Portfolio Website Refreshed

Hi All,

I’ve recently changed the entire layout of my portfolio, trimed the poorer projects, and added way more meat to the ones that I feel can stand on their own merit. I’m looking for any and all feedback, constructive or not.

If you were a hiring manager, is the the content here enough to land an interview? If not, what needs to change to secure one? I’ve been looking for work in Toronto, ON for multiple months now, but have only landed something in a somewhat related field I’m not too happy with. Is it something I’m doing wrong with the content I’m presenting?

Link is http://www.lowe9.com

Honest feedback is much preferred over anything sugarcoated.

Much Thanks,

Andrew

I’m not a hiring manager! I actually had your resume saved in my ‘inspiration folder’ from ages ago… a compliment to you! I’ll give you some good feedback, and I’d appreciate if you could take a look at mine too - topic was posted yesterday.

Website layout is clean and neat, and most of the work appears to be presented really well.

Wheelchair project is really good - really well thought out and shows competence in rhino , SWX, and manufacture. your prototype looks awesome

RIM stuff - show some sketches! hand sketches would be great, maybe context…as it is you just have isolated renders or prototypes that don’t show a greatdeal. even if that’s all you did in your internship then you should add to it now.

Birdfeed doesn’t really show me anything at all… some nice pics, but why that shape, why that material, etc etc.

Moonbuggy - show YOUR part, what YOU did. it says you did only the seating…show WHY your part is awesome. the project looks awesome but show why you made it so good.

Cosmos Urn is just a pretty rendering and some text that is too small (in the image)…it doesn’t really show anything besides imagination and a pretty render.

Airrigation seems a bit impractical and maybe expensive. every project like that i’ve seen since the soda bottle+bleach light has just seemed meh to me. It looks cool though!

The acrylic sculpture is more of an art piece and should be labeled as such. can you get it installed anywhere? I don’t know how big it is either…

I love the spalted end tables! It looks beautiful and is something I’d love to have in my home. I wish I knew more about woodwork.

The reverse engineer thing is very much a studenty project. it shows good understanding of what the inside of an injection moulded part looks like. I think the best part of this would be showing the DETAILS - get us some close ups of the tech drawings to show you understand all the nitty gritty little details.

You should match up the colours in your eames renders - picture 2 & 3 make the leather look olive. it’s great rendering and modelling, but just use PS to match the tones. should only take 5 minutes.

Your whole site and a lot of your graphic work is very much the Swiss style. It is clean and functional and I like it. some people might get turned off but you get all your points across well.

To finish - I’m not a hiring guy, i’m looking for work too. Take my opinions for what they are, but maybe i noticed some things you missed. Overall your portfolio is REALLY well presented, the website is schmick, and you have great skills in what you do (make sure you show what YOU did, not your team!).

Good luck to you Andrew! If you could have a look at my folio and give me some tips I’d be stoked.

Cheers,

Ed

Thanks for the comments Ed, its nice knowing that my work inspired someone.

General comments to your replies below, it would be nice to get others takes on this.

RIM | Blackberry: due to company security and contract obligations, I can’t show any development work on this. All I was allowed to show were the marketing images that are available on the BlackBerry webstore. All of these products are currently in production. Perhaps I can better explain this in the text.

Birdfeeder could benefit from a diagram, showing the reason the shape was chosen: stops water from dripping onto the seeds, and the smooth surfaces prevent squirrels from jumping on and eating the seed.

Moonbuggy, I’ll try to dig up previous pictures of the earlier buggys, essentially rider position wasn’t considered at all by the engineers and resulted in some rather contorted riding positions.

Projects under “Exploration” are just the that, an out there idea and a pretty render. They aren’t meant to be products that ever make production. I’m just trying to show some of my thinking.

Thanks for the comments on the tables, I had fun building them. Spalted Maple is one of my favourite materials to work with.

I should spruce up the images on the reverse engineer, showing I know what I’m talking about when it comes to plastic part design.

And you’re right about the Eames Lounge renderings, the black needs to be touched up with a layer mask and adjusted.

You definitely nailed my preferred graphic style, I like to think I’m heavily influenced by Swiss design and the international typographic style. I know this style isn’t for everyone, but it wouldn’t be presenting an accurate picture of me as a designer if I hid it.

I definitely think you helped in pointing out some things I missed. I think you get tunnel vision after looking at your own projects for so long.

Don’t change your graphic style! It looks awesome.

Let’s check back in on these in a week or so and see where we get to. I’m also looking at making my own website…i bought a domain and a year of hosting! Any good tutes you know about? What did you use to build your site?