the architectured portfolio

[the architect]

Ok,
here is my long anticipated (by me anyways) online portfolio. I spent about 12 hours last night making it from scratch, and put in a few more for touch ups this morning. Sorry about the whole yahoo geocities thing. It should just be temporary. Please let me know what you think.


www.geocities.com/grahamgirard/portfolio

[Nrak]

Logo portfolio looking good there .

Now about the portfolio site itself, well unfortunately it lacks character. The entry screen might look better without the fancy gothic fonts, however the grey logo looks promising as an entry element. I understand that you want a minimalist theme with the following pages, but I feel that in order for you to successfully achieve that, you'll need something to catch the eye, be it a graphical or typographical in nature.

It's a great start, but it just looks half-finished. Good luck .

[Cosmico]

hmmm..... I like your "superclean" graphics idea but I would give it some borders.. just some idea of where the website starts and finishes. In web design one of the most important things is how quickly can the eye catches and everyone who knows something about visual comunication can tell you that "borders" or "defined shapes" are the first thing that the eye looks for so I would advise you to put something that defines the shape of it.
For the rest I really like how you coloured the scrollbars, the text menu is clean and simple but also good looking with the orange "a:hover"..
Another thing that I want to advise you is NOT to abuse in the use of frames.. I also use iFrames for some things in my websites but I advise you not to use them ase the "base" or "structure" of your website. CSS is a lot better for this and it is really easy to learn.. on my advice the best is to make Adobe ImageReady create a CSS page for you [you can set HTML or CSS in "file > save settings (or something like that)"] and then look at the code created by ImageReady and try to understand how it works.. I think it's easier than HTML, or at least if you know HTML it will be very easy.
Also, if you do web design, architecture, logo design, etc.. I would change all the image on the entrance page.. It looks kinda gothic and "heavy metal"ish it doesnt refer too much to design.

I hope I helped you and you don't think I'm just criticizing you.. I just hope I can help you have a better website.

Good luck with it.. Im also doing my portfolio and it's really a challenge!

[free]

I like some of your logos - Float, Scalagraphics and Creo Group. The rest of them tend to be too complex for my taste. My advice is to keep thing simplier and less abstract when it comes to logo design.

[IntuitDesign]

Greetings Architect —
Great overall! I think that the splash page and the site feel different. To create a whole piece of art (website in this case) all the elements need to be speaking the same language. I love your use of typography. Clean. Not enough designers use the white of the page to compose. Had a little trouble with the frames. People can't bookmark your page effectively with that.

Keep up the great work!

peace
jc

[Neupix]

Hey Graham,

I really like the work in your portfolio, especially the scala graphics work. I also think its great that you are into photography - I always like to see that

Unfortunately I think the website lacks. Take some time to really think and understand who you are as a designer, and create a website that reflects that. As the quote on your home page says, express yourself. Make yourself a logo, etc.

Just some constructive criticism for you
John

[the architect]

Thanks for all the great suggestions. i haven't had a chance to make any changes yet, but will seriously consider some of your points. I really don't know CSS very well, but I will try to find out how to get rid of the frames. I'm also considering a few images I can throw on the home page, and perhaps eliminate the splash page (is that what it's called?) altogether. Thanks again.