Crit on my portfolio website please...

[Revan]

Hi, not posted anything on here in a while. Hope everyone is well

The matter at hand:


I am a 3D artist (currently at university), and majority of my work will be placed on an online portfolio.

Here are my current test websites:

A red funky style:
http://www.wix.com/dave_smith/portfolio

Same red funky style, just more compact:
http://www.wix.com/dave_smith/portfolio2

A more sleek and stylish chrome look:
http://www.wix.com/dave_smith/portfolio3

I would like crit on absolutely everything please. Anything catches your eye that you think should be changed, or kept in. Please be brutally honest as this is important for my future career.

As it's an online portfolio the style needs to be formal yet fun.

As you can see some things are place holders for the website, the pictures and the videos may/will be changed (I am not after critique on them. just the website it's self.)

The cartoon picture of me is up for crit though.

Also I am aware the contact form doesn't work. I just unlinked my email address so I didn't get spammed with test emails . I assure you it works. But let me know if anything else doesn't work.

Thanks in advance.

Dave.

[Synthetique]

I'd have to say that it's way too small to even figure out what I'm looking at.

[Revan]

That does seem really small.. It fills the page on my resolution.

The size of the /portfolio page is set to 1056 x 774

Is that too small?

[Nikolas]

I'm seeing it alright over here...

The first one is full screen (on the edges), the second one has some black outboards on the left/right sides and the last one is... different.

I like the red colour quite a lot, but didn't fancy the font AT ALL! I found it almost hard to read. Maybe it was the intense red with black, but this is how it felt.

the link to wilx would probably have to go, since you are talking about a professional website and the last thing you need is to have a wilx link telling you about myspace and how you designed your website with free tools: It means you're cheap!

The about page feels to informal and too short. I'm this and I do that. Yes, ok, this is what the about page is all about, but a little more info and a little better formal language would probably get you further points. At least from my POV.

On your images portfolio, when you choose a pic and it enlarges it, have some kind of "back" button to take you back, otherwise some people might be searching and not think that they can simply click their way out of the pic, anywhere in the site.

Contact form is definately too small here. 17" screen, 1024x768 or something like that and Firefox 3 (talking about the 2nd attempt which has limited size, not the whole screen and more).

Looking through your website I'm slightly annoyed at the continous "clicking" from the buttons. I would suggest using a much lower volume sfx, or quit it at all!

[Lufia]

I like the red design but I also prefer the navigation buttons from the white layout. I'm not sur it's such a good idea to have buttons animate so much, and the clicking sound is definitely annoying.

I'm also not too sure about the use of a curly brace in the design, it looks... odd.

The dimensions of the page also look funny. You should decide on a minimal screen resolution you want to support (most likely 1024 x 768 ?) and stick to that. Here, you have some kind of hybrid dimensions that either forces me to scroll down or looks too small on screen...

[Shane 'ProgZmax' Stevens]

I think the red is more visually striking, which for an artist is an important thing to get across.  I do think the overall look and feel of the chrome version is more professional, though.  The navigation buttons for both work fine for me so it pretty much comes down to what you're trying to 'show' new visitors, something visually striking (and perhaps bothersome to people who dislike large amounts of red) or something rather 'safe' but professional.  There are far too many safe websites out there so I'd definitely go for a more creative look that leaves a lasting impression.

[Revan]

thanks...

I thought i took out the clicks (was annoying me lol XD)

I havnt had chance to change anything today. but il edit them tomorrow, and Ill post when ive done..

[Buckethead]

hey dude!

You should check this out:

http://www.game-artist.net/forums/spotlight-articles/415-general-your-portfolio-repels-jobs.html

[uoou]

Ay up,

I do this stuff for a living so my opinion obviously carries great weight.

I think portfolio sites should be as simple and understated as possible. They should allow the work to speak for itself. Ideally they should be in HTML rather than flash as this allows people to link to specific pages/images/whatever.

The best portfolios primarily contain and organise the work. If they can also do something clever and creative which adds an additional layer of context or whatever then even better. But first job is just to quietly present the work in a kinda neutral space. Like a gallery. Galleries tend to have plain, unadorned rooms with white walls for a good reason.

The flash site(s) you've linked are fine as flash sites but not very good portfolios in my opinion.

This is good:

http://www.matteb.com/

First thing you see is the work (cos that's what the site's about). You have a reasonable idea of what you're going to get when you click something, you're not clicking blind. And when you do click, you're presented with what you wanted to look at in a straightforward way. That's a good portfolio site is that.

In short, don't dress your work up, if it needs it then a portfolio isn't going to help - y'know? Keep it simple, no bullshit. Tidy and concise.

[Revan]

Wow, thanks for the advice...

I liked the link to the advice on a portfolio Buckethead.

And thanks for your professional opinion uoou. (Really liked that portfolio you linked btw. That is an awesome style.)

I'll get some advice on creating a html web page, and link back with an update.

[Peanut Monkey]

I'm with Synthetique - there must be something wrong because my view of it is as small (perhaps smaller than his).