Graphic Design portfolio site - Second round

[PlasmaBomb]

Don't forget to update your linkedin - the new site is a lot better than the one on it

http://www.robertguy.ca/

 

[xanis]

Looks pretty good! I know a lot of Graphic Designers (myself included) have the urge to make their online portfolio a little too "different". Usually it just turns out badly. You seem to have resisted the temptation and you've made a nice, clean, portfolio. Nice work.

 

[UnatcoAgent]

Originally posted by: PlasmaBomb

Originally posted by: Sabot

:Q Now this is quality feedback right here

I'm going to have to mull through these and rejig the layout with them in mind, thanks PlasmaBomb!

It was only a minute or two to play around with things and mock them up... something to see

Alright, I've addressed a number of the things you guys have pointed out, still a lot to be done though.

 

[UnatcoAgent]

Originally posted by: Mr Pickles
Its not bad dude. Its nice to see that you took a web2.0 approach. There are a few things that you need to touch on in order to make it more cross-browser friendly but besides that its solid. So far the feedback is focusing on what people do and don't like about the design. Here are a few things relating to usability:

1. Images Disabled. Hey, it happens, some people disable images. I saw that your whole sidebar is an image which is fine, but you need to give each portion of the nav on the left a background color other than white since your text is currently white. If I had images disabled on my mobile device but wanted the styling to be the same I wouldnt be able to see the text.

2. CSS Disabled: not bad at all, good work. There are a few things that I would change with the semantics of the layout such as the way you ordered your divs. The information is all there but the flow from top to bottom just doesn't seem normal with the nav where it is, etc. Speaking of the semantics behind the layout, its a good idea to avoid labeling divs and whatnot as "center" or "left". Its just good practice since, who knows, you might restyle your entire design and want your nav up on top.

3. Scripts: I'm guessing this is no big deal, but your javascript and css at the top of the page should be outside of your index page and on their own pages. You might still consider yourself in development though and plan on doing this later.

4. Something quirky with the galleries: If I head to 9-5 and 5-9 pages the images first load in full size and for a split second my scroll bar on the right and the page itself is huge. This is probably because you are using the original images in your thumbnail gallery and just resizing them there. That's not a bad approach, cuts down on having to deal with a thumbnail for every image you have there, but when it flips out the page waiting for the whole thing to load and then re-sizing the image it just look a little crazy (using ff3 for browser btw). You might want to look into the image gallery itself and see if you might be able to make some changes there such as loading the images earlier in the script or you might just want to break down and make some thumbers for the images.

I didn't get a chance to see the page using anything other than ff but for the most part it looks good. Nice and solid. If you have more time later on you might want to get into playing with more graphics to brighten it up and gain a little more appeal. You are a graphic designer and all

Thank you Pickles! This is great, I'm digesting all of this now and you point out some critical issues I missed. Working away on all of this now, if you guys reload the page you should see some significant changes.

Thanks again, this is far more than I had hoped for :beer:

 

[UnatcoAgent]

OK, made a slew of updates - the image loader isn't fixed yet though.

 

[UnatcoAgent]

Updated!

 

[PlasmaBomb]

Nice

 

[Mr Pickles]

Wow! Great improvement. Way to stick to it and turn it around like that. It's obvious that you put time into it yet its very clean, very direct, and very function. Good addition of the wood on the side while keeping content the king. Awesome.

 

[CrazyLazy]

An improvement from before. That said the website really isn't saying "graphic design artist" to me. You have the simplicity down, but it's a little bland. You have a wood stripe, a green stripe, and a white background and that's it. I would also put all of your portfolio (which has some nice stuff btw) on the front page instead of linking to it because that's what I would want to see as a potential customer.

I would also just get rid of the Twitter updates in the sidebar. I know it's the cool new thing to be doing but it really isn't relative to the rest of the portfolio.

 

[UnatcoAgent]

Originally posted by: CrazyLazy
An improvement from before. That said the website really isn't saying "graphic design artist" to me. You have the simplicity down, but it's a little bland. You have a wood stripe, a green stripe, and a white background and that's it. I would also put all of your portfolio (which has some nice stuff btw) on the front page instead of linking to it because that's what I would want to see as a potential customer.

I would also just get rid of the Twitter updates in the sidebar. I know it's the cool new thing to be doing but it really isn't relative to the rest of the portfolio.

I think you are entirely right.

One of the big challenges I have been facing is how to go from having simply a tool / location online to put my stuff up, to an actual, personal showcase that gets across who I am, and what it's like to work with me.

Admittedly, I am a horrible writer. I've had to get help with a lot of the writing so far, just to make it digestible, now I have to make it engaging. I also need to work on the branding, as you suggest.

Thanks for your input again you guys, if you think of anything, or see something that makes you go "! I really hate that!" please let me know!

 

[UnatcoAgent]

Originally posted by: CrazyLazy
I would also just get rid of the Twitter updates in the sidebar. I know it's the cool new thing to be doing but it really isn't relative to the rest of the portfolio.

Took out the Twitter status update - what do you think?

Seeing it now, I think it's one step further towards professional without it, and less style-whorish, although I did like the idea of having a consistently updated element on the main page.

 

[ivan2]

it looks good but i think the left side panels are not needed to be fully expanded all the time (or at least that's how it's rendered on my IE6). There are a lot of unused space on the left side that way and it's diverting the focus to them instead of your design.

 

[UnatcoAgent]

Originally posted by: ivan2
it looks good but i think the left side panels are not needed to be fully expanded all the time (or at least that's how it's rendered on my IE6). There are a lot of unused space on the left side that way and it's diverting the focus to them instead of your design.

Ok, I've taken out some of the information in those left bars, so now I need to redesign the layout a bit, as you say it's a bit of wasted space.

 

[VinylxScratches]

It still looks awkward with that intro on the left side.

 

[purbeast0]

wow you have some great art man.

personally i don't like that left "column" with your name and stuff, seems just kind of pointless and makes the menu seem out of place not being on a border of the page.

and btw, that is not Leo, that's Raph!

EDIT:

actually i don't know wtf that is heh. he's got red colors (raphael) but looks to have the bow on his back (donatello) yet you call him leonardo!

 

[UnatcoAgent]

Originally posted by: purbeast0
wow you have some great art man.

personally i don't like that left "column" with your name and stuff, seems just kind of pointless and makes the menu seem out of place not being on a border of the page.

and btw, that is not Leo, that's Raph!

EDIT:

actually i don't know wtf that is heh. he's got red colors (raphael) but looks to have the bow on his back (donatello) yet you call him leonardo!

Haha I get that a lot - the original ninja turtles all wore red!

Thanks!

 

[UnatcoAgent]

Ok I've removed about 40% of the horizontal space that first bar took out, as well as the description within it. What do you guys think now, is the page more balanced?

 

[xanis]

I like the new site. It's clean and well-organized. The only thing I would change would be the wood texture on the left column... seems a little cheesy to me.

What are you using to create your portfolio page? Is it is a pre-made script or is it something that you cooked up?

EDIT: Nevermind, I peeked at your code. You're using Textpattern for the portfolio part, right?

 

[TallBill]

Originally posted by: Sabot

Haha I get that a lot - the original ninja turtles all wore red!

Thanks!

The original TMNT was awesome, and your art matches up closely to it. Violent and brutal. I'd love to get my hands on the original books. I had a few compilations, but all are long gone

 

[dbk]

I don't like the 2 vertical banners on the left... maybe move the main one to the top or bottom?
How about bolding the items in the green banner...home, about me, etc...

 

[UnatcoAgent]

Originally posted by: Xanis
I like the new site. It's clean and well-organized. The only thing I would change would be the wood texture on the left column... seems a little cheesy to me.

What are you using to create your portfolio page? Is it is a pre-made script or is it something that you cooked up?

EDIT: Nevermind, I peeked at your code. You're using Textpattern for the portfolio part, right?

It's all textpattern driven, with a few plugins

The wood thing is a love/hate issue right now, I've been toying with a few textures, I want something organic to contrast the grid layout of the site. The other thing is my last name is westwood which is kind of lame on top of the wood pattern, I'm going to experiment some more with this moving forward.

 

[UnatcoAgent]

Originally posted by: TallBill

Originally posted by: Sabot

Haha I get that a lot - the original ninja turtles all wore red!

Thanks!

The original TMNT was awesome, and your art matches up closely to it. Violent and brutal. I'd love to get my hands on the original books. I had a few compilations, but all are long gone

I've got the original graphic novel kicking around somewhere, KC jones really kicked some ass in it. And yes, very brutal / violent back then.

 

[xanis]

Originally posted by: Sabot

Originally posted by: Xanis
I like the new site. It's clean and well-organized. The only thing I would change would be the wood texture on the left column... seems a little cheesy to me.

What are you using to create your portfolio page? Is it is a pre-made script or is it something that you cooked up?

EDIT: Nevermind, I peeked at your code. You're using Textpattern for the portfolio part, right?

It's all textpattern driven, with a few plugins

The wood thing is a love/hate issue right now, I've been toying with a few textures, I want something organic to contrast the grid layout of the site. The other thing is my last name is westwood which is kind of lame on top of the wood pattern, I'm going to experiment some more with this moving forward.

I think the reason it bothers me is because I feel like there's too much of a contrast between the darkness of the wood texture and the lightness of the rest of your color scheme. What about trying a lighter wood texture... something like this? In my opinion, the green you chose would go much better with something like that.

 

[TruePaige]

Just checked it in various resolutions, it appears you use static widths so on smaller screens (1024), it looks all messed up, and on larger screens it's looking..well it's okay there because of the type of content and layout you use, but a bit of wasted space.

Try to do % based widths or em's or something, just will alienate some people if they come in and have issues with it looking off.

My opinion. =)

 

[UnatcoAgent]

Originally posted by: Xanis

Originally posted by: Sabot

Originally posted by: Xanis
I like the new site. It's clean and well-organized. The only thing I would change would be the wood texture on the left column... seems a little cheesy to me.

What are you using to create your portfolio page? Is it is a pre-made script or is it something that you cooked up?

EDIT: Nevermind, I peeked at your code. You're using Textpattern for the portfolio part, right?

It's all textpattern driven, with a few plugins

The wood thing is a love/hate issue right now, I've been toying with a few textures, I want something organic to contrast the grid layout of the site. The other thing is my last name is westwood which is kind of lame on top of the wood pattern, I'm going to experiment some more with this moving forward.

I think the reason it bothers me is because I feel like there's too much of a contrast between the darkness of the wood texture and the lightness of the rest of your color scheme. What about trying a lighter wood texture... something like this? In my opinion, the green you chose would go much better with something like that.

I will definitely try that, PM you when it's up