Finally putting my portfolio together! Thoughts?

Wee Jimmy

Senior Member
Right, this morning i thought to myself "enough is bloody well enough" and dragged out my old sketches and frameworks for my portfolio site, I couldn't believe how many different logotypes, mascots, layouts etc. I had doodled :rolleyes:

I finally picked my favorite and got to work. At the moment there's only a few bits of work on there while I play with the jQuery/AJAX but thoughts would be nice :)

I'm not a fan of slamming a portfolio full of pointless graphics or "follow my on twitter". Thats for m'blog, this is all about the work :)

Jim Maitland ~ Web & Print Design Portfolio
 
Needs something about you, contact form etc.
but I like where it's going

Oh and it's odd that the branding ones pop out but the site ones don't
 
Aye I'm thinking of putting a contact form in the footer.

The popout descriptions are only on the Branding section at the moment until I decide wether to open a full page div to show the websites, although I am partial to the little popouts so might make the full page onclick
 
Can you make the pop outs go left and right? I think it would look better with the left popping out to the left and the right to the right type affair.

I've got some concerns over the font choice, bit hard to read maybe, and the sizes on the pop out, too small on my screen, which you might consider changing before it's finished.

As renniks said you do need a contact form of some sort and maybe a page with about you somewhere.

edit: Also not 100% certain about using present tense in the descriptions purely due to the fact that it's now past tense and you have finished work being shown
 
Cheers Levi,

Arial on popouts now changed to Verdana, much more legible. I've switched the right images to popout on left but i'm not sold on it to be honest, as the popouts rely on mouseover and mouseout, shoving the image over to the right may not be a good idea

oh and popout text altered
 
you've gone the wrong way with the pop outs lol, the left should go to the left, the right should go to the right, ie the reverse of what you have.

As to the text it was more the script font I was concerned with.
 
Levi said:
you've gone the wrong way with the pop outs lol, the left should go to the left, the right should go to the right, ie the reverse of what you have.
Ahah I see what you mean ;)

As to the text it was more the script font I was concerned with.

I'll be keeping that typeface, I like it far too much :D
 
ah maybe I could have explained it better.

Any way to fix the original image in place? As it was the moving of the 'thumbs' I didn't like
 
Levi said:
ah maybe I could have explained it better.

Any way to fix the original image in place? As it was the moving of the 'thumbs' I didn't like


Ah, without the page looking out of whack when the text is hidden no

Clickyness is now active for the first website
 
i wouldn't keep the typeface, you may love it, but imagine this project was for a client... you've got to admit you'd offer them something more legible.

I know it's hard to balance personal choice and practical choice when it comes to your own work, but it's for the greater good.
 
It'd be simple to have the images fixed in place and not move when hovered over, I don't know why you're saying it's not possible. The pop outs could be done with CSS instead of javascript too, or you could at least make them degrade gracefully to being shown by default if you really want to go that route.

Edit: A quick example - http://luxbrand.co.uk/csspopouts/


Other than that...

I also don't know what you see in the virtually unreadable script font either. Why are you valuing yourself over potential clients?

The central column isn't.. well, central.

The contact form at the bottom doesn't work very well, you can't distinguish between fields and buttons easily, and either you didn't add any or the javascript to remove the field contents isn't working.
http://luxbrand.co.uk/csspopouts/
 
Mark Alexander said:
It'd be simple to have the images fixed in place and not move when hovered over, I don't know why you're saying it's not possible. The pop outs could be done with CSS instead of javascript too, or you could at least make them degrade gracefully to being shown by default if you really want to go that route.

Edit: A quick example - CSS Popouts


Other than that...

I also don't know what you see in the virtually unreadable script font either. Why are you valuing yourself over potential clients?

The central column isn't.. well, central.

The contact form at the bottom doesn't work very well, you can't distinguish between fields and buttons easily, and either you didn't add any or the javascript to remove the field contents isn't working.


Much better example. But as Ralph rightly says, what if you can't hover? :)

Not a fan of the script either... well, I like it, but not in this context. As nice as it is, I want to be able to read and remember your name easily, rather than think 'oooh pretty script, what does it say?'
 
Well I'd say that just requires a bit of graceful degredation so that the :hover functionality is only employed as a helpful tweak for those with cursors, and not as the sole method of interface. The images could be links to a larger view page for that piece of work, containing the same information, for example.
 
Mark Alexander said:
It'd be simple to have the images fixed in place and not move when hovered over, I don't know why you're saying it's not possible. The pop outs could be done with CSS instead of javascript too, or you could at least make them degrade gracefully to being shown by default if you really want to go that route.

Edit: A quick example - CSS Popouts
I didnt say it was impossible, I said it would make the page look out of whack with the headers at the left and then two images centered with whitespace to the left when no hover is active



Mark Alexander said:
The contact form at the bottom doesn't work very well, you can't distinguish between fields and buttons easily, and either you didn't add any or the javascript to remove the field contents isn't working.

It's just there as a placeholder at the moment, I havent got that far

Becky said:
Not a fan of the script either... well, I like it, but not in this context. As nice as it is, I want to be able to read and remember your name easily, rather than think 'oooh pretty script, what does it say?'

You're telling me you can't read Jim Maitland?! You're havin a laugh or over emphasizing your point. I can understand not being able to read the grey straps though
 
Wee Jimmy said:
You're telling me you can't read Jim Maitland?! You're havin a laugh or over emphasizing your point. I can understand not being able to read the grey straps though

I'm entitled to my opinion :/ But yes, the strap line isn't readable. I like the colour contrast between the name and strap, but I don't believe they should be in the same font.

But, at the end of the day, it's up to you.
 
Wee Jimmy said:
I didnt say it was impossible, I said it would make the page look out of whack with the headers at the left and then two images centered with whitespace to the left when no hover is active
I don't get it. What's 'out of whack' in the example I posted? Everything is centered nicely and it stays that way on hover. The way you have it now the central column is off-centre and everything moves on hover.
 
Point, well and truely proven. Placeholder image now in place while I work on it. I am determined to get this fecker up :up:

edit: Normally it;s me being critical of my own work and never uploading my portfolio. Glad I finally got on with it and got others opinions. It will be back soon!
 
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