For my final peer review, I had the pleasure of reviewing Carissa’s blog — The Power of Painting. As a 4th-year Communications Student, minoring in Publishing and Digital print, her website focuses on documenting her creative journey with painting!
Right off the bat, I was impressed with the simple yet stylistic choice of her theme and colour palette. The relaxing hues of pastels and neutrals contrasted really well with the overall white background of her website. Her content focuses on all things painting while describing her various experiences, techniques and ideas learned throughout. I would argue that her intended audience demographic would range between the 16-24 age group. Carissa is very vibrant and youthful in her writing and I think it would attract those who are similar!
In terms of organization, I really appreciated how her content was categorized in their respective sub-headers. At the top of her website, there is a dropdown menu that separates both blog posts and PUB 101 content, showing her eye for detail and functionality for users.
In Travis Gertz‘s reading by “Design Machines” (2015), he explains the impact design has to make or break a brand. I think Carissa did a great job at evaluating a website theme that would promote a relaxing and easy-to-navigate page. Her website is purely one the represents herself through her art/blog posts and puts the notion of “connecting the content to the medium” into action (Gertz, 2015).
One of my favourite parts of Carissa’s website, was the Gallery feature. In this particular section she displays a collage that showcases some of the past art pieces she has painted for herself, friends and family! I would argue that Carissa has created her own digital garden where she has cultivated her own little piece of the internet. In Tanya Basu‘s article she defines a digital garden as a space that “explore[s] a wide variety of topics and are frequently adjusted and changed to show growth and learning, particularly among people with niche interests” (Basu, 2020). I hope Carissa chooses to continue posting on her website as well as her instagram account so others can see her amazing work!
Possible Opportunity for Monetization!
After seeing this gallery, I couldn’t help but think about the opportunity it gives Carissa to monetize and gain revenue through her art (only if she wants to of course). In our lecture with guest speaker, Trevor Battye, he explains how success comes from a combination of one or more of these features:
- A niche tribe which you lead
- A voice that a brand can attach itself to, to speak to a tribe
- A monetizing action, for your audience to respond to
Ultimately, I believe that Carissa’s website has what it takes to gain profit from what she creates. If I were to make any suggestions I would advise her to move the left and right navigation buttons to the bottom of the page instead of the middle. I found myself getting distracted a bit while reading a few of her blog/process posts.
Conclusions
Overall, I really enjoyed seeing the progress that Carissa has made with her blog and brand as an artist. The image to the left represents a bit of what has happened since she began her journey as a painter at the start of quarantine. I find it very encouraging to see a visual representation of what hard work and dedication can do. It’s great to see her using her extra time
Please make sure to check out Carissa and her wonderful website at — www.powerofpainting.com and her some love. I hope you continue painting after this pandemic is over & consider selling/commissioning your artwork online. Best of luck! 
The post PUB 101 Peer Review #3 — The Power of Painting appeared first on Marylou Villegas.
