I graduated last year and I am tweaking my portfolio a bit at a time right now. I would appreciate any feedback. Good, bad or ugly give it to me straight up, I appreciate it all. Here is a link to a PDF http://www.coroflot.com/user_files/individual_files/148639_gr2mM5mZAMzxHVPShp5qduJuK.pdf it’s a bit choppy but it’s the largest file size that Coroflot will allow me to host. If you’re really keen check my Coroflot for more if you’re interested.
Thanks
-Kyle
Pretty sweet dude.
The bell telephone project was bad ass, I loved the user scenario video. I never thought to do something like that before.
You could probably use more form development sketches.
I’d get rid of the last two projects unless you can get a better rendering of those headphones. Or just replace them with a photo of a real set because they’re not of the same quality as the blue tooth interface.
I hate black. If it were me I’d make it 80% gray.
Thanks for the feedback. The video was a lot of fun to make. It was one of those late night projects in the studio near the end of the semester that really helped to define the project. I have to give a lot of credit to my partner on the project as well.
You’re right I am definitely lacking sketch work and form development on many of my projects. I wasn’t very skilled / confident in the sketch work on some of my earlier projects, but I hope to rectify this by adding a sketch section to my portfolio to show off my now improved sketch/render work that doesn’t fit with thees projects.
I think I might try lightening up the shader on the headphones, and see how that works out, although cutting and and pasting in a iamge would be faster.
Thanks again
First things first, your pics and type in you pdf are pixilated. This is a total turnoff for me. I agree with robet that you need more sketches in your port to show me how you think, but the first thing I would fix is the quality of your images. If I see bad image quality to the point that everything is fuzzy I close the port and move on. This is not what you want. Look through the threads and do some research on portfolios. You will see what you need to do to have a solid portfolio with great image quality. We are designers and without good presentation you will not succeed.
Point taken about presentation. I have a link to a higher quality PDF (5MB and a 25MB printable version) which I usually send out. For expediency though I choose to use a very small (1MB) version that is quick for people to download and view/review. Maybe I should post a link to the larger one though.
Thanks for the advise taking the time to look through it. I hope to completely revamp the look of my portfolio in the near future.
After veiwing you corfolio you do have some nice work. I would just like to see that quality in you porfolio.
Thanks. I’m jut trying to decide between getting a web page going or reworking the PDF version of my portfolio. Improvements are coming soon though.
There is no reason your text should ever be pixelated in a PDF. The whole point of a PDF is that text is vector and the fonts are embedded to reduce file size and make it easy to print.
What did you create the PDF from? Photoshop?
If so, I suggest you re-do it in Illustrator or InDesign to avoid the pixels… As a result it will also likely be smaller so you can increase the resolution of the images and still have a small file.
R
The PDF was created with InDesign, however some of the inset images have text that was created in Illustrator and flattened at some point. This is probably the cause of my woes.
Thanks for taking a look.
-Kyle
Not that I’m lazy, but I thought that this was exactly my point of view.
The resolution issue has been adressed. No more Choppy fonts, though since the PDF is hosted on Coroflot I am limited to >3MB, so the image quality is a bit shoddy. If anyone is interested in seeing the High Res version P.M. me and I will send you the Link.
I should have a website up soon as well, and hopefully a portfolio redesign in the not too distant future.
P.S. the link is Here: http://www.coroflot.com/user_files/individual_files/148639_gr2mM5mZAMzxHVPShp5qduJuK.pdf
Grainy fonts, choppy images and all that jazz have been completely resolved now, I believe. I am now also hosting my portfolio on my new site http://kylejferguson.com. The site is a bit boring but I hope to tweak both my website and portfolio in the near future.
Thanks for all of the feedback so far, it has helped so much.
Much better. Looks pretty solid.
BTW though, you have a blank page on page 16 of the portfolio PDF. Not sure if it’s supposed to blank or what.
R
Killed the blank page. I hope to further solidify it. Thanks!
Looks great!!! Not trying to be picky but some of your images are still a bit grainy. I would try to fix this. Other than that, it looks pretty solid.
Picky is good thanks.
To keep the portfolio to a reasonable size (5-7MB) I’ve had to up the compression a bit and few of the images suffered. I might try upping the RES on those images specifically. It might be a good way of without increasing the quality of those images without inflating the size of my PDF too much.
Thanks for being picky. I need all the help I can get.
No problem. It is a great looking port though.
Just wanted to say thanks to everyone for the great feedback, it totally paid off. After months of job searching I finally hit pay dirt. 3 months ago I scored an internship and 2 days later I was offered Junior design position (with a fantastic brand) which I accepted. Thanks again for all the great feedback, it definitely made a difference.
I have finally got around to updating my portfolio again and I could really use some help. Recently I have been batting 0.00 on job applications/ inquiries. I could really use some peer review/ advice. I have been applying for jr. positions designing backpacks and soft-goods, tailoring my portfolio as needed -so far only a nibble in the last 3 months.
I would greatly appreciate any constructive criticism or advice, the help from the forum was invaluable last time --I ended up scoring an amazing job. Thanks in advance!
a pdf is available here:
http://www.kylejferguson.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/Kyle-J-Ferguson-Portfolio-2012-APRIL-12-2012.pdf
website in is process.
Scored a screening interview the other day, It was a bit of a pick me up. I would still really appreciate any feedback.
Thanks!