John Mauriello Portfolio

Hey guys,

Check out my portfolio at http://www.studioello.com

I’m an industrial designer with around 4 years of professional experience.

I’d really like to hear your thoughts on how I might be able to improve.

Thanks for your input guys! I intend to pay it forward by reviewing a few other folios on here when I get a chance.

No feedback at all? I guess it’s perfect!

:wink:

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If you don’t get a lot of responses after posting your work, it mostly means that people don’t connect with it as they should.

I will have to agree with Keno.
As it stands now, it’s a bit light and the projects do not seem to represent your current stage in your career.

I’d look into fleshing them out a bit more. Currently it feels as if we are only getting 20% of the projects and we are left asking “where is the rest”?
Beep is a good example.

Also, in terms of profile picture, it reminded me of this oldie but goodie thread a while back :wink:

Few Small Technical Things.

Craft your Square images on the front. The headphones and eye glasses all have cropped text. It takes like 5 minutes to recrop a photo to exactly what you want. Comes off a tiny bit lazy.

Your image grid needs to have a bit more continuity. Treat it as an image board. Similar vibe across all your feature images.


For 4 years. Your work depth seems to be lacking a bit or possible outdated?

Proto: Solid project. Would be cool to show a bit of sketching or CAD. Just to show the engineering behind it a bit more.

Mollusk looks good from a process side.
Few questions. Is it only time? You show it as a surf product, does it do anything to make the surfer better?

Also fatal flaw in your one size stretch band fits all. It doesn’t work in reality. Wrist sizes vary way to much. Especially not for a sports watch where you’d want a snugger fit.

Also looks a lot like the adidas Smart Fit watch. Not a bad thing, but if the forms been done a hundred times. What makes this different?


Wine Chiller seems too much like a student project. Form finding page? What was the form based off of? Its just a sketch and some foam models. Do you even need to chill a red wine? Isn’t it suppose to be served at room temp?


Beep: Your essentially re-skinning something like this.

Didn’t realize it was so tiny till just now. Show it in context. Build it around a brand, or craft a brand around it. Mindlessly sketching without the viewer knowing the direction doesn’t show anything. Sketch towards a brand language we recognize does.

3D print some small protos ands take photos next to speakers. A small percentage of design is about the physical product. A lot of it has to do with how its used and where it lives. Your missing that on this project

Wire management seems like the biggest issue here. Design a custom plug for it even.

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  • What i think your missing here is romancing the design solutions. As designers is doesn’t just stop with the last key shot rendering , were suppose to craft a vision for the user. You need to showcase that vision. Create desire for the products your making. Doesn’t have to be hot CES products either. If you can get a Mom to be like “I need that baby bottle” its the same effect.

Hello keno,

Thanks for your advice.

I actually have a copy of Breaking In. I read the interviews at length, and the one commonality that I found was that they like to see a certain “spark”, which to me was extremely vague. Many said that they liked to see a thought process being articulated, but others also said that they like to see just a few quick images/renderings to get a sense of their understanding of form/proportion. Many like to see technical skills being showcased, but I show sketching, CAD, and renderings in all of my projects. With that said, there wasn’t really any one thing that all managers are looking for. Breaking In was extremely useful for me when I send out portfolios to those specific people in the industry. If I’m unsure of what that company is looking for, I can see what the design manager said and tailor my folio to their preferences.

With that said, I will articulate my design principles in the about section and also make sure that it comes across in the work as well. I think that this is very good advice. I’m not quite sure how to do it, though, to be honest with you. But I suppose it’s my job as a designer to figure it out. Any tips you have are still appreciated, of course.

Hello bepster,

Thanks for your advice.

That is a good observation. This is unfortunately neither my best work nor my most recent work. However, it is the best thing that I am currently allowed to show.

Unfortunately, all of my most recent work is under NDA. I’m hopeful that one or two projects ends up going into production (which would allow me to make it public) but the vast majority of what I design doesn’t get produced for any number of reasons. Sometimes it’s because my idea wasn’t the solution chosen by the client, but most often it’s for organizational/business reasons that are sort of beyond my control. If you have any advice for a good way to handle this, I’d really appreciate it. I did a personal project recently (the Slide headphones on my portfolio site). Would you advise doing more of those types of projects in the meantime while some of my other professional projects are hopefully launched?


Regards,
John

Hello Sain,

I really appreciate your feedback, especially for each project (I took it out of the quoted section here because it would have resulted in too much scrolling.)

Do you think you have any input for the Slide headphones project? That is my most recently posted project.

John,
Your portfolio seems a bit formulaic. It seems like you crafted the whole website/portfolio in a block of time making sure you had enough content to make it seem like a complete project. You show research and process but it almost seems like you went for the design you wanted first and then went back and created the required user, theme, and supporting sketches pages.

  1. Mollusk: Both Photoshop images of watch on surfer show the time being shown upside down for the user. There’s no market research of current surfing watches out there which shows their weaknesses and how yours is better. You showed some interesting sketches, specially the one with the rectangular cutouts, but they just look like sketches that don’t show what you were thinking or why you were choosing those shapes/forms.

  2. Slide: Drawn by the nice rendering. I like it but it seems like it lacks some more detailing. Standard user and theme boards. Initial sketches but no development or refinement sketches as to how you got to your final design. Maybe flush out how the mechanisms really work. No visible hardware anywhere. How would everything be assembled? Really think about it and maybe this will help to add some more details to your project.

  3. Beep: Just seemed like an exploration exercise for a magic box with a big button. The product is lacking personality.

  4. Protos: Didn’t think much of it the first time. It seems like you showcased the hard to manufacture aspect of it more than the customization and tailor made design to fit each face individually. After seeing the Protos website it seems like the perfect use of 3D printing. Did you do sketches or CAD or both for this company? Can you show those rather than just the final models?

You also say you have 4 years of professional experience but there is no resume or work history. You mention you cannot show your work yet but maybe you can list the companies you worked for, the type of products and your involvement. At the end of the day you are showing this portfolio so what you show will be what people evaluate. Keep doing self directed projects to have a more robust portfolio. Good luck.

Hey FH13,

In addition to everyone else’s feedback, this also was very useful. I will definitely be taking this into account.

For the next pass, I will definitely show my process so that the design intent/details are more clear.

The reason why I did not show more process initially is because I don’t want to give too much away . I was thinking that process is something that I’d prefer to talk about during an interview. My fear is that if I show a fully fleshed out portfolio with every detail explained, I won’t have anything extra to talk about in an interview. Is this a legitimate fear, or am I overthinking things?

Protos is actually a company that I cofounded. I can show any/all of the work. I actually designed some new frames that are way more interesting that I’ll be putting up in a couple weeks. I’m just waiting for the prototypes to come back with lenses inserted.

I only looked at the mobile site and I couldn’t find any contact information. I suppose that’s important.

Did you try the “contact” link at the top of the page? :wink:

Maybe that doesn’t show up on mobile for some reason? I’ll have to try

Nope, there is no “contact” button, at least in the mobile version I’m seeing.

Weird. I don’t know how to fix that for mobile. I’ll figure something out.

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Cool. I’ll make all of the little changes (technical stuff like text size and optimizing for mobile, providing a client list, showing my work experience, etc.) over the next few days.

Then I’ll start to do the folio overhaul where I explain my thinking/process for each project more thoroughly, which I think will take a lot more time. I might also add in one or two new eyewear frames in there too.

I’ll post the updates on here, and I really appreciate all of the valuable feedback from everyone!

It’s a tricky spot to be in. I know, I’ve been there.
When you have worked for a little bit but aren’t so senior that your production work has piled up.

You got the right idea. Show your work through personal projects. Leverage what you have already done and learned.
For example, you could choose a design direction that was not chosen by the client and develop it on your own. Just remove the name and change it enough to not be associated with the original client or project, which of course is important…

Also, if possible, mention the clients you have worked with in your about section.
If you got some well known heavy hitters in there, it will give you more of a profile and it will be assumed that you have done comprehensive work even though you aren’t allowed to show any of it.

I think this is a great point!
The headphones look like a good project but for some reason it feels a little flat still.
Adding context renders, maybe packaging and more for a story and POV would lift this.

Hey guys,

I did another eyewear project. You can check it out here: John Mauriello

I’m going to re-work the headphones project next in order to explain the mechanics better as well as romanticize the design more, as someone else articulately put it.