“In anything at all, perfection is finally attained not when there is no longer anything to add, but when there is no longer anything to take away…”

This quote is from Antoine de Saint Exupery, who was a French Aviator. You may have seen this quote before – it is one of the guiding principles behind design at a company called Patagonia, which produces the best outdoor clothing in the world.

I look at a lot of photography online and because of that, I look at a lot of photographers’ web sites. Or more to the point, I get to interact with a lot of photographers web site design. Unfortunately, there are some web sites around that don’t adhere to the principle above. They are difficult to navigate and often have too many bells and whistles, all of which do one thing: get in the way of the photos.

If you have a web site, or are designing a web site, then I encourage you to step back and ask yourself what is the purpose of your site?

When you answer this question, you have given yourself or your designer one of the most important things that they need to know.

I often get asked who designed my web site – www.thomaspickard.com It was designed by NeonSky (this blog layout wasn’t designed by NeonSky, it was redesigned by me using the Vigilance theme by Jestro).

NeonSky do one thing and one thing only – design some of the best web sites you can get for photographers. Some people consider them expensive. I don’t. Good design, like good quality comes at a price.

If you are a photographer with a web site, you only have to ask yourself this question: is my site about the design or the photos?

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