Be kind, but critical idea is warm welcome!!

Maria1983

Junior Member
:(

Guys if any of you kind enough please give me some suggestion about my current work and future career.

my portfolio
http://www.wix.com/MariaYue1983/Bei-Graphic

My story beginning with a poor MA student who comes to UK study curating and contemporary Design. [My BA is photography and I did a good job on it before]
After graduate, I worked as a photo-retoucher and photographer for 2 years. [boring weddings and event shooting]

A CV designed by myself. :p
Let me know if anyone needs intern or sth to work with.
p_large_1cgL_338a0000307d2d0d.jpg


Finally I can not chew more on those stuff, and made a decision: change my career into a web designer.

My condition is simple, familiar with PS/ID/Ai but low experience on HYML. JAVA and Flash/Dreamwaver.

Now I just quite my last job in Tate Modern [poor gallery assistant job], and try to build up my new portfolio as a key to somewhere I belong.

Please give me any suggestion on Web design study and good entry- level post.

You are mostly welcome to leave any suggestions here or on my MSN space.

PS. the MSN website is a place display my current work, I am trying to build a new separate space once my skill is good enough, won't be long ")


:clap::clap:
 
Hi Maria,

Sorry don't have time to look through your work properly right now, but it looks good at a first glance. That Windows Live thing is absolutely hideous though and really doesn't do your work any favours. Why not use Behance or something like that to display your work until you get a personal site done?
 
That's a good idea!! Honestly I do not found anything proper as a border for my design works.
I saw Jim's blog on Jim: Illustrated It looks really good.

Thanks for your suggestion Tom and I will try to built a proper one somewhere else.

:)
 
What a nice place!! I saved the Carbonmade page and will try it once finish my current HTML course. :p
 
I'm sad, I was hoping for images of shinku, suigintou or hinaichigo


Got to agree though using msn live doesn't help and all that flashing at the beginning was hurting my eyes
 
Haha,I am a bg fan of Rozen maiden, anyway I agree with your guys about the boring MSN space,
And I will start move it to Wix tomorrow.

:)
 
Hi Maria,

I really don't want to come across as arrogant, and this not a personal attack at all. I'm just being honest and trying to give some constructive criticism. You, and everyone else here, are probably going to hate me now, but someone has to tell you. :)

The website is absolutely horrendous and will detract from your work (use Behance or Carbonmade instead). It's possibly one of the worst I have ever seen. I'm not going to go into any detail on how to improve it, because you can't save that no matter what (Comic Sans on the Portfolio page, seriously?).

I had a look through your work as well. It's just not going to cut it. No Design agency will ever take you on, even as an intern, with work like that. It looks like you just picked up a copy of Photoshop yesterday and discovered filters. Design is not art, it needs to have purpose and a function. You've just taken some random images and whacked them together (you also have spelling errors on some of your work and people are just not going to take you seriously then, you need to show them that you give attention to detail). It's just all over the place. Keep it simple, it's not about adding as many elements as you can, but only the ones you need for the design to work and do its job.

Have a look at other Graphic Design Portfolios from established designers and see what they're doing. Try to figure out what they're doing right and why it works. Graphic Design is about form and function, branding, typography etc. Not random images of cats and dogs. Actually your CV is your best work because it serves a purpose and the design is alright. No point in having a fancy CV though if your work is not up to scratch. When going for jobs it's all about your portfolio and skills and not the design of your CV.

You need to reconsider your approach completely. Start out with learning basic design principles. Grids, Layouts, Typography and so on. And if you want to do Web Design, you need to learn at least some HTML and CSS as well.

I'm sorry if this sounds awful harsh, but there's no point in being dishonest with you as that will just leave you disillusioned, and you will need to get used to criticism on a daily basis if you want to work in the industry. I am not trying to discourage you at all, just trying to help you. And of course this is only my personal opinion. :)

Thanks!
Soren
 
Hello Soren

It's great to hear from you with so many functional and critical idea.
I think the principle of design is really illuminate my brain. To be honest I was working as a photographer however it totally not the right place for me.

I am just think about the design function and trying to learn from other graphic designers. And recently learn some style from the other graphic designer who is already work in this industry. If you got time please have a look on my website again about the updates.

Maybe my previous work is mix too much element and loosing the conception within function and other industrial requirement. But anyway it's sooo nice to have your critique idea.

By the way, as I just refused by a intern post after my first interview (which may provide an evidence of your comment about my work). I am seriously think about taking some professional training course. (all my previous degree is about photography and curating)

Yes I do learning CSS and Html on my own and trying to get envolved,
Please let me know if you know any diploma course relevant with graphic design/web design.
I think I do need training before I get involved with the industry.

Many thanks again for your reply and idea.


Maria :)
 
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