IDALs portfolio 2014 review

Hi guys,

I’ve building a portfolio for the last few weeks and here is the result. My aim is to find a new position for mid Spring 2015. This the presentation I’ll be sending over to companies, currently I’m working on rearranging everything in coroflot and behance. Most of the projects I’ve been working on since Feb 2013 are still confidential, but I got the OK for these three here.

I’d appreciate very much if you shared your thoughts about them!

http://s3images.coroflot.com/user_files/individual_files/367548_ObyMCLNMazjPVFbEM8uERoo4X.pdf

Cheers,

Ale

Hey Alejandro,

I think your portfolio isn’t bad. You show some good core skills and an understanding for the process of designing a product from the ground up. Your portfolio makes a competent impression.

But in my opinion it’s a a little overloaded with both visual and text information.
I believe you could slim this down and condense it further, making it tighter and easier to browse.
To show slides of visual references is good but it feels almost as if they make up 50% of your portfolio, visually competing with your designs and making your work look a little unpolished by comparison.
Personally I think that your portfolio would lend itself better to something you bring into the interview and present, rather than send out. What you send might benefit from being more concise.

Another thing that stuck out to me is the choices for your initial project slides. I don’t feel like they do a good job of setting up your project. Personally I have always liked to show the final design initially in a nice hero shot or in context.
Some don’t as they want to have this big reveal moment in the end of the project but in my experience, no one has the patience to wait for that. I would want to see right away what I am in for and then see how you got there.
But that might be just my preference.
What we are doing in presentation here where I am now is to show a really moody rendered detail shot of the concept first, setting a tone and then we move through the process.

For example the Wine Cooler, which is an interesting project, has this cut off, bland wine bottle as it’s first image. My first thought is that you designed the label for the bottle but then was wondering why you would cut it of in the shot.
Same for the Beer label. I would have much rather seen a context shot of the label in real life.

Overall, it’s not bad at all but I think you could definitely edit and spice it up quite a bit. Maybe even re-render a few things.

Hi Bepster,

Much thanks for the feedback and the kind words! I think you’re right on your appreciations.

I realized I used the same scheme in the folio as I do in the presentations we choose concepts. I use this kind of images so the attention isn’t focused on a certain concept over the others, I like trying to be more diffuse, then guide them through the different concepts. I believe I should change that into a more direct presentation.

I also agree that probably I’m using too many images, especially with the wine cooler, but it was an important project and I wanted to show the process properly, because that’s the way I work. I will try to narrow it down and condense a bit more the pages while keeping a clear layout. I could also drop the inspiration page on the gun.

I think I’ll leave the longer presentation online like I have it in behance or coroflot and then change just the PDF I send over. You can take a look here if you want, Alejandro Lara, Industrial Designer in Shanghai, China or http://www.behance.net/alejandrolaradesign

I’ll try to upload a new portfolio this week, but it’s gonna be hard with a jazz fest running all week :slight_smile:

Cheers,

Ale

I agree with Bepster,

You need to romance the story and final imagery a bit more.

If the beer branding you designed was going to be in an magazine how would it be presented?
Thats just as/if not more important than the technical execution of the label.

Go to some photography sites and learn how they light and touch up beer. Lots of great ways to make things pop more.

http://phlearn.com/?s=beer+bottle

or direct to the video How to Make Beer Look Amazing in Photoshop (Part 2) - YouTube

Much thanks for the words and the links, Eman. I think you guys are right, I’m now working on that, I’ll upload a presentation with the changes this week.

Cheers,

Ale

Hi guys,

Here I’ve made some changes to the folio. I’ve put renderings of the product as cover images for the projects and change a bit some slides to make it easier to read.

Much thanks!

Ale