Feedback Appreciated

I’ve recently graduated and I feel like during school, there has always been an emphasis on showing process, but after looking at other portfolios, I feel many people go for very simple high quality final renders over showing process. I’m always worried about leaving something out but understand that dumping too much info in a project can be overwhelming to the viewer. I’m looking to spend some time reworking my projects and touching up on some of the renders and sketching. Any feedback would be appreciated.

My projects can be seen here. The first 4 projects are typically what I show in a comprehensive portfolio.
www.behance.net/adamgilleland

From looking through it briefly, I feel like you’ve covered all of the bases, but are a bit light on content. I’d like to see you explore a lot more ideas throughout each project and show some more complexity in your technical skills (presentation level sketches and renders, detailed CAD etc.) to give you padding that is relevant. I also think that you are better off with bigger and bolder imagery, and more pages, than trying to cram lots of photos onto one page.

The presentation of ‘Return’ is working really well for me, and I think the other projects would benefit from some tweaks to give them a similar visual style.

Definitely show process, but I don’t need to see that you can brainstorm, sketch, model-make, CAD and render for every project. Perhaps try to focus each project on one skill, so you end up with a detailed sketch/idea generation focussed project, a detailed CAD project, a detailed model-making project etc. which collectively show your capabilities, but in much more detail than you are now. Make me feel confident that you can do what I need if I hire you.

Thanks for your feedback. It’s good to hear someone confirm the main concerns I have with my projects. The Return project was recently revamped for an IDSA submission and it was a good exercise on condensing a project down to the most essential bits of information in a limited number of slides.

Thanks again, this definitely helps.

Hi Adam,

Showing process is good but to go through all the classic ID steps in a linear way for every project - the process can be a bit more enticing if you show more clearly your intentions, make it a tailored process to your product and show a proof of reaching your intentions in your own way.

Always mention your sources when presenting market research, we also need to see a short summary of demographics.
See if you can spice up your projects more by bringing in ideas about innovation of your own (can we change the entire product archetype, the ergonomics, the interaction at its core?), and specifically tailor the designs to a target market.

Your presentation skills are very good and while we do not see a full proof of concept Return is your best project so far.
Keep on designing!