Portfolio Website Feedback

davewill

Senior Member
So I finally got around to sorting my personal site and Id love some feedback...
Ive used squarespace for the first time as my web knowledge is terrible, it seems really easy to use, took me a while to decide on a template but Im quite happy with what Ive got.
Id love some feedback on the choice of work Im showing (i want to attract design projects as well as illustration commissions so ive tried to find a balance of showing both)
Id also like some feedback on the copy, Im unsure about the About section, having written it in the third person.
Plus any feedback on the layout, colours etc would be great! You can check it out below,
Thanks!
https://dave-williams-dlwz.squarespace.com/
p.s Im in the process of redirecting from davewilldesign.com so that is just a temp link til thats sorted!
 
First thoughts, impressions, observations as I go through it.
Colours seem good to me, nice and relatively fresh in my opinion.
I'm not sure about loading straight onto the portfolio page if I'm honest, not sure how that will help your seo etc, it's also a tad slow for my taste, seems as if there's some background processing 'scaling' the images. It may just be the host server but thought I'd mention it.
On firefox 23 (not checked others) you seem to have an issue going between pages, kind of as if the page is being reloaded as the header section flickers through a 'fade' section.
About page seems a bit empty and I'm never keen on centred text so personally I don't like that. I'd have also probably gone first person purely because it's 'your' site rather than a 'business' site.
Blog - needs more content but it is new so I'll let you off :)
Contact page - personally I don't like businesses using hotmail/gmail for email, most hosting comes with email these days so no real excuse for not using xyz@domain name.
I'd also suggest going for a contact form to reduce the amount of spam you'll get from having your email on the page, you can even keep using the gmail account if you want :)
Also do you really need a map location, are they coming to you?
There's also no telephone number or contact address, my personal opinion is that a business should at least show an address, it's just more reassuring if you have a proper contact address (doesn't matter if no one ever goes there for work), even more so with a gmail email address....
 
Ah, Squarespace is a blessing for those of us with coding phobia!

I like the template and colours you've chosen, it's nice and clean and compliments your work well.

From your about page i don't feel that i really get to know anything about you. Maybe talk about how you got into design, your inspirations, some interesting facts and possibly add a picture of yourself to make it a bit more personal?

I agree with Levi about the gmail address, it's one of my pet hates as i think it looks very unprofessional!
 
Looks fine to me. Love the ABC poster!
I would lose the "during my spare time..." etc. Potential clients may be put off if they think you're only working part-time as freelance.
 
Thanks for the comments everyone.
@Levi - Fair point about going straight into the porfolio, I did originally have a "Welcome" page, but after looking at plenty of other designers online, most of them go straight into the portfolio. I guess its one less page to click through to get to the work, which is, after all, the most important part. I want people to see my stuff straight away.
You make valid points on the contact page etc, Ill give that another look.
@floriographic - Again, good point on the contact page, ill look into that
@Wardy - thanks for the kind words. The during my spare time thing is actually intentional, i work full time at an agency, but I do my own freelance business stuff in my spare time. Maybe theres a better way of wording it, as I need people to know Im only available for projects out of hours!
 
davewill said:
@Levi - Fair point about going straight into the porfolio, I did originally have a "Welcome" page, but after looking at plenty of other designers online, most of them go straight into the portfolio. I guess its one less page to click through to get to the work, which is, after all, the most important part. I want people to see my stuff straight away.
You could always include an image/slideshow on the 'welcome' page, which clicks through to the portfolio page... I'm kind of thinking a big image filling the 'white' space between the footer and the header with a text 'layer' over the top which fades in as you load....
 
My overall opinion is that the work in your portfolio is fantastic, but your website itself is a little poor.
I always like to imagine what a website would look like without photography/images (I'm not talking about buttons and stuff, just the portfolio photos) and the fact is that I don't think you'd even have a website if we took away your photos! I'm not saying it doesn't work as a professional site, but it does nothing for me in terms of design. All I have to look at is the images in your portfolio. The rest is just a standard, plain typeface. Even your logo is boring to look at!
If you were a plumber, or anything else, I might have let you get away with it. But I don't think it's good form to be in the design industry and have such a bland website! It's hard not to compare the quality of your website with the high quality of your design work. Really, it might not even matter if you're not at the stage in your career where it's 100% necessary, but you asked for my opinion on the design and I gave it to you ;)
 
Levi said:
You could always include an image/slideshow on the 'welcome' page, which clicks through to the portfolio page... I'm kind of thinking a big image filling the 'white' space between the footer and the header with a text 'layer' over the top which fades in as you load....
Honestly, for a personal portfolio website, people don't want to do much more then learn about you, and see your work. Primarily see your work; so your choice of showcasing your portfolio on the home page is a good one.
What I do think you need to do is tone down your thumbnails, Dead-note, Messi, Spurs Rivalries and the alphabet focus you in on what the work is, without overwhelming you. Try to keep that simplicity in mind for all of your thumbnails.
You also might be showing too much work. Realistically no one will go through all 16 pieces of your work (at least not in detail) try limiting the portfolio to your 9-12 best pieces, make sure whatever someone views is a top-notch piece of work that not only demonstrates what you can do, but work you would like to be doing in the future.
Best of luck!
 
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