I am preparing to apply for internships and am wondering if my portfolio (http://www.dropmocks.com/mBkZDw) is strong enough to compete for a position? Please provide feedback, Good and Bad. I appreciate any help, be critical, I can take it!
Hey Richard, I just briefly looked at it and to me the highlighted words make the text difficult to read and my eye just skips the whole box because it looks hard to read. For example, the “CNC”, “PVC Tubing” highlighted in white on the final prototype page of the Balooza are quite distracting to me. So maybe tone them down a little bit or something. Maybe sit down and read the text box on that page and the one on the next page about the Lash birdhouse, the Lash paragraph is much easier to to read I think.
I also didn’t get time to look at the content but I did like the box highlighting the skills each project shows in the bottom right, that’s a nice touch.
And maybe do a few personal projects to inject some passion into your portfolio, maybe just a quick one day project you created for yourself in an area you’re interested in so I can see what motivates you and a little more of what drives you and how you may fit in with a potential company, that might be a nice addition.
Thanks for the feedback skosh! If I had an award for being first replier, I’d kindly hand it over haha. I agree with the font issue. That has been bugging me. Ya, personal projects are a definite work in progress. Feel free to read on and let me know if anything else catches your eye. I get too many people just trying to be nice and say that its good. I need REAL FEEDBACK here!
Okay, I’ll give it another go. I had a few more minutes tonight so I looked at your balooza project and I realized I actually have no idea how the thing works or what it actually does. I understand that kids shoot balls into it and they come back via motor, but what is the game, and why would they play this over basketball? It’s the same principle right, shooting a ball into a net and they probably already own a basketball net. Why should they spend the money on this toy, what advantages does it offer or needs does it fulfill for the users? And maybe going through the use cycle could be beneficial. Also, take us through your development prototype models; explain them and what worked and didn’t and how they were improved.
For the Lash birdhouse, ya you’ve got the decent looking models, you’ve got the context of the product, so now take it a step further. Design a beautiful package for it, model it in CAD or something and then maybe do some pricing figures for it and get an estimated cost for the end buyer. Right now the package it comes in is ugly, does it have to be a rectangle? What about something that will put a smile on people’s faces when they see it, something that delights them. The blue rectangle just isn’t doing it for me.
For the active air project, the concept development sketches done in ballpoint, I can’t make them out so they just take up space. Either redo then digitally so they’re clear or darken them in Photoshop.
And on a whole, I don’t really see your sketching skills coming through. I want to see a quick, loose, sketch that conveys an idea or feature but with excitement and good solid proportion and perspective and all that stuff. Show me your sketching abilities, your sketches look bland right now, and if you don’t have them sketch 24/7 for the next month then go back and redo all your drawings, you’ll see a big improvement in the energy of your pages I think.
Ps Firefox crashed twice while viewing your website, and I haven’t had firefox crash in months so maybe you want to look into that.
Hope it helps!
Skosh
Hey Richard
I think your bird house project is a lot cooler than the way you’ve presented it. I would play up the pictures of the final mockup way more especially at the end of the project. The slide that currently ends with the packaging and marketing is really dull in comparison to the image of the assembled one on the tree. Blow that up and make it its own slide full bleed, give us a chance to celebrate the final design a bit. Actually all your projects sort of felt like they were missing the final punch, you have some nice content but feel like it’s presented without really celebrating the final outcome.
I also had the same crashing problem as Skosh so maybe try hosting on another site as well
Best of luck
Thanks for the replies! Great feedback from both of you. I also am questioning the quantity of pages per project? I feel that some projects need another page to convey the prototyping process better etc. but my worry is that it starts to get too lengthy…especially if I plan to add one or two new projects to it. Any thoughts? Is there a page(s) that stands out as not important or could be condensed and added to another page? I also plan to add an intro page for each project that describes the focus and objectives since I have been told that the projects don’t transition too well. Again, I appreciate the feedback.
I’ve seen portfolios that are 70 pages but feel like 25 and vice versa, I think its all about how you present the work. I’m not a huge fan of the layout that you are using right now, it very visually heavy and feels more like a power point presentation. Some of the pages are really visually dense and have a lot of content or copy like the “Sustainable Future” slide. I would be weary of adding many more pages like that but some pages with nice “money shots” or easily digestible content could definitely be added without making the portfolio feel much longer.