Behance

mcskillz

Member
Just wondering who's using it or cargo to power their websites perhaps with custom css bits?
Seems to be quite common …

Anyone here?
 
I don't use it, I'm currently building my own site with good old HTML and CSS, with a bit of jQuery thrown in for good measure.

I believe that most people who use these sites are designers, students and new/independent freelancers. I imagine most professionals would have a proper website.
 
Yeah, I use cargo.

Very easy to use and update with new work, and has a good set of features. Worth it if you're not skilled in HTML / CSS but want to display your work online.
 
I have a couple of sub-sites like on Behance and DeviantARTs free portfolio site. I usually just use them as bases to bounce people to my main website where everything has been built from scratch. Like Squiddy said I've not really felt these offerings by other sites make up for a proper website and it always makes an artists work feel more solid with their own site rather being attached to another company. At least you have complete controll over your own site.
 
I'm not saying that they are unprofessional mcskillz, it's just that their websites simply don't compare to a proper website. The site you posted is a great example of this, the work is great, as you would expect from the professional but the website itself isn't up to the same high quality as the work itself.

The layout of the website, is entirely plain and rather boring, it's not really a site. It's fine if you just want to say to people "go here to see my work" it does that very well. If, on the other hand, you're using the website to establish a brand, build up a company and so on, then it quite simply doesn't work.
 
Another good point from Squiddy. The whole branding of a personal website is a big yes. Avoid using things like Blogger for your main blog or Facebook etc.. At the end of the day forwarding people to these places helps promote them not you. Get your own website and promote yourself.
 
Totally disagree! His branding is on the site. It's subtle and simple and allows the work to shine through without competing with unnecessary fluff around it! I think the site is excellent. Simple, functional and clean and to the point.
 
Agree with mcskillz, the site mentioned is well branded, project work clearly displayed, integrated blog and clear imagery. There is nothing wrong with using cargo, behance etc if it provides a professional looking solution. If you are a web developer or most of your work is web based then maybe it's a valid point, but otherwise makes no odds.
 
Apologies, after looking at their site it wasn't made immediately obvious what it was they actually specialised in and/or what they did or didn't do. So after seeing work on apps as well as the iPhone and iPad I concluded that it wasn't outside the realm of possibility that they also did technical/coding work, and as such I started to judge it based on many more factors than merely how well it displayed a persons work.

From the point of view of a business/company/freelancer that works exclusively in design then yes, this is definitely a good option. However, whilst I agree that the site does a very a good job of clearly displaying the persons work, the informational hierarchy and structure of the site is actually quite poor in my opinion. Large blocks of text unaccompanied by any imagery or, more importantly, headings of any kind do not make for effective reading, in my opinion.

There's a lot of content, on the news page for example, which is just thrown onto the page in a seemingly endless stream of text and images, you could go as far as to say that it isn't very effective... Some categorisation or expandable/contractable elements would go a long way.

Expanding on what graphicscove mentioned about using other sites, the website may be clean but it certainly lacks personality for me. Perhaps that's just personal opinion coming in to play, but I'm still of the opinion that a personalised website is the way to go for people in the creative industries.
 
I don't think you get it though Squiddy - it is personalised. It's just done on Cargo framework - custom CSS (and also some other bits) have been added to make it uniquely theirs.

Look up Cargo and ProSite because I think your opinion is perhaps formed without understanding the capabilities of the two frameworks, which would explain why you feel the way you do.
 
Okay, I have taken your comments on board and have just looked up Cargo. As a service which basically covers all the technical aspects of hosting and maintaining a website with an added element of networking, yeah, that's fair enough. I can agree that it's a good thing to have.

However, upon browsing over 20 of the "featured sites" on Cargo, they all look pretty much identical with very little about them that I would describe as unique; mostly huge content boxes with varying hover effects and a navigation menu with very small font placed at the top. That doesn't say either unique or personalised to me.
 
We have a Design Central on our facebook which designers can post their design for SME's to look at and then potenially employ and we find that a lot of these designers use their profiles on behance.

We think behance is great because for example, if you're looking for a designer in a certain area, who does x then behance allows you to narrow your search criteria down fairly narrowly.
 
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