Feedback on my portfolio

Firstly; I am afraid this is going to be fairly brutal, but it will, at least, be an honest critique. None of it intended to crucify. Hopefully it will give you a direction to grow towards.

You asked about the profile page specifically. I looked on an iPad and some text was overlaying other text, so that would be a fall at the first hurdle for any potential employer/client.

The next thing I see are some lurid, fluorescent, unnecessary gradients that lead me to an equally gratuitous animation. Neither add anything to the experience. It then goes on to repeat some of the text below and into ‘showcasing’ some work, which again repeats the content of the work pages. All of this sits behind your title and menu, all but obscuring it and in turn, they hinder the video.

The text itself reads like it has been written by a school-leaver and I can see from your picture that you are not. You need to understand who you are trying to appeal to and why. No one is interested in your passion. They are interested in how your work could help their business. That’s it. It’s as hard-nosed as that. Some background information about the person they are working with can be useful, but this is all written in a ‘what I did on my holidays' sort of way. Why even mention your disability? TI think it is personally tragic that you have a disability, and for that I am sorry to hear, but from a work and business service, it should not have any bearing, beyond how you personally overcome and thrive. The client doesn’t need to know this, or you risk the sympathy vote and I am sure like anyone, you would want the quality of your work to be why you get jobs.

You say that you have seven years of experience. I am guessing that this is self-taught experience – again, remember I am trying to be brutally honest here and not hurtful. – It shows. Overall, you come across to me as someone who had an early life doing something entirely different, then decided that, as you feel you are a creative person, you wanted to do something with that going forward. I am guessing you have never had either a formal design education, or had hands-on experience in a good design studio. You really need to do one or the other.

Normally, I would advocate getting yourself educated at a good bricks and mortar university, but as I don’t know the level of your disability, I have no idea how feasible this is. It may be that, in your case, a remote education from a good, accredited university (not from the countless private, self-ascribed ‘universities’).

Your understanding of typography is, I am afraid to say, woefully lacking. Hierarchy, is all but non-existent. I don’t really want to go through piece-by-piece and spend the day picking holes in individual pieces, but suffice it to say there are enough rookie mistakes which display a lack of formal,knowledge. What you have done (and say in your profile) comes across as vehicles for self expression. If that is your goal, become a fine artist.

Design is about problem-solving and communication. It is about using typography and image to convey a message to the right people in the correct tone of voice. For this a true understanding of typography is absolutely critical. If you don’t have this, you will never be able to practice as a successful designer. It is exactly this, along with critical thinking and a host of other necessary fundamental principles that a formal education gives you. Or at least it gives you the grounding to be able to spend the rest of your life perfecting it. I have been doing this for around 30 years now and I still feel like I have only scratched the surface of understanding typography.

Overall, I think you need to fill these gaps in your knowledge before setting your stall out as a professional graphic designer. You are competing in a very tough market, so, you need to make sure you do as much as you can to give yourself the best chance you can. Knowing software is not enough, any more that knowing how to use a knife will make you a Michelin-starred chef.

Finally,, stay away from the competition sites. They are only a race to the bottom.
 
I agree with Sprout. It all smacks of course work to me, I'm afraid, and the text needs to be written a lot better.

One only has to have a trawl around Behance, for instance, to see how others go about tackling their various briefs. It all comes with experience of course.
In a few years you'll look back at some of that work and say to yourself, why on earth did I put that up there! Stick at it, set yourself some briefs, do some tutorials etc.
And pare down that profile - make it more professional and business-like, and in particular, lose the 'You will get a lot of drafts to choose from' etc. Not good, unless that's what they've asked for
and are paying for! Quality, not quantity!
 
sprout said:
Firstly; I am afraid this is going to be fairly brutal, but it will, at least, be an honest critique. None of it intended to crucify. Hopefully it will give you a direction to grow towards.

You asked about the profile page specifically. I looked on an iPad and some text was overlaying other text, so that would be a fall at the first hurdle for any potential employer/client.

The next thing I see are some lurid, fluorescent, unnecessary gradients that lead me to an equally gratuitous animation. Neither add anything to the experience. It then goes on to repeat some of the text below and into ‘showcasing’ some work, which again repeats the content of the work pages. All of this sits behind your title and menu, all but obscuring it and in turn, they hinder the video.

The text itself reads like it has been written by a school-leaver and I can see from your picture that you are not. You need to understand who you are trying to appeal to and why. No one is interested in your passion. They are interested in how your work could help their business. That’s it. It’s as hard-nosed as that. Some background information about the person they are working with can be useful, but this is all written in a ‘what I did on my holidays' sort of way. Why even mention your disability? TI think it is personally tragic that you have a disability, and for that I am sorry to hear, but from a work and business service, it should not have any bearing, beyond how you personally overcome and thrive. The client doesn’t need to know this, or you risk the sympathy vote and I am sure like anyone, you would want the quality of your work to be why you get jobs.

You say that you have seven years of experience. I am guessing that this is self-taught experience – again, remember I am trying to be brutally honest here and not hurtful. – It shows. Overall, you come across to me as someone who had an early life doing something entirely different, then decided that, as you feel you are a creative person, you wanted to do something with that going forward. I am guessing you have never had either a formal design education, or had hands-on experience in a good design studio. You really need to do one or the other.

Normally, I would advocate getting yourself educated at a good bricks and mortar university, but as I don’t know the level of your disability, I have no idea how feasible this is. It may be that, in your case, a remote education from a good, accredited university (not from the countless private, self-ascribed ‘universities’).

Your understanding of typography is, I am afraid to say, woefully lacking. Hierarchy, is all but non-existent. I don’t really want to go through piece-by-piece and spend the day picking holes in individual pieces, but suffice it to say there are enough rookie mistakes which display a lack of formal,knowledge. What you have done (and say in your profile) comes across as vehicles for self expression. If that is your goal, become a fine artist.

Design is about problem-solving and communication. It is about using typography and image to convey a message to the right people in the correct tone of voice. For this a true understanding of typography is absolutely critical. If you don’t have this, you will never be able to practice as a successful designer. It is exactly this, along with critical thinking and a host of other necessary fundamental principles that a formal education gives you. Or at least it gives you the grounding to be able to spend the rest of your life perfecting it. I have been doing this for around 30 years now and I still feel like I have only scratched the surface of understanding typography.

Overall, I think you need to fill these gaps in your knowledge before setting your stall out as a professional graphic designer. You are competing in a very tough market, so, you need to make sure you do as much as you can to give yourself the best chance you can. Knowing software is not enough, any more that knowing how to use a knife will make you a Michelin-starred chef.

Finally,, stay away from the competition sites. They are only a race to the bottom.
Click to expand...
Hello Sprout/ Thank you very much for your honest answer. The truth is that I am self-taught and I am still trying to fill the gaps of my knowledge. I can understand that most of the times I am trying to impress with the wrong way. This is one of my bad features I'm trying to exclude. Additionally, I can understand that I have to stop my poetic style writing and consentrae on the bussiness part of my graphic design career. Thank you for giving me a great shake. This is what I need to wake up from my nirvana. I am trying to edit my portfolio page. I will send you the new design shortly.

Have a Good Day.
Greek greetings
Marina
 
Wardy said:
I agree with Sprout. It all smacks of course work to me, I'm afraid, and the text needs to be written a lot better.

One only has to have a trawl around Behance, for instance, to see how others go about tackling their various briefs. It all comes with experience of course.
In a few years you'll look back at some of that work and say to yourself, why on earth did I put that up there! Stick at it, set yourself some briefs, do some tutorials etc.
And pare down that profile - make it more professional and business-like, and in particular, lose the 'You will get a lot of drafts to choose from' etc. Not good, unless that's what they've asked for
and are paying for! Quality, not quantity!
Click to expand...
Thank you Wardy for your feedback. As I wrote to sprout I will redesign the page based on your comments and I will send it to you shortly.
Greetings.
Marina
 
mkli73 said:
Hello Sprout/ Thank you very much for your honest answer. The truth is that I am self-taught and I am still trying to fill the gaps of my knowledge. I can understand that most of the times I am trying to impress with the wrong way. This is one of my bad features I'm trying to exclude. Additionally, I can understand that I have to stop my poetic style writing and consentrae on the bussiness part of my graphic design career. Thank you for giving me a great shake. This is what I need to wake up from my nirvana. I am trying to edit my portfolio page. I will send you the new design shortly.

Have a Good Day.
Greek greetings
Marina
Click to expand...
Hi Marina

Glad it helped and didn’t deflate. I hoped that would be the case. It shows you already have one of the skills you need as a designer; the objectivity to be able to take criticism and not take it personally. It has happened, on more than one occasion, that a similar situation has happened and a (usually young) wannabe designer, puts their work up for critique. When they recieve comments from seasoned pros that they don’t want to hear, a barrage of abuse comes back. So good on you for taking it the way it was intended.

However, you talk about re-making that page and re-writing. That does need to happen, but it goes deeper. You really need to start from the ground up, I’m afraid. I don’t think you are without some ability, but right now your work is unfocused and nowhere near purposeful enough. It is certainly not at a point where you should be selling professional services. You are doing yourself and clients a disservice. Mostly clients. When I go to a lawyer for advice, I have to trust he or she know their stuff. Actually, I don’t. They need to be qualified, by law, to be able to offer that advice. As a client, I am ignorant. I am going to them because they have knowledge that I don’t.

Design is similar. Clients need to know what you say is accurate and knowledgeable. There are no such legal assurances for client, for someone to be able to practice as a designer. Therefore, you have a responsibility to know that the advice and services you offer are honest and fair. Just like the law, there are no hard-and-fast answers with design problem-solving. It is not like a mechanic. Your car works or it doesn’t. However, would you trust the advice of a self-taught lawyer?

As an aside, it might be worth you, at some point, putting individual pieces of work up for critique to get an idea where the gaps are and where you are going wrong ( I promise, I won’t hold back, as to do so, doesn’t help you). To critique an entire portfolio of work is too big, so you will get – as you did – general responses. If you put up one piece at a time, people can be specific in their criticism and those criticisms, in turn, will probably apply to most of your work. Critiques are often hard to take, but the only way to grow and improve – well, that and learning the basic theory, which is why I come back, full circle to the suggestion of getting a good degree. We don’t know what we don’t know until we learn it. Only then do our specific ignorances become apparent.

Those of us who’ve been doing it a long time can spot self-taught, seof-titled designers a mile off

Good luck. Keep learning and growing, but do it in the right direction and with purpose.

PS. If you are not a native English speaker, your English is amazingly good. Far better than my Greek!
 
Dear Marina. I found your portfolio site very helpful with a great attitude, nice color choice and it is nice to read from the top to the end. You are not only greate creator of designs, but also a good web master :) Wish you success.
 
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