akrok design - portfolio review
- Started 11 years ago
- Last post 11 years ago
- 28 Responses
- akrok
i recently updated my portfolio as i am back in the job hunting game. i got some feedback but would like some more.
thanks.
- mg330
I really like that zoom-in / rotate thing on rollover! Need to review the whole thing, but one thing I'd suggest: if you can find a way to make the entire thumbnail be the hit state, that'd be nice. I struggled with a portfolio design in the past where the whole thing couldn't be clicked. Relying only on the hit state in the circle w/magnifying glass, which occupies barely 10% of the thumbnail, seems risky if people don't realize that's what they have to click to see more info. I feel like most of the thumbnail grid portfolios out there have full hit states on the entire thumbnail.
- Miguex0
Looking good and clean!
I would love to see some other work instead of the pen illustration you have there. Also perhaps add a small bio under "about". Maybe outlining your skills/ goals/ previous experience.Think about, what would you like to see if you were looking to hire a designer.
Maybe pick a few projects and expand on them too.
- mg330
On the About page, is the little mouse with scroll wheel icon supposed to do something? It shows a hand on mouseover, but it's not doing anything when clicked. Mac + Safari.
- mg330
Also on About: The "Download Resume" link hit state extends down to the X below it. I thought clicking the X would close the page. Instead it opened the resume.
- ukit20
Looks pretty good man...I think your comments above are the main things that should be added.
Also maybe rethink which pieces are being displayed and the order. The Sony ads seem to break up the flow a bit. And not sure I would include the sketch towards the end...it doesn't really fit with the rest of the work.
- mg330
One last thing. Site is nice and simple and effective and I definitely like it. The only other thing that's not that great are the forwards/backwards arrows for projects. When I see those, I think they are going to present additional project-specific images, not take me to the next project. It's extra confusing because when the image is enlarged, there's no title and category displayed. So using the arrows, there's no context on what I'm looking at like there is if starting from the grid.
If you can add titles and categories to the enlarged image, do it. If you can't, take the arrows off and force people to close it, and select another from the grid view.
- goldieboy0
What mg33 has been saying. Plus, your car shots need some retouching.
- dbloc0
nice work man. Is this hand coded or did you start with a template?
- summs0
Nice looking site! I really like the thumbnails, rollovers and the typeface is perfect. Black, white and gold is one of my favourite colour combinations and looks good in relation to the surrounding colour images.
I too would recommend retouching your car photos. Mainly the light posts and tree growing out of the roofs and perhaps the parking lot lines. If you're feeling really ambitious I'd also clean up some of the reflections in the car.
I like your beer package design and I think it would be nice to expanded upon that. Breaking it up and showing the logo, typeface, colours, the box that it comes in, tap etc. individually. Displaying the project like brand guidelines in a sense. I've seen other people use this to show their projects and I think it works well.
- 20020
- why is the magnifying glass on each thumb?
- why does only clicking on the thumb takes you to image?
- why is there only one image per work?
- why are same project in different thumbs?
- why no description?
- why are you not telling people what type of designer you are?
- why are these projects just mix bag of stuff?
- akrok0
great comments. thank you! ...all of you.
- Complexfruit0
The one napkin sketch seems out of place to me. I'd replace it with another project.
- OSFA0
All the feedback so far is spot on. These little revisions will improve your site. Good job partner and best of luck. Go get 'em!
- detritus0
Whats all this 'Super Swede' stuff? And the tee-shirts? You're leading with what is, I assume, personal projects? That's not a good start.
Beer can renders are poor and take away from the design.
Designed for touchscreen first, I take it? It limps along like an old dog when I try and use the scrollwheel on my mouse to navigate.
On the about page - main image doesn't stretch to fill? It's kind of pointless this page, no?
Relying upon that hamburger icon for your 'main' navigation is a bit clumsy and thoughtless. Id' just get rid of the 'pages' you have and stick your contact details at the bottom.
- gonzalle0
Excellent feeling at first but :
As image loading is not enough fast on my computer, the page starts with a white bkgd, and a little dot that moves.
I had to reload the page to realize that it was a scroll wheel.
-> change your backgound color or change your mouse background color.Anyway, I still don't know who you are, what you do, how involved you are in the projects we see. need more desc.
You have a nice car
- woodyBatts0
Nice! Hollar if you are ever looking for a gig in NYC!
Or if you wanna race!
- 20020
^ HIRE EVERYONE IN NYC!
- vaxorcist0
This folio looks great if the intended audience is another designer.
If your intended audience is a CD, maybe
If your intended audience is a hiring exec, not a creative, you may want to:
1. Brand yourself, i.e. put YOUR OWN LOGO somewhere on every page, otherwise they don't remember you, as most creative work may look "almost the same" to them (not you, but to them)
2. Explain, in text what role you had, who the client was, what supposedly amazing award or business result occurred due to this work
3. have a bit of a narrative, somewhere to "hook the story" when they try to say something about you to other execs, they love to say things like "this guy is the one for us, he was the main guy behind that AMEX campaign that got so many new signups per month" or whatever...
just remember, visual selling to non-visual people may require more story, more info and more selling yourself than most designers like to do, as we think our work speaks for itself.
Otherwise, nice work, I might group it a bit differently, but my thoughts are said above, and yes, it's very slick. Congrats.
- Continuity0
Nice, but at first/quick viewing, I'd have no idea what kind of job you're looking for. Art director? Print designer? Packaging designer? Artworker? Agency-side? Client-side? Freelance?
Some sort of clarifying statement/focus about what your next job should be would be helpful to CDs.