Seeking portfolio feedback
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- 61 Responses
- janne760
don't mind me, i don't have a site.
but the one thing i have learned about being self-employed in the netherlands (aka stress-country: we have become massively rush, rush on anything!) is clients want QUICK results and solutions wthat work to their audience.
not how you sketch shit. unless you are an illustrator.
- o_O0
you can put your sketches on deviantart.com
you should put your portfolio on jeremy4design.com
- identity0
while my colleague Janne can be a bit "rough around the edges" - his criticisms are right on. I don't really see a voice in your work - what I see is a portfolio of work that has more of a "design by hobby" feel to it than anything professional or intentional.
For Instance:
You may have done this as a comp for Vera Wang, through whatever company you worked for, but you did not WORK for vera wang - in fact - im having a really difficult time reconciling how you would think that this would be on-brand with ANYTHING she's done before? Design isn't about creating pretty things to suite your own tastes, it is about boiling down the essence of a problem and providing a solution to the client that accomplishes what the need and builds VALUE for them. And as Janne said, you aren't building VALUE for yourself by showing things like this:
- utopian0
JANNE'S WORD OF THE DAY
"SHIT"
- janne760
it's like 20-something design kids coming from school. they want to work for music artists and shit. woah, yeah, culture is the shit!
until you are really exhausted many many years later when you find out they never pay you decently and their drinking and drugging habits didn't help you communicate any concept to them at all.then you give up and just want to work on ID's, brochures, websites and shit.
because it pays.
- janne760
i am going to take a bath now.
i got shit in my pants and on my legs. need to wash shit off.
good luck.
see ya.
- janne760
yeah create VALUE and show that you are MOTIVATED to work hard and think straight at the same time.
^ good conclusion in this thread altogether (thanks to identity)
OUT
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- jeremyfordesign0
Does anyone have a favorite piece on the site?
- fyoucher10
I dig it then again I'm a big fan of c argo. The only thing I don't like about your site is your navigation area. The gray's are a bit too light and hard on my eyes. The different sections (Print, Web, Logo's etc) should have a space in between them so it's easier to distinguish the different sections. Maybe even use a different font, like one that's similar to your logotype. Also not crazy about the right alignment of the text. Also not crazy about the selected state of each button, doesn't go with the rest of the site.
That's it, The rest is good stuff. Keep the drawing and all of the other self-initiated stuff. Makes you look human and lets us know you're not dead.
- utopian0
Like this
- neue75_bold0
just a question —
is this student work?- Some is. I've defined those piece as such in the descriptions, usually including "University project."jeremyfordesign
- one needs to start somewhere.
perhaps think of doing fake projects?janne76 - ok, sorry, only looked quickly, but seemed very student-like at a glance...neue75_bold
- janne760
while not massively inventive, the following will do to attract more commercial work:
aces booklets
Admiral Farragut Academy
1st Annual Story Northeast Summer BBQueue
Shania Twain
hartford ballroom
and maybe open season
- jeremyfordesign0
It's a mix of student, commercial, and self-initiated work. Anything that's from school, says so in the description.
- o_O0
i honestly would like to see more focus on the portfolio. its too spread out with its direction. i dont see anything common or tying it all together... also you have a section called "NEW" at the bottom when its focus should be brought to the top.. if its new that is.. also why is everything so "left justified" is that the term to use? it feels too much shoved into a tight fitted space when you have so much more space to use, why not spread it out more... most viewers such as me, will not scroll down... if what i see on the top is not so much keeping my attention, why should i even click or continue...
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my 2¢
- identity0
let me ask you this - what kind of clients are you looking to attract as a freelance designer? it may prove better, in your case, to send out personalized PDFs when they are requested. It's something Im playing with right now at my freelance site arthurandjulia.com.
a little mystery goes a long way!
- Good thought, I know what you mean. Your site doesn't have a title tag.jeremyfordesign
- yeah - just popped it up a little while ago so my girlfriend and I could show our parents - nothing really there as yet...identity
- gotcha.jeremyfordesign
- neue75_bold0
ok, not much sense in critiquing the work itself as I reckon that it is what it is, as for the website, I'd look at making the thumbnail images a bit more telling towards what the project is, they seem pretty vague and the scale is all over the place, personally I think it'll seem more "calm and considered" if the images are roughly the same scale... to me this isn't very interesting and just looks too clumsy
also the crop doesn't tell me very much about what it is so chances are I'm just not going to bother clicking through...
I'm not too keen on the right-justified navigation either, it looks sloppy...
my 2 cents...
- ukit0
janne may sound harsh but he speaks the truth. This is what you are probably thinking the industry will be like
And here is what it is actually like
- jeremyfordesign0
Just to clarify, I didn't create this site to gain freelance work. It's for a potential employer to see what my work is all about.
- sorry whoa? so whats the whole point the portfolio site again?pango
- identity0
UKIT is right - but its less an industry and more of a roaming band of ego-maniacs, slicing eachother's throats and taking one another's powers like in Highlander
- ukit0
GET OUT NOW BEFORE IT'S TOO LATE
- it's a trap?neue75_bold
- Why?jeremyfordesign
- its a tarpidentity
- It's raptukit
- spratjanne76