Have you been to Artflock.com lately? If the name doesn’t ring a bell, Artflock is a UK-based website for displaying and selling original art, but it’s open to artists all around the world.
More importantly, it’s really been changing over the last few months, with an updated design and several new features. You might remember my review of Artflock just over a year ago, back when it was still known as ArtistsOnline.org.uk, but I think it’s definitely time for another look. (Full disclosure: Artflock is also an advertiser on EE.)
The biggest change in design and navigation is probably these four nifty tabs in the upper left corner which let visitors quickly switch between different sections of Artflock.
They’re pretty self-explanatory—”Art” takes you to the home page, “Artists” lets you browse artists by country, and “Latest” brings you to a page with a constantly updating news feed that lets you know what’s happening on Artflock.
If you log in via the “Your Artflock” tab, you’ll get a few more tabs to manage your account plus a news feed of your own—made just for you, actually—which will tell you every time something happens on Artflock that you’ll want to know about.
Like what, you ask? Well Artflock‘s design changes are just the tip of the iceberg. It’s now a much more “social” art community than it was before, allowing inter-Artflock messages, personal blogs, comments nearly everywhere, and the ability to “favorite” any artwork (or any artist) that you like.
When any one of those things happen to you—comments, favorites, etc—your Artflock homepage will let you know.
Interestingly enough, art shoppers will actually benefit from all this social networking, too. One of the most popular ways to browse art on Artflock is with these “top rated” and “most favorited” links on the left side of Artflock’s home page. Click on those, and Artflock will tap into its social network and pull out the most popular artwork to display.
Besides those features, Artflock has also JUST added an artist’s forum and something called “Curated Collections.”
The artist’s forum is fairly lightweight so far. . . But it is new, so that’s to be expected. Curated Collections, however, is something else entirely, for both artists and buyers.
This feature allows you to pick out thirteen pieces of art from anywhere on Artflock based around a specific theme or style, and then show off your collection on Artflock or anywhere else online.
And even better, when one of those pieces sells via your Collection, you’ll get 10% of the sale price. I should mention that there might be a few glitches as this feature gets off the ground. . . I noticed some links weren’t working when I tried to browse through the collections myself.
The final changes to Artflock may not be as visually obvious, but I think they give a good indication that Artflock is headed in the right direction. Ed Lea (the owner) has been working overtime to get outside partnerships lined up and even the occasional discount for Artflock members.
Some of Artflock’s newest partnerships are with Moo.com and MyDeco.com. You can learn more about those at the official Artflock blog, and I think both will prove beneficial down the road.
Of course, if you haven’t visited Artflock yet, you’ve really got to check it out. Who knows, you might even decide to stay a while. : )
Update: Artflock.com has unfortunately shut its doors for good. If you’re interested in EmptyEasel’s own website service for artists, check out our Simple Artist Websites.
This post may contain affiliate links.