We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Zachary & Brenda York a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Zachary & Brenda, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Going back to the beginning – how did you come up with the idea in the first place?

We noticed a problem and that we could solve it with the tools, knowledge, and skill sets at our disposal.

Zachary & Brenda, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

Our business model is straightforward; to enable artists to spend more time in the studio creating, rather than on their computer. Both are a necessity- and in order to be successful, all artists need a website that shows off their art in the best way possible.

After years of teaching artists how to best market their work, my partner (who just happens to be my mother) realized the need for website design and maintenance specifically for artists.

Together, we design websites, logos, marketing materials, and provide a whole lot of hand-holding. I am responsible for the technical side of the business; setting up the website navigation, SEO, and e-commerce, and teaching our clients how to maintain their new website.

Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?

The goal is simple: to help artists do the stuff they don’t want to do. We realized that many artists don’t have a simple and easy-to-navigate website if they have one at all. We’ve found that they’d rather be in the studio making art. Duh, right?! Realizing this, we were able to utilize our skills to build a solution; the artist makes the art and we do the rest. It’s just a better way to run an art business.

Any advice for growing your clientele? What’s been most effective for you?

Most of our work and clients have been from word-of-mouth, to be honest. We attribute that to our art marketing knowledge, responsive customer service, and individualized problem-solving. We put in some serious work and effort to make the process as simple and easy as we can for the artist.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.smartworksforartists.com/
• Instagram: @smartworksforartists

Image Credits

Team: Chris Wimpey @chriswimpey
Self: Zachary York, @zacyork
Self: Brenda York, @brendayorkart