Advice on My Portfolio

DanRDesigner

New Member
So I was laid off from a newspaper company after 10 years of service. I am trying to get into freelancing since I haven't been able to find a job. I would like some opinions on my portfolio. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. I am 33 years old and thought I had my career thought out. But after the layoff and no replies to any applications I have put in, I am thinking I am just not a good designer anymore. I am very passionate about what I do and I love designing all different things as you can see from my work. But I don't know code (nor do i want to learn it) for websites, so that kills chances of landing web design jobs. And as I said, being in the newspaper industry for the past 10 years, well all I really have to show are newspaper ads which don't really showcase my real skills I guess. Don't worry about critiquing my work, I can definitely take the criticism and hope you would be honest. Of course family and friends like my work but they are obligated to I think right? Anyways, I need to get out of this rut I am in so again, ANY advice would help.

Thanks all!

http://danielsanx7.wixsite.com/danrdesigner
 
Honest first impression, no insult intended etc...

It looks like someone who's worked at a newspaper for 10 years...
The ads are the 'perfect example' of what a newspaper advert looks like
Your posters, while not exactly bad, aren't really anything special either
T-shirts, nothing there I haven't seen before

And I think this really sums up the majority of what you're showing (and you have far too much in your portfolio..), your work looks like it's been done to a high quality but it's lacking that something special to make an employer look at and go 'wow'.

Your game stuff is a little more interesting but if I was being honest it feels like a portfolio for someone who has been stuck doing the same thing since they started 10 years ago, it still has that 'fresh out of college' feel if you get me, I suppose you can say it's lacking a bit of your personality or your own personal design aesthetic. Even your website, while being a wix site, seems a tad 'newspaper' and lacks that 'creative' feel to it imo.

The problem is that in design you'll be going up against graduates that are likely as good or better than you and will be willing to work for less than you just to get on the ladder.

I'd honestly suggest doing some personal projects, as far away from newspaper adverts as you can, that can showcase the other skills and creativity that you offer.
 
I appreciate the honest feedback and definitely agree with you. But my problem is without actual clients that need work done, I have no idea what personal projects to do to make my portfolio better.
 
The best option is likely to look around some of the crowdsourcing sites for 'practice briefs'... now I wouldn't suggest doing any work on them but you can get some basic ideas for briefs and then change them slightly so they're not for the 'client' on those sites.

Other options are branding around word generation, there's plenty of word generators geared around 'business names' which you could try out too.
 
I'd also do a search and look at other Designers portfolios to see what they're showing.
BTW. Not sure if it was my end but your folio page took an age to load.
Long enough for me to click away from it the first time.

I'd try to show a broader range of projects if I were you.

I used to work at a newspaper and I understand how it is.
Cram it all in.
Try to get used to using space now. ;)
 
I appreciate the honest feedback and definitely agree with you. But my problem is without actual clients that need work done, I have no idea what personal projects to do to make my portfolio better.

Hey, sign up on <REMOVED>. It's a great place to find live design briefs, and also may help you find clients. It's a bit like competitions, if you win them, they use your work and get paid for it. Perfect for freelance. It's also great to build up your portfolio.
 
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@Radavies95 I removed your mention of a site that offers compeitions.

For future reference we do not allow any mention of sites that offer payment through competitions. It's a cheap and nasty way to source work and we do not support it.


It's no place for a designer to be - STOP USING THEM.

For future reference - you're entering a "competition" that offers the "winner" a very low price - which means they've effectively got 100's of designs to choose from - and only pay 1 person - usually below minimum wage.

Every day, there are more and more online requests seeking artists for everything from auto graphics to comic books to corporate logo designs. More people are finding themselves in need of some form of illustrative service.

But what theyre NOT doing, unfortunately, is realizing how rare someone with these particular talents can be.

To those who are seeking artists, let me ask you; How many people do you know, personally, with the talent and skill to perform the services you need? A dozen? Five? One? none?

More than likely, you dont know any. Otherwise, you wouldnt be posting online to find them.

And this is not really a surprise.

All over the world, there are almost twice as many neurosurgeons as there are professional illustrators. There are eleven times as many certified mechanics. There are SEVENTY times as many people in the IT field.

So, given that they are less rare, and therefore less in demand, would it make sense to ask your mechanic to work on your car for free? Would you look him in the eye, with a straight face, and tell him that his compensation would be the ability to have his work shown to others as you drive down the street?

Would you offer a neurosurgeon the opportunity to add your name to his resume as payment for removing that pesky tumor? (Maybe you could offer him a few bucks for materials. What a deal!)

Would you be able to seriously even CONSIDER offering your web hosting service the chance to have people see their work, by viewing your website, as their payment for hosting you?

If you answered yes to ANY of the above, youre obviously insane. If you answered no, then kudos to you for living in the real world.

But then tell me why would you think it is okay to live out the same, delusional, ridiculous fantasy when seeking someone whose abilities are even less in supply than these folks?

Graphic artists, illustrators, painters, etc., are skilled tradesmen. As such, to consider them as, or deal with them as, anything less than professionals fully deserving of your respect is both insulting and a bad reflection on you as a sane, reasonable person. In short, it makes you look like a twit.

A few things you need to know;

1. It is not a great opportunity for an artist to have his work seen on your car/zine/website/bedroom wall, etc. It IS a great opportunity for YOU to have their work there.

2. It is not clever to seek a student or beginner in an attempt to get work for free. Its ignorant and insulting. They may be students, but that does not mean they dont deserve to be paid for their hard work. You were a student once, too. Would you have taken that job at McDonalds with no pay, because you were learning essential job skills for the real world? Yes, your proposition it JUST as stupid.

3. The chance to have their name on something that is going to be seen by other people, whether its one or one million, is NOT a valid enticement. Neither is the right to add that work to their portfolio. They get to do those things ANYWAY, after being paid as they should. Its not compensation. Its their right, and its a given.

4. Stop thinking that youre giving them some great chance to work. Once they skip over your silly ad, as they should, the next ad is usually for someone who lives in the real world, and as such, will pay them. There are far more jobs needing these skills than there are people who possess these skills.

5. Students DO need experience. But they do NOT need to get it by giving their work away. In fact, this does not even offer them the experience they need. Anyone who will not/can not pay them is obviously the type of person or business they should be ashamed to have on their resume anyway. Do you think professional contractors list the experience they got while nailing down a loose step at their grandmothers house when they were seventeen?

If you your company or gig was worth listing as desired experience, it would be able to pay for the services it received. The only experience they will get doing free work for you is a lesson learned in what kinds of scrubs they should not lower themselves to deal with.

6. (This one is FOR the artists out there, please pay attention.) Some will ask you to submit work for consideration. They may even be posing as some sort of contest. These are almost always scams. They will take the work submitted by many artists seeking to win the contest, or be chosen for the gig, and find what they like most. They will then usually have someone who works for them, or someone who works incredibly cheap because they have no originality or talent of their own, reproduce that same work, or even just make slight modifications to it, and claim it as their own. You will NOT be paid, you will NOT win the contest. The only people who win, here, are the underhanded folks who run these ads. This is speculative, or spec, work. Its risky at best, and a complete scam at worst. I urge you to avoid it, completely. For more information on this subject, please visit www.no-spec.com.

So to artists/designers/illustrators looking for work, do everyone a favor, ESPECIALLY yourselves, and avoid people who do not intend to pay you. Whether they are spec gigs, or just some guy who wants a free mural on his living room walls. They need you. You do NOT need them.

And for those who are looking for someone to do work for free please wake up and join the real world. The only thing youre accomplishing is to insult those with the skills you need. Get a clue.
 

You're stuff isn't bad, nor is it amazing, basically the bread and butter of any design studio.

Have you approached any design/print studios in your area. I often get a call from printers/design studios when they're really out the door with work and need a hand. There's plenty of places out there, especially print brokerages that offer design services.

Really just need to keep pluggin away.

Another great resource would be any local enterprise for SMEs in your area. Networking with people and making connections at these things could bring some work your way. Even bloggin events, web summits, print/design seminars or anything along those lines.
 
I've previously posted on here about how concerned I am that my own portfolio suffers from a lack of stimulating client work.

One thing I've experimented with to remedy it is to redesign existing companies' brands. It's fun in a way and generates some fresh content for you, plus there's an element of revisiting university/college style freedom bubble that frees you of the constraints, for better or worse, of a live client brief.

For example, I'm getting stuck into learning about motion graphics - so I'm busy redesigning (in some cases, even attempting to clone) existing title sequences from TV/film and some music videos. I have found that it's a great way to learn as well as generate material for your portfolio as it encourages you to get on YouTube and sniff out tutorials that get you where you want to be instead of just following a linear path of 'X for beginners: Video 1... X for beginners: Video 2...' which ultimately will only produce the same example outcome as everyone else.

As far as your 'folio goes, I agree with the 'trim it down to the best bits' sentiments as there's a fair bit of work in there for someone to sift through.

There's no shame in getting comfy in a place, also kudos for getting stuck back in the design-job-search melee.
 
I've previously posted on here about how concerned I am that my own portfolio suffers from a lack of stimulating client work.

The sad reality for most designers is the client work is generally the least stimulating work you'll be doing. There are exception of course, but many of the big brands designers long to work for have strict guidelines and processes in place for getting work approved. Your portfolio should be the place where you produce the work you want to do and let your imagination run wild without client input.

One thing I've experimented with to remedy it is to redesign existing companies' brands.

I would generally avoid this, or at least avoid showing the work publicly. There was a post on here a few years back about how a company's shares had dropped overnight because someone had seen a 'redesign' of the branding from a student and they thought it was a real rebrand underway. Basically it was amateurish in execution and many shareholders had jumped ship fearing a profit loss based solely on this logo someone had knocked up for a university project or whatever.
 
There was a post on here a few years back about how a company's shares had dropped overnight because someone had seen a 'redesign' of the branding from a student and they thought it was a real rebrand underway.

I'd say that's an extreme example but naturally you've got to be careful about where you show it - as with anything I suppose.

I for one am comfortable doing it in the sense of assembling a portfolio for interviews as you are the gatekeeper of who sees it and who does not and you get to explain it - but surely putting it on your website with an explicit disclaimer explaining the context of the work would keep it relatively safe from crashing the stock market anyway?

Just to be clear, I wouldn't dream of doing this and then claiming it was live work, done at that client's behest. My approach would be to put together work for someone you want to work for, then pitch it to them. They might just be interested. If not, it's honest to say 'I put this idea together as a proposal for brand X, they subsequently rejected it'.

Your portfolio should be the place where you produce the work you want to do and let your imagination run wild without client input.

I'm at odds with this as personally I feel that a designer is defined, at least in part, by their ability to work with brief restrictions. Indulgent personal experimentation is good (I'd say it comprises about 75% of my own output) to have to colour a portfolio, but I get self conscious when I see what I perceive as too much of it in mine because I worry it lacks any relevance to practical application.

I'm still learning, so I'm not the last word on portfolio assembly by anyone's reckoning - just my perspective.

PS: I just legit' used 'behest' in a sentence.
 
I'm at odds with this as personally I feel that a designer is defined, at least in part, by their ability to work with brief restrictions.

True, though you'd be surprised at the number of times a project is initiated without a proper brief, or the brief comes to you via an account manager, or the project deviates from the brief mid-way through. It's not an ideal situation, but it happens a lot. The point is your portfolio should only be your best work, an example of what you can do. It sets the tone for the sort of work you'll be expected to produce, so make sure it's full of the sort of work you want to produce (especially you're looking for freelance work). I tend to just show clients branding and web/digital work because that's what I want to be hired to do.

On many occasions a client has requested a change to something that I didn't really agree with, and so the actual final outcome differs slightly to what is shown in my portfolio. If you're showing off your work and talking about it, you should be 100% comfortable with it. Otherwise it will annoy you and you'll start to resent the work. It doesn't really matter if it's truly accurate to what the client wanted because most people aren't going to know or care. Does it look the bollocks? Did you produce it? Cool, you're hired!
 
The sad reality for most designers is the client work is generally the least stimulating work you'll be doing.

This is SO true.
There have been times where I've worked for some massive, well known companies and there's no way I'd include the end product despite the kudos of having had them as a client.
They're often micro managed and involve 'design by committee' so the end product tends to have lost and got diluted along the way.
I had this happen just recently and it's a pity.

I like to see personal work in a portfolio.
It shows that a person is enthusiastic enough to go the extra mile even when it's not being paid for and the willingness for self improvement.
Sometimes you can blag it off as a real project (or simply not say) but as long as you can talk about what you've done and why then it's just as relevant to me.
I once got a job from some character design sketches that I'd left in the pocket of my portfolio by accident and the interviewer found them.
Luckily it wasn't a copy of Dazzle's 1989 "Big Hair" special edition. ;)

For example, I'm getting stuck into learning about motion graphics - so I'm busy redesigning (in some cases, even attempting to clone) existing title sequences from TV/film and some music videos. I have found that it's a great way to learn as well as generate material for your portfolio as it encourages you to get on YouTube and sniff out tutorials that get you where you want to be instead of just following a linear path of 'X for beginners: Video 1... X for beginners: Video 2...' which ultimately will only produce the same example outcome as everyone else.

I too have found this a great way to learn Ae and other things come to think of it.

What I tend to do is change it into another project so I could use it in my folio if need be and get more bang for my buck.
For example, I wanted to do an animated logo build so I made a new logo and applied a tutorial to that so it became mine if you get my drift.
I also took a logo that I was working on for a client and did one with that.
The client was well chuffed as well. :D
Also, keep in mind that you could quickly build enough material to make a show-reel for yourself which I personally think are a great thing for the first page of a portfolio site as they're a condensed version of your folio and can look really impressive as you're in control of the content and how it's viewed and presented.
They're also very good for social media and uploading to YouTube and Vimeo.
You can mix motion work with static designs as well if you do it right.

Top and bottom I think it's very important to do the work that floats your boat and include it.
You're tailoring your folio to the kind of work that you're wanting to do and I always think that projects you've enjoyed making shine through.

For instance. I like doing isometric work so I started to include some personal work in my folio.
After a while I started to get work in that area and I added that to my folio and Behance and I got more and more.
I did the same with character/mascot design and the same happened with that.
To this day (probably 15 years later) if you Google "mascot, design, tutorial" my stuff is still of the first page.

Do the work you want to do and it will happen eventually.
 
Graphic design is a balance of aesthetics, communication and technical. You obviously have the technical down pat which is great. Depends what work you want. I'd only show a few choice piece in the style of work you'd like to get. Put designs into context or insitu will help as well. Like a website on a screen or a mag cover on a 3D mag. <removed>
 
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