I have just finished my new online portfolio website… Ill bear any drastic critisisms in mind next time i rediesgn. feel free to comment on the contents as well as the site design- and please be as harsh as you feel it deserves.
I have tried to keep it simple.
The text may be a bit small for some people, i know that - but it is not a major part of the site.
for now it is more of a personal project, but in the not too distant future i may well use it to try and get a (design) job while at uni… note. this is not its current use with the current contents
I would appreciate any reports of missing images or screwed up text… but more importantly:
what do you think of it as a whole??
I’d put in some categories, then have the additional thumbs under that layer. Or at least group them into sections. There’s one product shot in the middle, some photography thumbs all over the place. Put it into sections so people don’ have to fish around for all the photography for example.
havent even looked at the work yet but really dont like the text - I try to increase the text size in my browser and nothing happens (I find out because the text is an image) ok not quite so bad if I change screen res down to 800x600 but a bit of a faff and even then its not much more readable due to the high contrast background - which again it being an image I cant change that either. I can’t even highlight my way along the lines to keep my place.
Don’t mind me i’ll just look at the pictures. Hope that bit of text wasnt anything important.
(actually I can just about cope with the text under each image on the main page as it is only a few words, and the descriptive text on the individual pages is fine as I can make it bigger if necessary and lose the black background - I might even look at the pictures at some point)
Sorry, that was a little harsh. I just found it frustrating.
Although much of your work is interesting I don’t think you can use this to get a job.
You need varied work and pieces that are actually finished. Right now I see a lot of posters as well as many pieces that are just images (illustration, photography) that haven’t been used in any finished design.
Its OK to show photography/illustration in your portfolio but they should be part of the project. In the description you can mention you did the photo/illustration yourself.
You might want to take a look at other graphic design portfolios… actual firms you want to work for. Their examples will be what they will be looking for in your portfolio.
(Yes I also agree you need some organization / categorization or the work.)
I am assuming you are looking for a Graphic Design position.
thank you all for your comments… however harsh. i do appreciate them. its cretainly more useful than ‘yeah,thats nice’.
ill go through someofthe points raised: categories… i had thought of that, but for now i have kept it all on one page, mostlyto keep it simple - ie less to click through. for now there isnot so much work as to need categories. if/when i increase the number of pieces on there, i will need categories.
text: i know this is a problem, especially as right now, there are no alt tags on the images. for the design as it stands, using ‘real’ text wasnt really an option: the design is so rigid and so exact, that even a slight change in the width of the text would screw it all up. i certainly take your critism, though… next time i redisegn my site i will revert to text.
content/type of work… in the extreme short term (ie until tommorrow), this is an art exam piece (for my IB visual arts)… this is an art rather than design course (high school level). I have done quite a bit of ‘design’ (as opposed to art), which i will, soon, put up on the site… booklets, more posters, and similar - essentailly, real projects.
like i said, i am not expecting to get a job based on what is up there now…
thanks you all for your honest opinions, hopefully i can have some more - the more crit i get the better i will become (hopefully)…
You do have some really nice and interesting work but I agree with laureng that this is not enough for a graphic design position. I see a lot of fine art style in some of your work but how does it translate to everyday design? You can keep what you have but also need to show how you would deal with a more professional type client.
The AXIS logo… although I see your intent now… it took a while. I thought it was two words. Shouldn’t have to figure out what a logo says… it should be easy to read. I would pull that out or develop it more… tighten it up man.
Your tiles are great. Very nice solution for your challenge and nice use of colors on those.
Also, I don’t mind everything on one page… there is less to navigate which is nice sometimes… but I would add next and back buttons on each page… or a small version of the images to choose from on each page. I don’t necessarily want to keep going back to the main page to see another design. Employers want to be able to quickly scan through something.