Critique My Portfolio

I am a Junior from NUS in Singapore doing my exchange semester in ASU, Arizona. I am currently looking for an internship for this spring so I would love to hear some feedback on my ID portfolio. Feel free to be honest with your comments; I want to learn and improve as much as I can.

http://www.wenshukwek.com

Wenshu,

I really like the good documentation of the design process you’ve been going through.
It’s a clean and clear website with a immediate look on your work.
I really like the project for nestlé, its a clever and good packaging.

Keep up the good work! I’m sure you’ll find a great internship!

Andreas

Thank you for the comments. I’ve been working on it for a few months and it takes a lot longer than I imagined it would.

Anyone else with criticisms to help me improve? Personally I feel like I do not project my portfolio in any particular direction (for example: consumer electronics focused design). I’m sure it will hurt me when I apply to design firms with a more focused line of work. Opinions on that?

Hello everyone!

I’ve recently updated my portfolio and resume. I graduate this May and am preparing for my job hunt.

Check it out! > http://www.wenshukwek.com

I am still working on my portfolio and would I would love to seek your valuable advice. I would be very happy to receive your feedback and criticisms. :slight_smile:

Hey Wenshu,

I think you did a great job at showing off your process and different skills (sketching,model making,research,3d, rendering, etc.) Shows that you seem to have all around skills which is good.

I don’t think that having a portfolio that isn’t focused on one particular field is going to hurt you. Personally, I prefer to see portfolios that are more diverse since they tend to showcase the student’s design thinking in different context.

Great presentation skills and story telling, I really like the power drill and the blender for children. You show pretty well your design process and the different skills you have.

I think in the L’Oreal project the order is a bit messy, you select a concept and show some mock ups and then sketches and inspiration, shouldn’t it be the other way around? I’d show the style and mechanical exploration first, then sketching and mock ups, also high lighting more the final concept.

Overall, great work and presentation skills, I’m sure you’ll have no problems finding something!

I love your portfolio. It’s really clean, to the point, and pleasant to read. You do a good job of making me “climb the mountain” (follow the story up to the design, then learn about the design).

I do think you have a typo in the Juice Blender project. The SMART page with the close up of the dial… “The control dial acts as an additional safety cum off switch.” Should be “cut off”.

Nice work Wenshu! Very clean and good mix of skills. I really like the Voccoo sensor form, do you have more sketches for that? It has a little less process than the drill or hand blender and I want to see more :slight_smile: Nothing to keep you from sketching it out later on either.

I have a friend who worked at Cilicon too, so she had a handle on Rhino about a year before the rest of us, pretty cool…

That’s a really nice clean, simple website. I saw that it was Squarespace when I clicked on your resume. What template is it?

Thank you everyone for the encouraging comments and feedback!

VanDeBar:
I once had an interviewer who felt my portfolio lacked focus but yes I agree that diversity is a very important element as well. I should prepare a PDF portfolio so I can show a more focused range of work when it seems like the interviewer/client is looking for that. Problem with website porfolios… you can’t customise it for different people/companies!

IDAL:
Yes I agree my L’Oreal project lacks cohesion. In addition to the jumbled order I think I shouldn’t show mock ups and renders too close to each other, especially since they look so different. Still trying to find a way to present this project coherently. Perhaps I should only show either renders or models.

mcroberscb:
Oh I meant it as additional safety feature that’s also an off button but yes it’s basically a safety cut off switch. I could have been clearer. That was very sharp, thank you for spotting it!

robbie_roy:
Ah yes the Boccoo project is still a work in progress. Had more models and sketches but in the mad rush last semester I forgot to take pictures :frowning:. Really highlights the importance of always taking photos of your process as a student!

OliFrith:
I use Avenue. Didn’t tweak it too much I liked the clean layout!

It’s very clear, nice and clean overall. Sometimes even almost too proper, see if you can add some ‘life’ to your renderings with more textures or contextual elements - maybe wood shavings next to the drill, liquid in the blender jar, things like that.
Your sketches are nice, but sometimes just slightly too inaccurate in terms of geometry so that it doesn’t match the clean presentation style. These are minor points though.

One aspect of your projects that I am missing is a critical analysis and discussion of the final design. You do the field research initially, but in the end the concept will also need to be verified - that will be the true proof of your design rationale. Now it sort of ends with a presentation of an impressive concept, but what’s even more impressive is proof that you have successfully completed the design challenge and met the requirements. Build a functional prototype, have the end user try it out, gather data, analyze, discuss, conclude.

And I also like to see variety in a portfolio, don’t force yourself to choose a specific direction too much, it will come naturally. Your way of designing and presenting, and actually, also the types of products you design, already has quite some coherence to it.

Nice clean site and happy to see everything is on a grid. Also happy to see the process. My only dig is the site takes quite a while to load. I would fix this because potential employers will just close it if it doesn’t load right away.

J

ralphzoontjens:
Thank you for the valuable comments! I will take them into consideration as I improve on my projects in the coming month. I agree that it would be much better if I analysis my design solution thank you for that.

I wonder if it is good to talk about negative user remarks and/or challenges with the project and discuss my learning points, what I would have done if I did it again or possible future improvements?

PackageID: Thank you for pointing it out. I’ve never had problems loading my website. But then again the internet is pretty quick in my country! I’ll look at how I can downsize my images and keep it looking crisp. Any recommendations for image resolutions and file sizes?

Nice work. Clean engaging site. Your thumbnail images make we want to clink to see more projects. The research and documentation is clear and conscience without being too long. One thing I would recommend to work on is to push your sketch a bit more and to work on a bit more form development. Not that these are negatives in your portfolio, but I think if you work on these two areas it will really sing.