I have been applying to numerous jobs over the last 5 months, and have received about 10 replies (“no, sorry”), and 2 interviews, with one still pending.
Nevertheless, I was wondering if I could get some feedback from you guys regarding my portfolio and where to go from here. My experience has been in the food manufacturing field, but I want to get into the consumer goods industry and hopefully my portfolio reflects that.
I had a 5 minute look at your portfolio, and here’s my 2c.
Your work looks good, and it’s not as blue sky and out there as a lot of folios are.
There’s no typical "here’s a car, here’s a shoe’ etc, which I like. I think it’s good that you are showing solid stuff.
I think what you need is some wow factor. You need some amazing hero shots showcasing how good your design skills are. Your table is awesome, and i’d love to see some more detail on that, and some more beautiful photographs.
It’s also obvious to me that you have uploaded a portfolio designed for print. That is to say that your folio looks like it would work better without context - without the clutter that coroflot adds to each page. You could try issuu - that’s what I did.
I hope I’ve helped.
P.S. Also, perhaps you could shop some real people into your images, instead of outlines. just a thought.
Thanks for the reply, and solid advice. I am glad to see some people still enjoy products that can actually be made… although I am sure it wouldn’t hurt me if I did throw in a couple blue sky concepts, to spice (wow) it up like you said.
I have looked into issuu before but never gave it that much thought, but perhaps your right. I will also see what some real people in the images would add.
OK, had a chance to roll through your work and I’m just going to lay out uber honestly because you obviously have a strong command of your skills, but the folio leaves me overall feeling flat. With your strong skill set I don’t think it will be that hard to take everything up a notch, but I do think there is a lot of reworking to do to really make you stand out. Overall thoughts, solid good, nothing at a standout memorable A+ level. Nothing unexpected.
Eve: Shows an image of Eames+Noguchi… OK, and that is exactly what it looks like. Too literal and expected.
Monolith Faucet: not developed enough, needs a polished rendering on a sink. Is this really that different? Shouldn’t it be more monolithic? If this is a sculptural centerpiece to the kitchen, then it needs to be that.
Grounded Luggage: Handle designs, I feel like I have seen each of those before in the market. Its mission is to be distinctive but it ends up looking like any other piece of black luggage in the render (nice render though, this is the kind of shot you need for Monolith)
Bird Feeder: good sketches. Needs a final shot on a tree, in a yard.
Bench thing is great! More on this??? Want to see more!
Food stuff, too hard to follow as it is presented.
I’m hoping this doesn’t just piss you off? But I wanted to get you some actionable feedback from the perspective of if your work came to me at the studio.
First off, thank you for the reply, its always nice to hear from the Core Admin.
I hope more people respond like you, epic and variant. The more honest, the better!
Eve - I agree, they are basically the two most iconic, and known furniture designs of our time, and I guess that’s why I gained so much inspiration from their main points of interest, and I guess it was just too hard to deny their influence on my design. I will see what I can do…
Monolithic Faucet - Definitely needs updating, just kind of a project I did to see what reaction it would get, work in progress…
Grounded Luggage -Point taken, I will put some more of my “blue sky” ideas out there.
Bird Feeder - Agreed, I have been struggling a little to make it look realistic outdoors, but its getting there.
Bench - I will make short story about the design to add to it.
Food Stuff - This is where I have trouble… this is my work from the last three and a half years, and its hard to show what I did because a lot of it is still confidential. I basically just grouped a lot of it together to show I had my hands in many things, while trying to be vague. I also want it to relate to other industries, because I don’t want to be in the food manufacturing industry anymore if I can help it. Any suggestions?
Thanks again for the honest feedback, I am looking forward to reworking some of this work. Perhaps it may just end up on your desk one day…
Love the table–but I assumed it was a rendering! The fact that you actually made this is really spectacular–do you have any photos of the build? If so, I’d add them.
Faucet: nice concept and sketches, but unfinished.
Luggage: Nicely presented research boards. Nicely photoshopped renderings. I like some of the thinking like the distinguishable panels and charging. But the final presentation doesn’t do a good job of communicating it’s features. Show those customizable panels! Show someone pulling on that handle.
Birdfeeder: good thinking on making it squirrel-proof, rainwater, refilling.
Sitting wall: love this! This would make a great video. I think you should stretch a bit further and make the protrusions more sculptural and interesting–perhaps even animated.
Alumilite: Looks like there’s some pretty innovative stuff here. Love that you have experience with manufacturing concepts–that’s rare in an ID portfolio. It’s also what’s allowing companies like Apple to distance themselves from the competition. Was it in Objectified that Jony Ives was talking about how much time the designers spend on Jigs?
Overall, I think it’s a very strong portfolio, but it’s easy to miss your unique strengths, which I see as:
What’s missing is context. I’d like to see more user-research, and in your designs, more people and use-environments. Product design these days is less about the thing, and more about how that thing solves problems for people.
For some reason I don’t have any of the pictures I took while building the table, but maybe they will show up somewhere…
So far it seems like the general consensus is that I need more realistic elements, such as people, figures and actual environments interacting with the products.
In the end, it seems like I have some work to do.
Thank you again for your insight, and I will post a follow up when I have changed some of the elements everyone has mentioned.