best sites by artists and writers #2: chase jarvis

Chase Jarvis‘ blog is the next must-see destination in our Sites We Love series. Jarvis is a photographer, filmmaker and all-around visual storyteller type.

Our people.

Among his projects “Seattle 100” is fascinating. The images he captures of cultural leaders in Seattle are incredible. He’s also the creator of the iPhone app “Best Camera” which got best app of the year nods from Wired and Macworld.

So how does someone with such a complex portfolio present himself online? Jarvis does some standard stuff, but he also makes a few wise decisions that storytellers (with their own sites) should learn from.

He uses the categories (Photo | Video) to show people examples of his work in specific media. But then he uses a special category (Projects) to highlight where he’s honed his efforts to create complete products.

From there, he provides access to a collection of his Creative Live interviews, which cover discussions around the creative life.

And, finally, his blog is where he first shares the Creative Live interviews and writes about products and projects that catch his eye. This section isn’t updated too often but he makes sure his posts are valuable. Quality, not quantity, counts most when it comes to posts!

To those of us who are always searching for the best way to present our work (and our personas) online, there are a few good lessons here:

1) Keep it simple. Even though Jarvis’ interests and work covers a huge swath of the creative gamut, he manages to keep the look simple.
2) Categorize. He keeps the look simple by leaning on well-thought-out categories that separate the work he does every day from his complete projects.This way we get glances at the ephemera of his creative life, as well as the projects he believes are part of his legacy. Oh yeah, and Google loves intelligent categories. It helps them find the good stuff faster. So there’s that.
3) Jarvis’ Creative Live interviews are a smart way to make content out of discussions he probably has every day! We should all learn from this. Stick to your passions, talk about them with your friends and bring a camera!
4) He uses the blog as a catch-all venue for things that occur to him or catch his eye. That’s smart, since this is where he can let ideas grow. But he also uses the blog as a rental home for his Creative Live posts. That’s a little confusing, and probably the weakest link in an otherwise solid site.

Check out the site and let us know what you think in the comments if you’re inspired!