In this article, we will take a deep dive look into one of the core features available on Anthology – Portfolios!
Portfolios is a vital part of the Anthology platform. It’s the very first feature that we set out to build for our live prototype in 2021. This year - when moving from prototype to beta - we’ve bolstered some of the core functionality of Portfolios. This helps us also to shape the future of the feature moving forward.
This post will serve as a complete breakdown of Portfolios on Anthology. It will also answer some key questions behind our thinking of the feature - how users can interact with Portfolios currently, and how those interactions will change in the future. We also dive into the connections between Portfolios and the other core functions on Anthology.
Find out more about Portfolios on Anthology below!
When we first developed the concept for Portfolios, we took inspiration from several key and common services used in the photography space today - Image Gallery and Image Storage services.
Typically today one will find platforms that perform uniquely in these categories.
Take for instance Google Drive, Dropbox, Adobe Creative Cloud, etc. These services perform very well in the Image Storage space. They allow a creator to store massive amounts of content and data at first for free, but eventually they begin to charge a monthly subscription fee.
But, these services don’t perform well as Image Galleries. Their interfaces are not developed for prospects, clients or other viewers to see your work. And integrating these services with social media or other content sharing platforms (like a personal website) includes an additional export out of these storage tools, back onto your personal device, before you are able to post them accordingly.
The same can be said in the converse for Image Gallery sites. Pixieset, Zenfolio, even Getty Images serve as great tools to set up a gallery, but for storage? They charge relatively high subscription fees making them non-viable to store massive amounts of images.
So with Portfolios on Anthology, we aim to take the best of both worlds, combining them into a stronger, more efficient asset in a creator’s toolbelt.
Portfolios on Anthology act as a great option for an image storage solution. Users with a free account on Anthology enjoy the option to add as many photos as they like to as many Portfolios they like.
All completely free
The decision is down to you as a creator - do you want to share only edited images on the platform? You can! Want to place all your unedited images in one Portfolio and post the edited versions in another? You can!
How you choose to set up your personal profile with your Portfolios is entirely up to you!
Likewise, at the moment, we empower you as the creator to set up and display your Profile how you like.
This includes the ability to create unique Portfolios to share. You can order and organize the images within a Portfolio to your liking. And the same functionality is available on the Profile level with your albums.
Ordering and organizing allows you as the creator to showcase your Profile how you best want others to see it.
In this regard, we intend to invest in features and functionality that further combines storage and gallery.
For instance, our team is committed to developing some of the following features as they relate to Portfolios on Anthology:
• Public vs. Private Portfolios - features that allow users to set visibility controls for Portfolios when others visit their profiles
• Personal Invites - allowing creators to send personalized invites to special Portfolios for cases such as clients, family members, friends, events, etc.
• Marketplace Integrations - developing partnerships with manufacturers and others to enable users to create and sell customized products using the images they store in Portfolios when viewers wish to purchase
These are some examples of our team’s thinking. There are many more features and functions that we will explore together in the future when we begin releasing some of these tools.
Portfolios is not the only feature that lives and exists on Anthology. As you may be aware already (and if not, no sweat!), Anthology is home to Social, Explore, and Gamification as well.
Portfolios, along with these other features is what sets Anthology apart from any other photo app to date.
Together they serve to act as one cohesive platform where you can store, share, network and play as it relates to all things photo!
Social was one of the more recent additions to the Anthology pipeline of tools in our live beta.
The feature is designed as a social media entity - taking inspiration from nostalgic Instagram, among other platforms - to create a space where users can build and grow an organic network of like minded individuals. All centered around photos.
In a space where so much attention has been shifting towards short form video, and where our traditional photo platforms have gone off the wayside diving into broad media features - it has created a need for a platform to step in and realign a vision for those that enjoyed the photo art medium.
In line with this thinking - there is a relationship between Portfolios and Social as they are made today.
When you, as a user, create a brand new Portfolio on Anthology, the cover photo of that Portfolio will be shared to the Social Feed of those who follow you. Your followers can tap or swipe left on your image in their Social Feed, and they will be brought to the corresponding Portfolio where they can view the remaining images in the album.
Similarly, when you go to Edit a Portfolio, you may add images to that album. The first newly added image will be shared to the Social Feed of your followers, in chronological order of course.
This current relationship between Portfolios and Social is still a work in progress. However, we have thoughts and plans on how we can make this better and more integrated in the future.
One such idea is to create a separate, Social Feed Portfolio on each user’s profile page. Updating that special Portfolio will make send an update to the Social Feed of your followers.
Another option is to consider creating a singular image uploading logic. Providing users the opportunity to share an individual image that then posts directly to the Social Feed, while providing the option to add these images to an existing or new Portfolio at a later time.
Finally, and our most likely scenario - we provide an opportunity for users to select image(s) from their Portfolios on Anthology to post on Social each day.
This last option solidifies our entire thesis together:
Currently there is no active relationship between Portfolios and Explore on Anthology.
This is a recognized issue on the platform, as it has established two uniquely independent systems on the same mobile application that do not communicate with each other.
A focus of ours will be to establish this connection in the future with some of the following feature sets below.
Users can add an optional location to any of their Portfolios upon creation or edit. These location tags appear on the Social Feed to their Followers, however, at the moment there is no communication of these fields with those on Explore.
Briefly, Explore is a community-built location catalog of photogenic Points of Interest to visit. The goal of which is to inspire someone to go out and explore their community, taking photos in the process.
We would like to establish a relationship between Portfolios and Explore whereby users can see photo content uploaded to a Portfolio appear on an associated Point of Interest feed.
Conversely, when users upload content to or create a new Point of Interest on Explore, they should have the ability to add those to a new or existing Portfolio.
With our latest version release - v2.2.0 - the team has unveiled Flash Challenges. These challenges are a new type of photo mini-game that aims to provide users with a fun and inviting opportunity to create and share content with each other.
During the development of this feature, our team spent some time thinking about how this content will relate to the other segments of Anthology - Portfolios being one of them.
That is why we developed a clear and distinct way for users to easily add the images they’ve shared through previous Flash Challenges to any of their existing Portfolios on Anthology.
Because this feature and the Gamification aspect of Anthology is so new, we are eager to hear from our community members like you on what opportunities you might envision to strengthen the relationship between these flagship features.
With that, we would like to thank you for reviewing the Portfolios feature as it lives on Anthology - a photo app designed to combine social media with gamification to inspire creativity and exploration.
If you want to try out Portfolios for yourself, we welcome you to sign up for a free account by downloading Anthology for the Apple App Store or the Google Play Store today!
Portfolios is a core and vital part to our system, and one that every user will come across as they use our platform.
We would like to hear from you! What is your favorite part of Portfolios? What can we make better? Or what type of functionality would make your life easier as a creator if it was available on Anthology.
Drop us a comment through our email
*this post may have been, and will be, updated in the future with additional backlinks, information, and features as they evolve and change on Anthology
