When a photographer I’ve been working with tells me that they’ve updated their site with the new web edit, I immediately stop what I’m doing to go check it out. Seeing the images on their site is a different experience from seeing the edit on Bridge or Moodshare. With Edis Jurcys, a Lithuanian born photographer based in Portland, I was completely surprised when I entered his site. Not only did I find the edit we worked on together, but it was a completely different site! Edis also worked with one of our designers, Joey Pasko, on a whole new website template and logo.
When I first went to Edis’ site, it was difficult to decipher exactly who his target clients were. He had several galleries, each containing a mix of images ranging from still life to education to corporate. He showed me everything he captured throughout his career. Ultimately, he wanted an edit that would showcase his best work in a way that will attract more commercial clients. When he asked me for help, I was excited about the opportunity to give Edis’ site a brand new life.
After evaluating the images Edis sent over, I realized that his best ones were education related. Since he was without an education gallery, that was first on the list. He also had a huge chunk of great industrial images. We decided to focus on those two galleries, a project showcasing his photojournalistic skills, and a section for his motion work. He studied film in Russia before becoming a photographer, so Edis hopes to shoot more of motion in the future.
Edis was only displaying a handful of images of students and campus life on his site, but I was pleased to learn that there were more on his hard drive. With this gallery, I wanted to present all sides of education— from classes to extracurricular activities to studying.
Although Edis had a lot of great images of students studying, I couldn’t use all of them. It would have put too much weight on that part of education and the viewer may be turned off. Instead, I started out with an image that embodied being a student. I love the candid image of the female student in what looks like a hallway or classroom. It has good composition and lighting, but what won me over was the mood for the rest of the gallery. Throughout the sequence, I included intentional portraits of students and faculty to show that Edis can shoot all facets of education.
There were so many ways to open Edis’ industrial gallery, but I wanted to open with something eye catching. With a subject like industry, the best way to sequence is to create a diverse pool of angles and subject matter. I wanted images that had a physical aspect, focusing on the person and the work as well as sense of place.
Edis also has a project that documents the happenings of a rodeo. Being from California, rodeo is not something I see, so I had a lot of fun working on this gallery. Edis has an eye for seeing situations that usually aren’t photographed. I wanted to include the subjects’ unawareness moments, pulling the viewer into the rodeo atmosphere.
Edis implemented his new photo edit and worked with Joey on a website template customization. Edis’ old site had no branding present. It was very tiny and had a large bland background that made everything on his site feel a bit dim and dull, taking away from his beautiful images.
Joey moved Edis to a Squarespace template that allows his images to be large and responsive to the screen. We placed Edis’ new logo prominently on the site so that his graphic identity has the same power as his photographic identity. For photographers, it’s important to keep a consistent “voice” across the board, from the marketing materials to the graphic identity to the website. This way, clients can visit the site and immediately get a complete sense of that photographer’s style and what he/she does best.
Now Edis’ site is clean, welcoming, intuitive and easy to navigate as any photographer’s site should be.
See more of Edis’ work on his website!
Further readings:
Wonderful Machine: Project Edit: Steve Boyle Focuses on Fitness
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