Artist Website Design: Websites for Visual Artists, Musicians, Tattoo Artists, Makeup Artists and Performers

Updated September 2026 · Written and maintained by the Progression Agency strategy team

Progression Agency provides artist website design for visual artists, painters and sculptors, illustrators, musicians and bands, tattoo artists, makeup artists, photographers and performers across the United States and worldwide: work presented at full quality, available pieces, music or bookings sold or booked directly, exhibitions, tour dates and press kept current by you, and a site that is found for your name, your medium and your city. Good website design for artists starts from the work itself, so image quality, load speed and a clear path to buying or booking come before decoration.

What artist website design covers

Artist website design is the design and build of a site for a working artist or performer. The word covers many practices, and the site differs by what the artist sells and how: originals and prints, commissions, music and merchandise, tattoo bookings, makeup services, performances and licensing. What they share is a body of work that must be shown well, a name that must be found, and a list of people who want to hear when something new happens. Compare portfolio website design for hire-me sites and photography website design for client galleries. Web design for artwork is the part of this job concerned with finished pieces on a screen: image sizes, crops, captions and the order a viewer meets them. We also build websites for art galleries, where the same care for the work has to stretch across a roster of artists rather than one.

Artist websites by practice

Showing the work properly

Visual work needs accurate color, correct proportions and room to breathe: large images with captions that give title, medium, dimensions and year; installation or in-situ views where they exist; series grouped so a viewer can follow a body of work. Music needs an embedded player that starts fast and links to every platform. Tattoo and makeup work needs healed or finished results by category. All of it needs compression that preserves detail, because uncompressed images make artist sites slow on the phones most visitors use. Artist web design also has to respect the crop: a grid that trims each thumbnail to a square misrepresents a long horizontal canvas, so we keep true proportions wherever the layout allows.

Selling and booking without a platform in the middle

Available works can be sold with checkout (Shopify, Squarespace Commerce, Big Cartel) or by inquiry for higher-value pieces; prints through print-on-demand or your own fulfillment; music through Bandcamp or your own store with streaming links beside it; tattoo and makeup bookings through forms that ask the questions you need (placement, size, reference, date, location) with deposits via Stripe or Square. Your email list belongs on the site too, because it is the one channel no platform can take away. Gallery website design adds a wrinkle here: one piece can be on hold for a collector, out on loan to a fair or already sold, so availability has to update from one place.

Art web design and tattoo studio website design

The work comes first in art web design: large, accurate images, clear titles, sizes and prices where the artist sells, and an easy way to inquire or commission. Slow galleries and tiny images lose visitors faster than any design flaw.

Tattoo studio website design adds portfolios by style, artist profiles, aftercare, booking and deposit policies, age rules and a way to send reference images. Be clear about what the studio will and will not do, and show client photos only with permission.

What collectors and curators open first on a visual artist website

Two different readers usually arrive. Collectors want to know what is available, what it costs and how a piece ships, while curators skim for a recent body of work and a sense of direction. We keep those paths separate, with current work and an inquiry form one tap from the home page and the archive one level deeper, so neither reader wades through the other’s material.

Platforms for artist websites

Squarespace websites for artists: where the template fits

A painter, illustrator or photographer who wants a clean gallery, an about page and a simple store without managing hosting is well served by an artist website on Squarespace. We design and build on it, setting image sizes, gallery order and page structure so the work shows accurately. See our Squarespace design services for the build side.

The platform fits less well when every work needs its own record with medium, dimensions and availability, or when booking rules are unusual. In those cases a custom build or an archive integration is the cleaner route.

Being found for your name, medium and place

Artist search is mostly by name, then by medium and place (“abstract painter Brooklyn”, “fine line tattoo artist Austin”, “bridal makeup artist Chicago”). The site should state the medium and the city in text on the home and about pages, keep a CV and exhibition history as text, and carry Person and VisualArtwork or MusicGroup data from schema.org so that search engines and AI assistants can answer “who is [artist]” and “[medium] artists in [city]” accurately. Consistent facts across the site, Instagram, Bandcamp, gallery pages and press are what make those answers right. See photographer SEO. SEO for artists depends on groundwork that generic checklist plugins rarely supply, such as series pages whose captions name the medium and the city, which we build into the page templates.

An actor website built for a casting director in a hurry

A casting director with a list to get through gives the site a few seconds. Current headshots, the reel, a résumé that downloads as a clean PDF and representation contact details all belong within one screen on a phone. Web design for an actor leans simple for that reason: a plain layout, the reel playing from a fast video host, and credits you can edit yourself when a new role lands.

Integrations

How we design and build an artist website

1. Practice review: what you make, what you sell or book, who buys, and what should be found first.
2. Selection: the work and series for the site, with details for every piece.
3. Structure: work, shop or booking, shows, about and CV, press, contact and list.
4. Design: typography and layout that defer to the work; color-accurate image handling.
5. Build: Squarespace, Shopify, Webflow or WordPress; commerce or booking; players and embeds; structured data.
6. Content: statements, captions, CV and press edited with you; alt text for every work.
7. Launch: domain, redirects from old platforms, speed and accessibility checks, analytics.
8. After launch: adding work and shows yourself, with a checklist we leave you.

What artist website design costs

Artist website mistakes

• An Instagram grid instead of a website, with no way to buy, book or subscribe.
• Images with no title, medium, size or year, so nothing can be searched or sold.
• Uncompressed photographs that take seconds to load on a phone.
• No mention of medium or city in text, so the site is invisible beyond your name.
• Booking by DM with no form, deposit or availability, so requests are lost.
• Exhibitions and tour dates that are years out of date.
• A domain owned by a friend who built the first site.
• No email list, leaving every relationship on a platform you do not control.

Artist website design by practice

Painters, sculptors and printmakers

Works organized by series with medium, dimensions, year and availability; exhibitions, press and a CV that galleries and curators expect.

Photographers and video artists

Series with sequencing and scale in mind, editions and prints, screenings and installations documented properly.

Illustrators and commercial artists

Client work and personal work separated, licensing and commissions explained, a shop for prints and originals; overlaps with portfolio website design.

Ceramicists, textile and craft artists

Shop-first sites with collections, custom orders and wholesale inquiries, plus the story of materials and process.

Performing and digital artists

Events, recordings, commissions and archives; digital work presented in the format it was made for.

Web design for artists and artwork website design

Everything begins with the work in web design for artists, so an artwork website design needs large, accurate images on pages that load quickly on a phone. Organize pieces into series or collections, add size, medium and availability beside each image, and give buyers a clear way to inquire or purchase. Keep an artist statement, a short biography and a contact page. Web design for artists also means protecting the work: decide on image sizes, watermarks and how commissions are handled before the site is built.

What an artist portfolio website should show a gallery or buyer

Curators and collectors arrive with different questions and little patience. A curator wants a coherent recent series, an up-to-date CV and a way to reach the studio, so old student work and one-off experiments usually come off the site. A collector wants to know what is available, at what size, and how to ask about a price.

Give each body of work its own page, with two or three sentences on what it is about, and show a detail shot and a view of the piece in a room so scale is clear. Date the newest work, because a site that stops three years ago reads as a practice that has stopped too. Use your own domain, so the address on your CV still works when you change platforms.

An art gallery website has a schedule to keep

A single artist’s site can rest on a portfolio. Here, current and upcoming exhibitions lead the home page with dates and opening hours, each represented artist gets a profile that stays useful between shows, and past exhibitions build an archive that press and collectors return to. Inquiries work better per artwork than through one general form, so a director can see which piece prompted the message. We also let staff change dates and swap installation shots without a developer.

Voice actor website: the demo comes before the face

The demo takes the place of the headshot here. Commercial, narration, animation and game reels each get a player that starts on the first tap, because producers audition by ear and rarely stay to scroll. Home studio details, the microphone and connection methods you offer, and a direct booking route round it out, so a producer can confirm a session without a round of emails.

What to gather before an artist website project starts

• Works with images, titles, medium, dimensions, year and availability.
• Series statements and an artist statement.
• CV: education, exhibitions, awards, collections, press.
• Gallery representation and how sales should route.
• Print and original pricing, editions and shipping rules.
• Commission process and pricing approach.
• Studio, exhibition and installation photography.
• Press clippings and interviews with links.
• Newsletter list and social profiles.
• Domain and any existing identity.
• Upcoming exhibitions and open studio dates.
• Collections that hold your work, with permission to name them.
• Shipping, framing and insurance arrangements for sales.

Measuring an artist website after launch

• Sales and commission inquiries per month.
• Print and original orders and average value.
• Gallery, curator and press inquiries.
• Rankings for your name and medium-plus-subject phrases.
• Newsletter growth around exhibitions.
• Views per series and works most inquired about.
• Load time on image-heavy pages.
• Exhibition page traffic before and after openings.

How Progression Agency builds artist websites

We work from New York City and design and build artist websites for artists, musicians, tattoo and makeup artists and performers across the United States and worldwide, with sales, booking, music and list integrations and the structure that gets you found for your name, medium and city. Related: portfolio website design, photography website design, musician website design, Squarespace design services, website design and development and Film website design.

Frequently asked questions