NEW "R-Folio" - The Directive Collective portfolio website

It’s been a long time coming, but I’ve finally rebuilt my website for The Directive Collective.

Working on some exciting new projects now so have finally made the transition to Squarespace. New content is on it’s way, just finished transitioning most of the previous content and tweaking the layout and template.

Overall it’s a similar vibe to the previous Prosite, but content and individual pages are better designed to feature different kind of content. Sections, Featured work and images on each page also streamlined to show just the best of the best.

I’m still working on adding new content, moving some of the old First Pullover blog content/resources into a new format (haven’t blogged in almost 10 years but still get a lot of referrals from the content), and adding new Directive Collective social media channels/content. Stay tuned!

Content, Layout, Design, Copy comments all welcome.


Thanks,

R

Nice Richard. Interesting, I’m seeing a lot of people move to this kind of tile based interaction where you get straight to projects. I recently re did mine as well and I was torn. I couldn’t get totally away from having more of a header then having more of a scroll style interaction, though I also got quickly to projects.

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Thanks for the replies.

Yo, did you look at it on desktop or mobile? The template I used I found seemed to work really well on both. I went with the tile format as I found it was the easiest to look good while constantly adding new content. The once over view at the home pages gives a good overview, and digging deeper has an easy flow. Adding a new row of tiles or shifting them around on the home page is super easy with Squarespare so I can mix stuff up or bring things to the top quickly,

Keno,

What do you mean about the PDFs as content pages? The Studio & Services Guide is a PDF for download but is also shown as a grid below on the page. The overall content of the whole site (and copy) is actually based on that PDF + more (ie. pages on the PDF for graphics, a graphics page, etc.). I think pretty much every image on the PDF is included someplace.

Mobile vs. Desktop a huge consideration for sure. Squarespace makes the formatting automatically platform agnostic.

R

PR. Stay tuned for more miix :wink:

Richard, I looked at it on desktop… so old school :slight_smile:

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I’ll fax you a dot matrix print out. :laughing:

R

Ah, OK. Points clearer now.

I’ll work on that. Agree 100% the “Download” on the tile is a bit confusing. Was meaning to indicate there is a download available inside… I can reword.

On the tile content of the Services Guide, you can actually click on each page to bring it up larger for viewing (also on mobile). Thinking was the tiles on that content page was sorta a preview before you decide you want to download. I may try a different type of gallery instead of the tile such as larger vertical column of images like other pages or a carousel of images. I went away from that as I believe the PDF content is best read as a full screen PDF, and even as a large image on a page, it’s not ideal, so better to just show what is the content, then lead to the PDF link.

As said, nothing is really ONLY in the PDF that isn’t elsewhere so either you get the PDF and that’s all you need or you explore the sight. Not really a fan of the “Portfolio” name, hence the “Studio and Services Guide” title.

What do you mean exactly by " It seems there is more when there it was all the time on the landing page tiles, so this could be confusing." ?

FAQ PDFs I agree could be page contents. Haven’t gotten around to that so the FAQ page a downloads of existing PDFs was the quick fix.

Fonts until tiles (and font color) I’m still playing with. My thought was the image is what catches your mind, the title being less important, but more prominent could be good if you are looking for a specific service or content…

R

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Check it out now. Addressed some of the PDF content concerns and main page font sizes…

R

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Good idea!

Ok. Whole bunch of fixing going on!

New content pages (PDFs gone) for the FAQs.
New Contact and About pages.
Linked content from the Studio & Services Guide page.

Added new content on most pages, better tile images.

Created/linked new social media (Follow me!) accounts for Facebook and Instagram.

http://www.instagram.com/directivecollective

Comments on content/UI/Layout welcome!

Thanks,
R

This is a great website! You evidently have so much expertise and content that this reads more like a website on footwear design than a portfolio.
Some of the sketch and visualization work is very inspiring. I like the variation of content in projects, some more design-related, others go in-depth to give you that peek into the kitchen.

The only comment I have is a bit McLuhanesque in that I like websites most if they are designed for on-screen viewing, rather than treating the screen like a window to pages on a book. I also like PDF’s for that reason, the page covers exactly the screen and keeps you focused.
Your logo feels a bit like it is two logos in one and related to DC comics. But maybe I have that association because I work for them. Either as a logo you can make the emblem simpler, consisting of less elements, or you can simplify the text and compose them more together. Typography works fine though complementing the serif for legible text and the logo with a sans for subheadings would make it more interesting. The site is great but not yet up to par with the quality of the design work.

Just updated the website and Studio & Services Guide PDF.

Lots more new content.
Much better thumbnails and tiles on the website.
New content order and layout on the website.
All new PDF for download.

Trying to mix up the content to better show the diversity of work including footwear, graphics, branding, illustration, etc.

Comments and feedback welcome! Web portfolio likely needs a larger overhaul to combine some of the buckets of content (ie. graphics + branding could be together), but I still need to find a better content management layout to show the depth if I reduce the breadth I think.

Thanks,
R

I don’t have much to add other than I wanted to say great work! Saved to my “Portfolio’s” bookmark.

Just got the newspaper print version! Nothing like actual ink on paper.

R


ahhh, super cool!

Oh that’s awesome!

Hot off the presses, new edition of the Studio Portfolio. Vol. 3, “Run”, with selected race kit designs (doing another edition with footwear/product/packaging).








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