New Guy - Portfolio

Hey
I'm new here and would like some comments on my portfolio

http://www.okipod.com/portfolio/

Site is minimalistic, probably already seen css-only-style, so I guess most comments will be regarding my works.

not much to the site so I wont comment there. But the works are ok. Some of the logos are pretty good. I would beef up your portfolio with some websites for fictional companys or something. Maybe do some freebies.

nice concept but the green yellow is too flashy
may more graphics as it is a portfolio

yeah I tend to be little too flashy sometimes I'll try to calm things a bit

thanks

Hi, personally I like the green in your site, one of my favorite colors I was thinking maybe you could add some animation to your portfolio, even if they are a few banners, just to spice it up a little.....oh, p.s. you have a typo in "ski4u" ->organization, overall. i really like your work, jojomarie

thanks for typo note... I often make that organi[z][s]ation mistake
Site will be expanded step by step, this was just a first phase with basic elements. More graphics/colors/animations etc will come soon

Another bottom-feeder on dial-up...
So the first thing that got my attention was that your site was already there, in front of me, before I realized that it was there, in front of me. Like instantly! Bravo!

Thinking about Avant Garde...?
At first, I thought that the line green text box was a bit of an eyesore, and the paragraph beside it a bit wordy, but...

Then, as I was looking thru your artwork I began to think "Wait a minute! He might be on to something here." Why NOT have a text box in the top left corner. I know, I know...it breaks the 'left-2-right', 'image top-left' precedent developed a long time ago in the newprint inustry, but so what!? And the paragraph beside it instead of YetAnotherLogo? Brilliant! The density of the horizontal blackspace at the top almost seems to almost balance the lists below it. Maybe it'd promote more interactivity on your site, I notice the topic of the day awhile ago was making sites 'Sticky' Now there's a challenege to the norm of acceptable design.

Ok, Ok, so ya need to know... I have been critized before for seeing things differently. :-)

Where'd all the art work go...?
The only thing that I found to be a real bummer was having to scroll down to see the artwork. I'm running at 1024 on a color laptop and the artwork was displaying just at the bottom edge and below. Your work is really crisp and clean, highly graphic and very strong in shape & text & color. Personally I think that to you should be 'puttin' your best foot forward' :-) No scrolling to see artwork. Scroll to read text, but not artwork. Say maybe... in the bottom right quadrant under the 'I got no logo' paragraph' Where do you put the other links? I don't know. Some things sound great until ya put them down on paper.

InMyHumbleOpinion
From an English language perspective I think you should change...
"... therefore I can't have a logo..."
to
"... therefore I don't have a logo..."

Drop the paragraph at the top 1 line, to line up with the top of the box instead of the top text on the lefthand side. The top of the box is a stronger line.

And ya... I've also been flamed for being longwinded too. :-)

Keep it up.

Hehe - ok so I will do the opposite and keep it quixk. I like the fact it was super-fast to load, and I like the fact that the clean fresh colours and simple layoput made it different to the things I normally do. I thought it was really refreshing because it is certainly not just bog standard, so for me well done. I too am building up a portfolio right now - bad PC crash with ALOT of past work not backed up means mine is looking a little slim also, but you'll get there and (hopefully) so will I

wow thanks for in depth comments
and thanks for all the props

I tought about that "too low" art work position. I wanted to put it right below form, and all the links on the bottom, but then, because of height of some artworks, there are more chances visitor don't see links to other works because [s]he don't scroll down. This way, at least top of work picture could be seen and that is pretty good hint for most of people to scroll down for more content and because of that better solution.
I'll see, if I found some better positioning solution that also suits my taste, I'll change it of course.
I'll try to use rest of suggestions.

SSFelton - I feel your pain .. really, 2-3 times I lost my whole collections of mp3 & stuff because of unbackuped HDD crash and lost of works is even worse option. Take it slow and you'll eventualy have works that will probably be even better than that you lost so you wouldn't be SO sorry 'cause of works.

when I add some more grapchic page wouldn't load THAT past, but hey, I'll try to find some compromise

forgot to say, I think it's most usual thing in design to be different than standards. Not different by any mean [oh yeah rebel baby], but if all of designers would follow standards, all works would look a like, and one of the main things in design - creativity - would be lost. It would then become same like any other boring activity

I'd like to see a little more visual organization of the site. Right now the only thing that catches my attention is the "fly away" button. You can be simplistic in layout without being bland. It would be great to see some sort of graphic embellishment being that it is a design portfolio.

Regarding the logos, several of them seem to be very color-dependent (they won't translate well into black & white). The only one that I think works really well is the Playahater logo - good iconic symbol. I'd like to see more experimentation with fonts though - throughout the portfolio, I noticed issues of fonts not quite matching the associated artwork.

I really like the "dripping drop" photo. The others don't do much for me.

Also, (in my browser anyway - Safari on Mac) when I scroll over the links, they are highlighted in yellow, but the highlight doesn't disappear when I move the mouse elsewhere. So, everything stays highlighted until I reload the page.

-David

thanks for notes
I would like more comments on fonts. I had big problems in the past with using suitable fonts for my work, but I tought that I finally managed to figure out .... so please tell where did I went wrong with fonts, what kind of font would you use there and where are fonts ok?

I'll try to fix that onmouseover JS thing with Safari

The best suggestion I have for fonts is to look at portfolios of great designers and see what they do with fonts. Sometimes the font is appropriate but the kerning needs to be changed. In logos, it's generally best to keep all the letters either lowercase or uppercase but not to mix them unless you're going for a particular effect. Try to avoid using abused fonts that are very stylized (such as Curlz or Comic Sans). Remember never to be satisfied with auto-placement of text when dealing with titles or logo type - it always needs to be hand adjusted.

-David

Is the mouseover issue a Safari problem? It's the sort of thing that doesn't sound site related.

Works fine in Firefox - also it's green and not yellow mouseovers for moi

that one is crazy


that angry bunn type is burnin

I enjoyed it ... Very nice design. I am not a big fan of following design trends or trying to cram personal style into someones else taste .. I liked the edgy line drawing of the bunny ... the Unfinished Website, with the choppers and street sign navigation .. Extremely Cool ... Keep it up man .. Design what you want and what you like...After All, it is YOUR site. I personally think that a Designers Site/Portfolio should reflect their attitude, personality and design taste as much as possible.

Me loves the playahater logo . Its veryy nice!

Your logos are awesome!

I agree, the site needs some work, but your portfolio itself, is very nice. I like your style of bright, vibrant colours in your logos, and the website, looks brilliant. I look forward to seeing it complete

El-Ree, if you are English, it is organisation, if you're American, it's organization.

I like the look, green isn't one of my most favourite colours, and it looks kinda bright to my eyes, I think your work should stand out more than the form. Other than that it looks great.