Top 10 ways of showing a portfolio
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- lvl_130
i forgot to mention that it also really depends if you are talking about a firm or a single designer. a single designer is really trying to show their work foremost, whereas a firm is trying to sell more of an idea or what they can do for you (the client).
or something to that effect.- ur shaun white concept is pretty goodWeLoveNoise
- nicely put lvl_13zshed
- Anders0
I really think it's the same thing you're trying to sell, regardless of being a single designer or an agency. If you're just going to show images, you're just playing it cool.
Anyhow, I've been looking into the options available for the average designer, illustrator, artist, photographer out there and a lot of the basic options really suck if you want to put some imagination into ways of showing your work.
Indexhibit is great for someone who knows nothing about webdesign, but it's still a poor way to show your work. I mean, you just drop it into one of these boxes, maybe you get to paint it blue or black and it folds sideways if you're lucky.
'Creativity' when it comes to online portfolio showcases,
is either too creative (whooshing flash sites) or looking like a corporate website with graffiti images (again inside boxes).There ARE a lot of possibilities, but the more you play with them, the more you're reminded about cross browser compatibility and lack of standards in unknown territory. Just have a look at the 100 best wordpress themes; 70 of them look alike.
I was just thinking about how the most important place on a website is the top header on the first page; it needs whitespace, it needs to stand out..it's the most expensive place on a website. It shouldn't be a science, but it certainly feels like star trek sometimes.
So
my cure is to minimise.Put an image on your frontpage, maybe of your last work.
Maybe a link, a search function. (How hard would it be to search for 'contact' or 'e-mail' instead of mousing around 2 minutes for the button that does just that).Maybe I've just seen too much shit.. People going widget-crazy, broadband, videoes in HD, ajax contactform, digg this, link to facebook, posted from twitter 2 seconds ago.
If you're a single designer with a portfolio, what I really remember about that site (and the work) is the personality of the design & its function. Don't drown, remember Titanic.