Every artist deserves to have a website that reflects the vision and beauty of their work. When Vermont-based ceramic artist Brielle Macbeth Rovito launched her own website and online store Dust and Form, she knew she needed an ecommerce website platform that would give her complete control over how she showcased and sold her sculpted pieces.
“I have explored other hosting platforms,” Brielle told Squarespace, “and, every time, Squarespace woos me again—both in ease of use and in built-in tools that help seamlessly translate my overall vision for Dust and Form.”
Read more about how Brielle brought her ceramics business to life with a Squarespace ecommerce website that expresses her unique creative vision and keeps her online store running smoothly.
Translate your artistic vision into an ecommerce website
In 2019, Brielle was ready to redesign and relaunch her online store “with a new body of work that, at the time, felt very close and personal.”
“I wanted to share this work beyond the reach I had, but in a way that stayed connected to the essence of my work,” Brielle told Squarespace. “By creating a shoppable catalog, it allowed for easier purchasing and communication for those ordering.”
Building her online store on Squarespace has helped Brielle maintain control over her vision for Dust and Form. Crucially, that includes how her artworks are merchandised and sold. Her web design philosophy boils down to: “simplicity, but not simple.”
“By that I mean that I want my work to speak for itself, with stunning imagery and short descriptions that offer a sense of connection,” Brielle says, referring to the poetic product descriptions that accompany her current Dust and Form collection. “Each aspect of the site is intentionally thought out and not overcomplicated.”
The result is a website with an effective minimalist aesthetic, in which Dust and Form’s site navigation and ecommerce experience are straightforward—and the organic forms of Brielle’s ceramics hold the spotlight.
Prioritize quality website imagery
What’s one key aspect of bringing any artist’s website to life?
“Imagery,” Brielle says. “It’s really all about imagery.”
To build an asset library for your website and online store, it’s useful to understand the fundamentals of how to shoot product photography. But if it’s in your budget, outsourcing web design and photography to experts can help you realize a more vivid, cohesive vision for your brand.
That’s the route Brielle took when building Dust and Form. “If possible, employ others to help you,” she says. “I have found that having good people in my corner has been essential for getting honest feedback and support when it comes to how my business translates online.”
The “design and overall essence” of Brielle’s site was brought to life by “the incredible creatives at Bodega Ltd., and the photographers and stylists I was able to work with who brought such vibrant life to my pieces.”
“The natural, unhindered surface of my ceramics is an integral part of the soft and peaceful forms I seek to create,” says Brielle. That same unhindered artistic vision is embodied in the overall aesthetic and imagery of her website.
Streamline the online shopping experience
Beyond its powerful web design, Dust and Form excels at two of the key aspects of a quality end-to-end online shopping experience: optimized mobile commerce (mcommerce) and streamlined order fulfillment.
Mcommerce optimization
“I specifically appreciate how my site can exist on desktop and mobile with the same tone and feeling,” Brielle says.
For example, because Dust and Form is built on Squarespace, Brielle’s online store is built with responsive design. That means her site elements and imagery all automatically resize and rearrange to fit the screen of whichever device a visitor is viewing the site on.
That, as Brielle puts it, gives “my visitors a comparable experience, however they choose to explore my work.”
Shipping label optimization
Squarespace Shipping Labels helps to streamline Dust and Form’s fulfillment operations. “The new Shipping Labels feature is great,” Brielle says.
“There was a point in time when I was manually transferring order information to create my labels,” Brielle shares. (“Silly, I know,” she adds.) Losing valuable time to manual processes is a common frustration for online sellers. But with Squarespace Shipping Labels, the customer’s shipping information is automatically applied to the chosen USPS shipping method.
That process helps Brielle to save time during the ecommerce fulfillment process. Now, “there are fewer steps in the shipping process, which ultimately equates to more time doing what I really love: creating the work I eventually get to ship out.”
Build an interconnected online presence
“If my pieces themselves are the bones of my business, my online presence in all its forms makes up the rest of the metaphorical body,” says Brielle. “I rely heavily on my Squarespace site to be a landing place where every other form of communication funnels to.”
Some of those arms of communication branching off her site include Brielle’s linked social media presence and email sign-up block—two popular marketing tools that help artists and entrepreneurs grow and engage their audiences. “Having the ability to share beyond my geopolitical boundaries is why I am able to do what I am doing.”
Search engine optimization (SEO) is another way Brielle reaches her audiences—both through Dust and Form and through her community studio’s website. Every Squarespace website includes built-in SEO functionality that helps your website work harder for you, so you don’t have to. “We have cultivated a very vibrant community,” Brielle says of her local Burlington-based ceramics community, “and much of that is due to the SEO on our site.”
Bring your own vision to life—no one else’s
To the artists out there who are working on building an online presence and ecommerce website of their own, Brielle offers this advice: “It's very easy to look from side to side at other artists and desire similar traits in a website or presentation. I do this. Who doesn’t, if we’re being really honest?”
“Even still,” Brielle emphasizes, “my advice would be to stay focused on your own lane, your own work, your own creative voice. Channel those aspects into a website that feels congruent with your greater vision.”
Inspired by Brielle’s story? Start building your own brand on Squarespace.