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February, 2010 CONTENTS
To make the 10th anniversary of the website a little special, we have been developing a new design that's almost ready-to-go. Although the current design is quite effective, we are aware that some screen resolutions (particularly the larger ones favoured by gallery owners) were not getting the best presentations. So, after months of laborious testing and testing again, we are ready to release a version of the design for you to try out. Most of the new design is about making bigger versions of the images display for these large screens. You will also notice that we are maximising the page to combine the gallery, a biographical note, contact form, link reference and an external link to the artist's own website. In short, visitors will be able to see complete information about each artist without needing to find another link on the site. New features that are not obvious include SEO [Search Engine Optimisation} that is better tuned for the artist to be found quickly on the Internet and for the website to be speedier to navigate. We're kinda convinced that this new design will make a big difference in getting greater exposure more immediately for all the presentations on the New Irish Art website. This design also sees a subtle change to our buttons and to our beloved logo. The buttons are 'animated' to catch the eye more easily and the logo is put on its side (hey! it's also 'animated' and brings you 'HOME' from every page). We know that there is still a lot of work to complete but the key aspects of the new design are in place and we really wanted your opinion before finalising this phase of the work. That means that your feedback may make a difference in what gets implemented on the site. The best way to understand is to start testing the design. Simply go to HOME (on the top of this page) and have a look through the galleries. In fact, all the links on the top of this page will bring you the test design, so have fun! The content in the test is limited to 8 Galleries, 3 Work in Progress Galleries, 3 Walls and a page each for About Us, Newsletter/Home, Testimonials and a set of 3 lists for Current, Archived and Combined list of artists on the site.
The number of new artists coming on board continues to
increase and this month looks like producing a record
number to feature on the anniversay edition for March.
You still have a few days left if you are submitting
new works to make the March edition.
To add a new work to your gallery or to set up your first gallery on the New Irish Art website, send your artwork to NewIrishArt@gmail.com Alternatively, works may be copied to a CD and posted to our address (at the end of this page). Images should be in jpeg format and not less than 800 pixels on their longest side. Ideally, each gallery page should show about 12 images though less (and more) can be managed. Over the 10 years we have been in operation, we have never used watermarking, preferring instead to rely on techniques that discourage copying and making it difficult to print images from the site to any reasonable quality. In the past, we have asked artists not to include a benchmark on their images as this might impact the viewers' enjoyment of the work. One of the problems is that watermarks come in so many shapes and sizes that there is a contextual break while scanning from one gallery to another. Because one or two of you have already asked about this in the recent past, we are considering what options might be best, should we decide to introduce watermarking.
Let us know if you have serious concerns about the security
of your works on the Internet. If you think that a
watermark is a good idea or a bad one and whether you
believe that enough is being done to deter copyright theft.
It is our intention to build what you want and need into
the website over the coming years. With your participation
in stuff like this design "test run" and the watermark debate, we
have a better chance of taking the right action in your
best interest. The future of the web still belongs to the
people who contribute the content, do not let that control
slip away.
About New Irish Art
Since March, 2000, the New Irish Art website has provided an open platform for the presentation and promotion of original visual art of and about Ireland. This unique site shows works by more than 250 artists and in excess of 3,000 images. We are top rank for the search engines ? The purpose of the site is to increase the enjoyment of and the participation in, visual arts in Ireland. New Irish Art welcomes all artists who wish to join our free and independent platform. New Art Promotions Limited, 43 Admiral Park, Baldoyle, Dublin 13, Ireland |