Using Mockups To Feature Your Art

All,

I started this thread in the The GALLERIA of INTERIOR DESIGN ART - GIDA group.

Kudos to Barbara Chichester for creating such wonder groups!!

I've had a good response both from the thread and and via side discussions. It's been suggested that I should share the idea with the more FAA artists.

In the Beginning

To pay for my all consuming photography and art habit, I make a living as a Web Developer Designer.

When I design a new website or application for a customer, I usually start with a series of mockups. This gives my customers the ability to see and "touch" the website or application before making the final plunge and start paying me for coding.

For a long time I've felt that there should be a better way to present my photography and artwork to potential patrons. We've all felt this at one time or another.

So a few months ago while building my current online gallery website, I was thinking what can I do to make it different (better). My solution was to use Photoshop mockup templates.

Thinking hard (a painful experience), I came up with two very different goals I absolutely had to meet:

Provide visitors to my online gallery with a better representation of my art as it would look in their homes
A way to easily manage my online gallery



The Standard Way

Ordinarily most artists and galleries use a static images or a slideshows to post their work on the web. This can be good or bad depending on the quality of the web design and the features of the slide show application.

For example I am currently using JuiceBox Pro (http://www.juicebox.net) for my "static" galleries. This is a robust, easily managed slideshow with good integrated social media support that is inexpensive ($45 US / domain).

But I new I could do something different.

The seed of an idea is sown.

Talking to another artist and gallery owner at a show opening reception, he mentioned that it would be great to mockup his customer's art before they ordered. The artist provides wide format printing and framing services at his gallery. He felt like I do that if the customer could "see" what they were getting it would save him time and money, but more importantly, bag that illusive return customer.

A Little Background

Basic mockup templates have been around the to a long time. On multiple side projects I've used them to show case applications on cell phones, as well as designing laptop tablet cases and decorative pillows.

So why not create new mockups using real interiors or more realistic canvas and frames.

The base templates are out there. They range for freebies to low cost bundles. $5 - $10 US. You just have to look kinda hard to find them.

NOTE: If the download site asks for a notation please support the artist. Even a $1 adds up. If not makes that early morning trip to Starbucks less painful.

A couple good resource to start with are:

http://www.pixeden.com/psd-mock-up-templates
http://graphicriver.net
http://designscrazed.net/free-psd-flyer-mockups


Depending on how familiar you are with Photoshop, using templates should not be too difficult. A lot depends on how the template creator used Photoshop Smart Objects. Most templates can be easy to use. Unfortunately some of the canvas mockups are a real pain when you need to resize them.

There are also numerous online video tutorials on using creating templates. Just search YouTube and Google.

The Results are in the Mocking

What I have done is search the net for very good quality royalty free or MIT licensed interior photos and created a range of easy to use templates to show case my art.
The web application is database driven so that I can easily add, remove, update and reorder the gallery in a couple of minutes.

I am currently working with several art galleries and interior decorators to develop a complete web application that they can use on their websites (Gotta pay my show fees some how).

For now, I've incorporated the a stripped down version of the myMockup Gallery on my primary website at: http://www.ageekonabike.net/Gallery/MockupGallery.aspx.

Getting Started

To create a good starter template for you, I cleaned up one of the vertical metal frame mockup template I use on my website.
I also reduced the template image size to 1000px X 1277px 300 dpi.
The template was created in Photoshop CS 5.5 but should be usable in earlier versions.

The downloadable template linked below is a very flexible basic metal frame template that you can to the following:

Switch between a black or white frames
Change the mat color in the picture frame and the reflection
Switch between a light or dark wood floor
Switch between a plaster or brick finish on the wall
Change the wall color



I Labeled the various groups and individual objects in the template to help you while editing the template.

The only "trisky" part if editing the template is making sure that when you change the mat color you also need to change the reflection's mat color.
Otherwise switching between layouts is a simple case of turn the desired frame, floor or wall texture layer.
URL: http://www.ageekonabike.net/downloads/Basic_Metal_Frame_Mockup.rar

Hope you enjoy "mocking" the art world.

Dale
aGeekonaBike Photography