Hello!
I am currently working on a website, but for now, my portfolio is on coroflot. I’m likely to do a different method for online, featuring a number of projects with sketches, renders, cad and model making depending on the project.
I would love to hear thoughts about my current ‘hard copy’ as it is!
www.coroflot.com/jmattley
Thanks,
Joe
Hi Joe,
I think you’ve made a good start here, one thing I would say was that I think the presentation of your sketches is letting you down a bit here. The Pure ones are your strongest but I would look at scanning them in better, using stronger lineweights to compensate for the loss of info in the scan and using a Photoshop-type program to maximise their impact.
Otherwise there is some interesting projects here and should be a good base for the rest of your work.
Hope it helps
Hi Joe
Cargo collective is a great platform for hosting your website. Email them to ask for an invite or I can generate one for you if you need it.
Otherwise I support the comments made by j_lev. Looking forward to seeing more stuff! 
Thanks guys! I’ll get on that and get an update on here soon as.
Thanks!
Very much work in progress in terms of online portfolio. I am new to web design.
This is a stream of random thoughts:
Take off the “subscribe to: posts(atom)” no one will use that and it’s distracting.
I’m not sure why you didn’t just use something like Cargo Collective. Aesthetically it’ll be much cleaner. I’m not diggin the social icons either. I’m fine with text links, but on every page they distract from your content. Why don’t you just put your full CV on there? Why make a potential employer ask you for it? Provide it in PDF form. Your email link doesn’t work. Make sure the href=“mailto:youremail@address”.
I also don’t understand why you have a huge block of text for each project, and then a bunch of images. Why not type up a sentence or two for each image? That way it breaks up the huge block of text that I don’t really want to read (since it looks so long).
Your logo (to me) takes more away from your impression than it does add to it. Just have your name, nice and clean and legible. No need for funky tilted Ms.
The widths are not consistent for every page because of your images. Some times they squash the navigation column on the left, making your About Me blurb harder to read, and also causes some orphans in your text (an orphan is a line of text with only one word on it. It’s a typographical no-no).
You really need to rework your text. For example, I would take this:
Whilst on placement at Evolution Power Tools, I was given another brief to design the first three tools in a range of cordless power tools that the company were thinking of introducing. These tools would start a range called Pure Power Tools. These would be budget tools aimed at supermarkets, yet still required thoughtful and good looking design. A series of Photoshop renders were required to meet this brief along with some prototype eco-friendly packaging which I was heavily involved in.
Prototype packaging produced from corrugated cardboard. The black and white ink was aimed to be environmentally friendly by minimising the dyes used.
and turn it into this:
As an intern at Evolution Power Tools, I helped design the first three tools for a new line called Pure Power Tools: a drill, a jigsaw, and a sander. These are budget tools aimed for supermarkets, so my challenge was to design attractive and functional (if you did do this part) tools that could be produced at a low cost, as well as environmentally friendly packaging.
(Pair your text with your images)
Sketches here<<
(This text is made up, and should be replaced with your real design process) I started sketching to find forms that would attract people who shop at supermarkets: it had to look powerful and durable. I explore angled forms and different materials, such as ABS, Santoprene, etc.Renderings here<<
In the end, I delivered renderings to the management/marketing/whoever to communicate my design intent.
That’s just an example, but you can see it’s much more concise and focuses on what you did, rather than what “they gave you” or “I was involved in”. Specifics, and a story! Also important to talk about the results of your work. Did this go into production? Inspire things that are on the market now? Were they key for the future of your company in a new competitive space? Tell us, so we know your value as a designer and your ability to create change within a company.
===
TLDR: Get a Cargo Collective and work more on the content, not the website. You are not a web designer (since I see no work in your portfolio that suggests you are), so just get really great content and communicate it in really compelling stories.
Good luck.
That’s brilliant tangerine! Thanks for all the advice, I can really see where you’re coming from, I’ll give cargo collective a blast, sorry rachelkroft, I wasn’t ignoring you, it was a get round to it job and tangerine reminded me!
hey no worries! I will generate the invite for you no problem. Its a great platform. As well through it I taught myself css and a bit of html (now getting ready to take on the newer versions!) So if you are wanting to learn a bit of code it is also a good way to learn.
Thanks again for the invite! So at the moment, I am currently sticking with the current design - but in the future, I plan on going over two Cargo Collective!
I will (hopefully) have the website sorted out soon. But, I am very busy this month with exhibiting my work in Sheffield (Creative Spark 2011) and in London (New Designers).
I have changed the layout of the images within the website. I think this will do until I have more time for the Cargo Collective.
I used basic CSS for the new image layout.
Please let me know your thoughts (like I said, I do plan on changing it!)
I got round to making my home page slightly different, a bit easier on the eye and more grid-like. I’ve not added any new projects as yet, going to figure out how to display them to include my sketching skills aswell.