Are you an artist or designer?

If you are then we cordially invite you to exhibit your original work on this site free of charge.

• You may offer items for sale at your desired price, or mark them as not for sale as you wish
• Your items are on view 24 hours a day to interested and informed visitors from all over the world
• There is no charge for registration or entry of items or the promotion work we carry out
• Your items are advertised on search engines (currently Microsoft)
• You pay a fee only when an item is sold

So don't delay - contact us now to find out more and exhibit your art today.

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How to Submit Your Work

This guide tells you how to go about submitting and maintaining your work on the Arts and Designs website.

Please read it carefully before you start - it contains tips and hints on how to get the best out of your submissions.

First of all ...

Start by creating your own account using the 'Artist Log In' page. You will have to supply your name and a password - and you will need an invitation code obtained from us (to stop spammers). This is the name that viewers will see and the name that you will use to access your account in future - make sure it's exactly right as you will not be able to change it. The name you supply is your working name - a nom de plume if you have one, e.g. el Greco (but that one's taken). Your password should be at least 6 characters long. Make sure you remember it as you will need it again.

After you have entered your name and password, click the login button and you will see another page, entitled Confirm New Artist, which asks you to confirm your password and to supply your email address and other contact details. We need to store these details so that we can contact you - we don't share your details with anyone else. When you've entered the details, click the confirm button and you should get the Portfolio Maintenance page. You can then start uploading your work.

Logging In

If you have previously created an account and you want to update your portfolio then all you have to do is log in by entering your name and password, and you will see the portfolio maintenance page. Always remember to log out after you are finished.

Portfolio Maintenance

This page allows you to create, update, and delete items from your portfolio and to view statistics on viewings and sales.

• Add Work

  Use this option to upload a new item to the site.

  You will have to complete a form describing the item and specifying one or two files on your local computer to be uploaded:

  1. the main file, which contains an image of the item or the downloadable pdf file for a chart, and
  2. a sample file (used for a thumbnail image) - this is optional unless the main file is of type pdf. If you leave this blank (recommended) a thumbnail will be created automatically from the main image when you submit your work.

  For designs (charts, patterns, leaflets) the main file may be a .pdf (acrobat) file and in this case the sample file image should be 400 or more pixels in height. Be careful not to expose so much detail that someone could copy your design from the picture!

  It's worth putting a lot of effort into the description of the work as it will be visible to human visitors as well as being indexed by on-site and off-site search engines. Search engines use words not images and your work will not be found unless its description contains the same words that human searchers use. For example, "... mermaid on a green background with a jewel and custom motto ..." - would mean this item would be found when someone searches for any combination of the bolded words, e.g. "green mermaid". Use plain English and describe what is in your image plus anything else that is related to it. Conversely, a collection of keywords may (or may not) improve your rating on search engines but will certainly turn visitors right off - remember you are selling your work to humans, not machines! The solution is to incorporate your keywords into readable text and just be honest.

  One idea is to imagine you are describing the picture to a blind person.

  Use the commit button to upload the work and its associated information.

• Update Work
  This option allows you to change the details for an existing item - everything except its name can be changed. You don't need to resend the image or pdf files - these boxes can be left blank. If you do want to change the files, enter them here and they will replace the versions that exist on the website.
• Variants
  You may create variants of items that are closely related to your work - e.g. different fabric options. These are displayed as options along with the details of the main work. You can specify a different price, size, etc. for each variant.
• Maintain Profile
  Use this option to create and update your profile/resume. Create your profile and apply formatting, e.g. bolding, using the controls. Use the review button to try out your profile in its display format before committing it and making it visible to visitors.

  We strongly recommend that you don't put in any personal information, such as your email or postal address - many web crawlers look for these and add them to spam email lists.
  

• Viewings
  With this control you can view the number of times visitors have seen your items. There are different timescales to allow you to review both short and medium term trends.
• Sales
  Use this option to view your sales figures. Select a date range and click Continue to get an analysis of the items you have sold.
• Security
  You may change your password at any time by using the Change Password option.

  Finally, always remember to log out after you have finished your session!