The other day I was checking QBN, and saw a thread titled ‘Free Portfolio Website’. The thread with the spam-sounding title turned out to be an invitation to beta test a new CMS ‘4ormat‘ (yes, I know it doesn’t add up) geared towards the ‘creative professional’. This one is the latest addition to a list that includes Indexhibit, Indxr, Cargo, Krop, Core, and probably more that I’m not aware of. Suddenly every Tom, Dick and Harry with a bit of PHP knowledge and a copy of Photoshop is building a bespoke system that allows designers to create homogenous portfolio sites.
First of all, there’s nothing wrong with the portfolio CMS. For most its an incredibly useful (and timesaving) tool to publish their work online in a structured and direct manner, foregoing unnecessary visual clutter for a focus on content.
But.
What started as something that grew out of a personal need (Daniel Eatock needing a system for his portfolio, and then releasing it to the world as Indexhibit) has become the goal in itself it seems. Your portfolio is only as good as the CMS you’re using. Me? Yes, I have accounts at Cargo and Krop — but I still have to use them. The reason why I don’t want to make the jump is because despite the qualities of both systems there would be more focus on the fact that its a Cargo or Krop portfolio instead of a Muller portfolio. See what I’m getting at?
When Indexhibit was launched, it felt like a real invisible tool that would allow you to publish your work: no fussy styling, no branding — just the work. With each subsequent system that gets launched the CMS branding becomes more prominent, taking focus away from the work. The success of Indexhibit sparked a trend of portfolio systems, some hosted (Cargo, Krop, Behance,…), others where you need to put in some extra work (Indexhibit, Core,…), with people racing to get private beta invites (yes, guilty as charged) to see what the fuss is about. While some systems make perfect sense —Krop is a job board, so why not integrate a portfolio, and Cargo grew out of a modular gallery system — while I get the feeling others are being created as a means in itself. Is it the new black?
Is it because designers are inherently curious about new technologies & services, or are we just being trend whores who want to be able to say “Oh yeah, I host my portfolio on the XXXX system” and hop from system to system — which kind of defeats the purpose of using them in the first place…
October 20th, 2009
From my experience, we’re just a little bit of both but with depper rooting in the first area: designers are inherently curious. My personal case has been more about trying to figure out what’s new with a publishing platform and wanting to have something specifically directed to me showcasing work and nothing else, other than wanting to go around saying “look at me I use a CMS and you don’t”.
Yes they all do look very much alike and you’ve pretty much seen it all once you’ve used one; but I think it’s not designers’ fault as consumers, it’s designers’ fault as creators. They have seen a niche of people wanting to stand out from regular CMS (wordpress, blogspot and so on) to move on to a sort of CMS on steroids (the ones you’ve mentioned). But, as with every trend, once it gets too massive, it loses its appeal and leaves you only with function: if it works it stays, if it doesn’t it’s trash.
So my opinion is that we’ll continue to see a growth of 2.0 CMS platforms and users, but eventually they’ll wear out ’cause as designers we have this vicious need to stand out, and the whole sexy-gridded-awesome-loading-seamless-looking-super-clean-admin-system CMS just won’t cut it anymore.
it’s just a trend. I at least use it because it looks good and works great. But gotta admit it’s getting dull to see your site looks pretty much the same as the next.
October 21st, 2009
Everywhere All the Time™. We’re a world that has, over the last two decades, been reduced in size to the distance between keystrokes. So I see Cargo as ‘getting on Cargo for the sake of getting on Cargo’, having their brand and social meaning associated with mine, and networking with designers on there for my own personal social interest (not my clients’ or prospectives).
Krop Portfolios is a natural avenue of potential sales via Krop. However, I wouldn’t use it for my main website, since it restricts unique stylization down to a few templates that offer little or no in-depth branding potential. I prefer establishing myself everywhere and then tying everything all together into my primary website at http://www.xanderdavis.com as a central nexus for myself as a brand.
As for install-based customizable CMS solutions, I don’t find much need for them since I know web-design, and instead prefer to have total control over my code and thus resulting website. Beyond that, all of my web-designs begin in Photoshop, where I can do anything, so I’m thinking creatively there about the best solution to fit my needs, and then after that I figure out how to build it, however that may go.
AJAX/JQuery offers a slickness usually found in Flash. I do believe Flash offers the most engaging format over HTML, but over the years I and perhaps most using the Internet in general have gravitated strongly towards simple, usable experiences, where they feel in total control. That is still more closely found in standard, fast-loading HTML sites (slick Javascript or not) and still not as much in Flash. Plus, SEO and iPhone compatibility trump any desire for a Flash site in my view, and I’m not interested in building two versions of my website so the main version works in some places but not others. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been able to just open up my website on my iPhone and show people, which had a positive networking effect on the spot.
For designers who have no idea how to build a website, these CMS solutions must be wonderful, but I bet many fear they will indeed look homogeneous. To me a well designed website is a well done piece of graphic design, but I suspect to many non-web-building designers that specialize in mostly print, a website is a strange and unsure container, not an interactive piece of art, totally separate from their Work.
Ultimately, I’m not sure prospective clients are really sifting through as many portfolios as designers manage to cover with each other. We’re all looking to see what’s the latest, and greatest, so we absorb quite a bit globally. To designers, if everyone uses Indexhibit, everyone starts looking either trendy or the same. To clients, I bet they don’t even notice.
The danger I really see with a site/network like Cargo, though, is that you may direct your prospect to your Cargo site, only to have them realize there’s thousands of other talented (and possibly cheaper) options for them to chose over you, despite you having earned the lead. Part of that comes down to your cost and your quality, but part of that also comes down to the basic, practical business-sense of not wanting to inadvertently recommend competition to your target prospects.
So perhaps it comes down to whether or not having a fully customized, controlled, and differentiated corner of the Internet is as important to you as first just getting your work out there online to begin with. I see it in phases of capability, in networking potential, and in possibly in risk. The world is open to you, but you are also open to the world.
-Xander
October 21st, 2009
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by joshua corliss, Tom Muller, Ravi Vasavan, Andreas Pihlström, Pablo E. Peña P. and others. Pablo E. Peña P. said: RT @hellomuller: New blog post: Is the portfolio CMS the new black? http://bit.ly/1kDPbm [...]
October 21st, 2009
As someone who does this web thing all day (and night) I am a member of every service that comes out … I just see it as my business. And in spite of all the spam I get from many of these services, I keep truckin’ forward. Why? Because I learn, I borrow (ok steal), I discover. Design by nature is about evolution. It’s an investigation, a constant search for inspiration and progress.
So I applaud designers who search for the next thing, trying it out on their nights and weekends … trying to push things forward. I also applaud all these people serving the design community … its my community and I am happy that they are doing it for me. And I further applaud the competition, as with each cycle comes evolution, hopefully responding to the community needs (if not no biggie, they will die off eventually by their own weight and lack of necessity).
Moreover, the companies listed above — each and every one of them — have moved our community forward. From newstoday/qbn bringing the web design community together, to Dropular helping with inspiration. From Indexhibit giving us a easy way to make a portfolio to Cargo making it better by mixing portfolio, community and inspiration. Not to mention Krop giving us jobs, Behance giving us ideas, etc. I don’t see them all as CMS rip-offs … I see them as unique explorers that have given back to the community … they just happen to have some overlap. But that’s cool no?
So you are probably right, many of us are trend wholes … but thats ok! Let’s revel in our slutty nature as we consume design trends … as long as when we produce, we don’t succumb to it.
Best,
George
October 21st, 2009
Short response: For me it´s about lowering the threshold of publishing new content. And as long as the CMS allows me to do a certain amount of changes to the HTML and CSS, that´s all I need. And I guess I´ve grown tired of coding up a new design for myself every 12 months, so these CMS´es make it nice and easy for me to keep my portfolio current.
October 21st, 2009
Actually, there IS a third way if you’re a design agency.
We have built our own cms, that sources it’s contents on our Flickr account and use it as our back-end.
So our “CMS” is no CMS at all, since it does none of the Management, and all of the styling.
Our work consisted in setting up a little Rails application to process those visuals from our flickr account into a styled portfolio, and Voila …
Flickr hosts, processes and sorts image really well, we didn’t want to reinvent the wheel.
And we also have our folio on Flickr too…
October 21st, 2009
Content management is not something exclusively sought after by designers, Tom. At least it isn’t over on Cargo with sites like Unurth http://unurth.com/ and The Elastic Novice http://elasticnovice.com/ — not to mention a few shops I’ve seen setup with the system, and even a blog for an art department at a university.
These hosted services fill a niche. There are many graphic designers, illustrators, photographers, and artists that don’t possess enough coding/web design know-how or server space to create and host a full-fledged website. And yet, on the other hand, I’ve seen some who have plenty of both that have exploited a generous system like Cargo’s to the fullest and have added in huge amounts of functionality and uniqueness to their personal sites. This is encouraged in Cargo’s community.
I can’t speak for the other CMS’s out there because I’ve never tried them. I mentioned somewhere before that I used to have my portfolio on Blogger with a 1 post pagination scheme that functioned like a ghetto slideshow. I will add on to Xander’s concerns—the days of designing websites for people like photographers (for example) are days that I see coming to a close with so many of these options becoming available. Only the most foolish will continue to insist on having a custom, sluggish Flash site with all the slideshow porn they can ask for (i.e. the photographer guy who owns davidboni.com, damn him).
People can remove all traces of Cargo from their Cargo sites, it’s very simple, so I don’t see the possibility of clients jumping ship unless one chooses to leave all those backdoors open wide on their first page. Though I’m happy one designer did leave a link back to Cargo, else I might still be using Blogger.
By the way, Romain, that’s pretty ingenious. Nice work!
October 21st, 2009
Having tested out a number of CMS systems now I thought I should comment.
My current site is built using indxr, which has been great for my needs. It is simple, easy to customise and update. Due to my natural curiosity I have also been testing out Cargo & Core. With Cargo at first I was pleased with the results, but as Xander said there is the danger your client will get distracted by the ever growing network.
I am currently testing Core, which I am getting along with pretty well, the interface is slick, it is easy to customise and overall I am pretty happy. I will be launching my Core site in the next few weeks. However it does have its draw backs. Standard Analytics does not work too well so am looking at a .js solution and Core also does not look great for SEO.
Having dabbled in a number of CMS systems now, overall there are some great systems popping up, and I am sure there will be more. For people with no web skills they will be hugely useful, and they can offer a good quick, easy to update system. And if your good with HTML/CSS you can get away from the standard Indexhibit style layout.
Having said that I am still not 100% satisfied with one solution and with my .php skills growing I may well have a crack at developing my own in the future.
My advice, don’t just jump on the bandwagon, assess your needs before developing your website and find the best solution for your portfolio.
October 21st, 2009
Comment in private Beta.
October 21st, 2009
You can add Possible Triangle to the list
http://www.theinvisibleinstitute.org/blog/?p=51
October 21st, 2009
Thanks for the comments & discussion everyone!
I think there’s a lot of valid points in the replies.
October 21st, 2009
Thanks for a very interesting blog post. I too have noticed the rise in CMSs lately, and particulary Cargo-portfolios. It´s gotten to the point that when I see the little Cargo-flash in the corner I close the tab. Silly me…
October 21st, 2009
Note: You can remove yourself completely from the Cargo “Network” if you wish — you aren’t required to have the Cargo logo listed anywhere on your portfolio.
October 23rd, 2009
[...] is a response to a post that Tom Muller wrote a few days ago titled “Is the portfolio CMS the new black?” My answer is yes, I pretty much agree with most of the post. The bit that I agree with in [...]
October 25th, 2009
What’s the problem? As far as we can see, the work will always shine though. There’s tons of shit content on Cargo, Indexhibit, Behance, Krop, Wordpress, Flickr, Whatever and on The Internet…. despite the platform, good content, design, talent and skills will always win. It kind of reminds us of when zippy flash websites were all the rage… :D
November 4th, 2009
I can’t speak for the other CMS’s out there because I’ve never tried them. I mentioned somewhere before that I used to have my portfolio on Blogger with a 1 post pagination scheme that functioned like a ghetto slideshow.
November 23rd, 2009
For us the aim is simplicity (although everybody says his CMS is very simple :) — a lot of designers and artists have no idea how HTML works or what CMS is. So there is still long way to go to provide really simple and intuitive workflow for publishing your stuff online. And it is really difficult to keep design invisible. I would say — as long as term CMS is alive (which is a programmers term) we are not there yet.