Hi everybody,
I’m relocating and changing jobs (as soon as I find one), and I need help with my portfolio. In in-house design for corporate manufacturing, with ZERO contact with outside designers so any advice and critisim will be very much appreciated. Thanks!
Julia
Needs more work, Try to show more development and process.
Thanks for the direction. I took out the plex doghouse and added some iterative design examples for window reinforcement concepts. Do you think this is effective?
I’d also like to add some work I did for a Design research program (pictures of interviews, resulting sketches). Which existing item should I replace?
Thanks for the advice!
Best Regards,
J
I think it depends on where you want to go.
I liked the plex doghouse and I like the rubber band hammock because both of them show your personality. The other projects lack that, but do a great job in illustrating you can tackle a variety of tasks… is their a way to combine those two things?
What type of job are you looking for?
The Fisher Design fan page is nice…concepts, illustration rendering, etc.
I think the Reinforcement Concepts are good too, but I think you should enlarge one of the design directions to call better attention to what it is illustrating. The rest could be smaller, but right now it is difficult to understand what it’s all about. Currently the concepts on that project are hard to read (and the text is completely illegible)
Adding in some design research would be great! If I had to pick the weakest link out of the 5 projects, I’d ditch the MTS chair sketches and put that project in their place.
(There’s also the option to make the images tall and include more than one project per page. Scrolling up and down isn’t nearly as diffcult to navigate as left to right)
Overall I’d try to put as much developmental/sketch concept work in your page as possible, as you’ll be rewarded for the quality of your ideas more than anything else.
GREAT feedback guys, thank you!
Yo, you hit the nail on the head about the importance of combining personality and work. I know what you’re saying, and I’ll try to keep the images lively. With the right attitude it’s possible to interject personality into anything, even products as basic as windows and doors!
Ideally, I’m looking for a job with the following characteristics:
Consumer Products Industry. Not interested in cars or medical products, but I love housewares, toys, furniture, any consumer goods. My greatest satisfaction comes from thinking about people interfacing with a product I designed.
Opportunity for problem solving. This one is easy; I see this everywhere I look!
PEOPLE. Sometimes it’s all about the atmosphere. I can get along with just about anyone, but I have met/interviewed with people with whom I would not enjoy working closely.
Access to necessary resources. Point me to my computer, my desk, and my drawing materials. And it helps considerably if the company is reasonable with expense requests for research purposes. Effective planning is so crucial.
Stability. Personal preference, I’d rather work for an in-house design department or well established consultancy. Athough I may freelance again at some point in the future.
Location, location, location. I’m ony interested in working in/around Milwaukee. I’ve had a few calls, but all from outside that area.
Nate, I took your advice about the chairs and replaced them with the Design Research images. I had a little trouble juggling all the file sizes but should get them straightened out in the next few days to improve resolution. I’m thinking of combining the doghouse and hammock onto one page as you suggested.
Well let me know what you think about that Design Research page. There was so much from that project I had a hard time deciding what to include. I have mpgs from the ethnographies, but I doubt it’s possible to incoporate that with the low file size allowances. (?)
Thanks again for all your help. There’s always room for improvement so if you have other suggestions please post. Also, if anyone knows any contacts in Milwaukee please PM me!
“The only constant is change” - Heraclitus
Looking much better now…
The file size issue on Coroflot can be tricky. Remember that the sizes end up being cumulative (the total size of all images is what it most important) so if you want to increase the size of the images for legibility you’ll probably have to go back and re-save all them, optimizing them with the “save for web” feature in Photoshop. It looks like the Rubberband Hammock and the Dremel pages are using up most of your space right now, which it limiting the rest of the pages’ size contstaints. Try starting with a high res file to begin with, and you’ll have an easy time stepping it down to the smallest file size while maintaining quality.
I think the Ethnography page is still too small. Because there is so much info to convey, it’s important that it not get muddied up with pixelation and a lower quality image…