your website in three words?

CP: Clean. Modern. Minimalistic.

Q2.How often do you typically update your website?

CP: Once or twice per month.

Q3. How do you choose the photos that you display on your homepage?

CP: I try to showcase the most recently commissioned or self-assigned work to highlight on my homepage. Keeping in mind the overall aesthetics of the site, I consider not only how the images will sit together, but how they will work together to give the best “overview” of the contents within.

Q4. What is your favorite new feature of liveBooks?

CP: Hard to choose! I love the drag and drop design as well as the varied portfolio views, but because I update my site so often, I think I would have to say the site wide styling and page-level styling features.

Q5.What’s one piece of advice you’d offer to someone designing their website?

CP: Let liveBooks do it for you! But know who you are as an artist and what defines your work. This will help you to work with them to create the best website possible.

Howie Lee Weiss is a professional studio artist and also professor of fine arts. Known for stylized, precise, graphic imagery, Howie Lee Weiss’s artworks have been reviewed in such publications as Art in America, The Boston Globe, The Philadelphia Inquirer and The Baltimore Sun.

Weiss’s iconic drawings have been exhibited in galleries in New York, Philadelphia, Boston, and Washington, DC. His artwork has also appeared in venues throughout Italy. In Japan, Weiss lectured with the Keisho Art Association in conjunction with an exhibit that featured his extensive, free-style sketchbook practice.

He has been teaching at MICA – Maryland Institute College of Art since 1979. At MICA, he oversees the Senior Thesis Program for the 2-D Fine Arts, as well as having taught all level of classes within the college. As a child, Howie Lee Weiss loved drawing pictures which led to art college for his BFA and eventually to Yale School of Art & Architecture where he received his MFA.

Search – 49 x 44 Humankind’s ongoing continuum of curiosity is at the core of these narratives. Drawn pictures with titles such as Wonder, Quest and Search describe the types of universal pursuits that seem central to all people.

Q&A with Howie Lee Weiss

Q1: How would you describe the aesthetic of your website in three words?

HLW: Elegant, clean, informative.

Q2: How often do you typically update your website?

HLW: As new drawings are produced, they may fit into existing categories or require a new category in itself. This varies with time. Additionally some drawings may be edited out of the website, therefore not only adding is important but subtracting becomes essential also.

Ensemble – 8 x 7 Minor but multiple variations based on simple shapes assemble together to form large collections. Each small drawing shares wall space with its numerous, almost identical partners; thus the individual becomes part of the larger population.

Q3: How do you choose the photos that you display on your homepage?

HLW: I put 6 drawings together in one j-peg so viewers could see all 6 works at once – giving somewhat of a mini overview. I plan to change the home page from time to time.

Global – 52 x 45

Q4: What is your favorite feature of liveBooks?

HLW: Ease of navigation.

Q5: What’s one piece of advice you’d offer to someone designing their website?

HLW: Balance – not too much – not to little – and organize.

See more from Howie Lee Weiss here: www.howieleeweiss.com

Song – 56 x 47

Jane Gottlieb has been expressing her joy of art with paint, shapes and colors since she was very young. She started as a painter, evolved into a photographer, and eventually began hand-painting on her Cibachrome prints over 35 years ago. Before Photoshop she found a way to express a new magical reality with the vivid, saturated and unrealistic colors she painted into each photographic print.

“My passion is to paint, collage and enhance them with Photoshop, creating my own idyllic wonderful uplifting world! I have had my website with liveBooks for many many years & have always been proud of my site & I am told over & over how people love my website!”

Right now Jane is having a 4 month exhibition entitles “Jane Gottlieb Photographs France” at the Art, Design & Architecture Museum at UCSB!

Q&A with Jane Gottlieb

Q1. How would you describe the aesthetic of your website in three words?

JB: Colorful, easy, engaging.

Q2:. How often do you typically update your website?

JB: Never enough…every 3-6 months!

Q3: How do you choose the photos that you display on your homepage?

JB: My favorite image at the moment!

Q4: What is your favorite new feature of liveBooks8?

JB:For me it’s the thumbnails running on the bottom…

Q5: What’s one piece of advice you’d offer to someone designing their website

JB: Try to keep it simple…& utilize the great help offered by your friendly service people!!

Jane’s art has been shown worldwide in many solo exhibitions including:
Butler Institute of American Art, Ohio; Carnegie Art Museum, Oxnard, CA; Laguna Art Museum, CA; Petersen Automotive Museum, LA, CA;
LA County Natural History Museum, CA; Monterey Museum of Art, CA; Nancy Hoffman Gallery, NYC, NY; L’Image Gallery, Rome, Italy; Louis Stern Gallery, West Hollywood, CA; Wall Space, Santa Barbara, CA.

See more of Jane’s work here: https://janegottlieb.com/