My Top 5 Tips for Creating a Killer Passion Project Website
So you have an idea for a passion project? Amazing! But an idea is just an idea unless you put in the work to bring it to life. You've heard me talk about the benefits of having a creative passion project. I've gushed over the impact that they've have had on my career. Having the idea for the project is the first step, but actually making the project is the most important part of the process.
Once you have your big idea for a passion project, I know it may seem like a daunting task to bring it to life...which can cause you to put off the project completely (been there, done that). But not anymore! I've partnered with Wix to show you the exact things to add to make your passion project website more effective (and how simple it is to make one with Wix's templates + website builder).
My Flour Crowns passion project website, designed with Wix. Check it out here!
Here are 5 things you should always include in your passion project website to stand out:
1. A layout that complements and shows off your artwork!
You want a stream of big beautiful images. Since the goal of your passion project should be to entice people with your work so they can hire you, make sure your artwork looks amazing in your layout. No tiny images. No unnecessary banners, borders or embellishments on your images. No distracting background colors; I’m a big fan of white or really light pastel colors for website backgrounds, like this Wix template does beautifully. Your content should be the star of the show! Think of your passion project images like cupcakes: bigger is better. My Flour Crowns website above is designed to show you one big image at a time, so you can soak up all the bready goodness.
2. A layout that is SUPER easy and quick to navigate.
In short, you want to make it easy for people to binge on your project content. Ideally, someone should be able to scroll through your site and see everything, smoothly and swiftly. For this reason, I love choosing layouts that display large images all in one feed on the homepage, like this template from Wix. You can see how my Flour Crowns site only really has two pages: the homepage of images you can scroll through + the About page with more of my information. You should design your passion project website with the assumption that someone has barely any time to look at it. Think of your passion project as your ‘elevator pitch’ to someone on the internet.
3. A snappy tagline or brief description of the project.
I always make sure to include a sentence or two on the homepage that gives a brief description of the project. This helps viewers to quickly understand what your website is all about. Since we live in age of constant jumping around on the internet and social media, our attention spans are shorter than ever. A short and clever tagline is a great way to help capture someone’s attention, and it shows off a little bit of your personality right off the bat. I went with ‘Toastess with the mostess” for Flour Crowns (and my social media handle) to complement the fun images.
4. An easy way to contact you.
If someone stumbles across your work for the first time and falls in love with it, there’s a good chance they’ll want to know more about you. They might even want to get in touch with you right away. Make sure to include easy-to-find links to:
See more of your work on your portfolio
Follow you on social media
Email you directly
Basically, you just want to make it easy for someone to contact you if they are interested in your work. I have my contact information in my About page of my Flour Crowns website, but another great way to let people get in touch is by simply adding a contact form to the bottom of your homepage, like this fresh Wix template does.
5. A design that looks great on desktop AND on mobile.
I used to mostly view websites on my computer, but in the past couple of years, I’ve noticed that I’ve switched to reading articles, browsing galleries of images, and even shopping for clothes on my phone. You should assume that just as many people are going to view your passion project website on their phones while sitting in bed as will view your project from their laptops. Make sure your website looks as good on your phone as it does on your laptop!
I hope these simple tips help make creating your passion project website seem a little less complex. Coming up with an idea that you’re excited about is a huge accomplishment on its own, so don’t just stop there. Putting in the extra effort to bring your idea to life is definitely worth it, and with Wix’s intuitive website building tools available to you, there’s no reason why you shouldn’t!
All it takes is your creativity, a little dragging and dropping, and you’ll be able to customize your passion project with ease in no time. Depending on your web design savviness, you can start from scratch or use one of their many templates as your base. I’m all about finding tools that help me get my ideas out into the world more easily, and Wix does just that.
Keep on creating! I can’t wait to see what you’ll come up with.
Love, Lauren
