My Portfolio Site

[d2king10]

So I decided I needed to finally create my portfolio site, so here it is:
http://grungemedia.com/dkseries/

I still have a lot more stuff to fill into the portfolio section, but I would love to make some websites for cheap.

Anyhow, what do you guys think?

[BeeZee]

Re: My Portfolio Site

Critiquing solely the web design, you're partially there, but you have a ways to go. The site is clean and interesting without overshadowing the content, and this is a very good thing that a lot of designers have trouble with. There are a couple areas that I'd recommend improving upon: first, the wavy thing at the bottom of the content area is very out-of-sync with the rest of the design; you've got a lot of hard edges and straight lines, especially with the checkerboard pattern at the top, and you go out of your way to use a straight edge on the diagonal of the content area at the top. The curves at the bottom are a huge contrast to that: by nature, curves are organic and natural, and lend a completely different feel to a design. For something more cohesive, I'd recommend perhaps using a straight edge along the bottom with diagonals at the corners- that will make the bottom fit the same motif you have going with the rest. Additionally, the blue, while pleasing, also makes for a very monochromatic design- including a single other color somewhere in the palette, even in small measure (for the text and your logo, for example) would go a long way towards making the design more dynamic and interesting.

Consider: what do you want to convey with the site? What do you want the viewer to come away with about you? What kind of designer are you? Is the site reflecting that?

Also, I noticed the Ruination site uses a lot of the same assets from your personal site. As far as building a professional portfolio, I'd definitely recommend staying away from that- nothing dampens the mood of a potential client quite like making them feel like they're not unique!

Finally- are you using tables to design that? I'd stop that- ideally, you should have the HTML markup limited to perhaps four or five div tags and style the rest with CSS. Search engines will archive your work better, it will display better across multiple browsers, and perhaps most importantly, it will be much, much easier on you as a designer.

PPS: A word about marketing- chances are you'll find you get better business if you don't advertise yourself as a student or someone who's hard up for cash. You do good work, so project that confidence in your verbiage on the site; make your clients feel as if they're getting a quality product from an experienced designer. There's an interesting phenomenon called perceived value- the more people pay for things (or the higher quality the advertising makes them out to be), the more people think they're worth, irregardless of the actual product. I once had a design professor who told me that, if I wanted more business, all I had to do was raise my price- and he turned out to be right.

Anyway, I really do like the work you've got on display, and I think the web work is looking promising! I think you could really push it over the edge with a little bit of work.

[Ωbright]

Re: My Portfolio Site

I'm no good at critiquing web design, but I think it's cool that you're doing this. Will you have different divisions of artwork later on, after you've uploaded more of it? You could have a studio drawings section, and a more graphic oriented section also. I think that might help to accentuate your strengths in both.

I know you have a 'digital' division already, but I was just wondering.