My new portfolio page

[wienerdog]

I just updated my on-line portfolio, and am trying out a new, less-cluttered look.

What do you think?

www.wienergraphics.com

[smashmiester]

When I first opened the site and went into I a gallery. Buttons work well, but it would be nice to have a button that says HOME, not just the bannar at the top to take you home.

[wienerdog]

I think I still need to make some adjustments. The buttons should probably line-up at the same place on each page. Maybe I'll make them graphic buttons instead of the text links. Should I limit the portfolio to have only one sample on each page?

[Mynock]

I think your regency wraps bake cups package design is a weak peice and needs to be redesigned, spiced up, or removed. If it is your portfolio site the you need to have your strongest pieces, even it is down to just a few designs.

[Mynock]

also in your marketing designs for price waterhouse coopers I feel the typography needs work. It isn't that interesting, it looks plain and bland.

On your "Take off" promo poster the plane appears as if it is landing and not taking off.
"Don't preserver it" promo poster your "take your vacation" should be moved slightly to the right to line up better with the "Don't preserve it."

Also on your different sections you should drop a little "home" in the upper right hand corner by your wiener graphics logo. People are dumb and we need it explained to us. I figured it out eventually, but some might not wait that long.

[LancasterJohn]

The hot dog package concept is clever and something as an art director I would remember. I like how you incorporated the navigation in the contents. Nice and easy read. You could do better than placing the package on a white background. Also, do you really need so many categories -- could you consolidate this into less links, such as print, Web and logos? You could then afford to weed out the less effective pieces. It's better to have a few good pieces than to ruin your portfolio with filler pieces. As far as the interior pages go, I am not seeing any consistency.

[wienerdog]

"I think your regency wraps bake cups package design is a weak peice and needs to be redesigned, spiced up, or removed. If it is your portfolio site the you need to have your strongest pieces, even it is down to just a few designs."

Gotcha, nix the Bake Cups package.

"also in your marketing designs for price waterhouse coopers I feel the typography needs work. It isn't that interesting, it looks plain and bland."

Unfortunately, that's the nature of the branding for PwC. The only font to be used is Helvetica Neue, and there's a huge stack of guidelines. Not lots of flexibility, but I'll check and see if I have anything with more creative typography.

"Also on your different sections you should drop a little "home" in the upper right hand corner by your wiener graphics logo. People are dumb and we need it explained to us. I figured it out eventually, but some might not wait that long."

Yeah, I just realized it today, and I should probably include links below to navigate to other parts of the site. I like that well-designed sites have navigational freedom to and from any part of the site. I should include that for my own.

"The hot dog package concept is clever and something as an art director I would remember. I like how you incorporated the navigation in the contents. Nice and easy read."

Thanks John. You should have seen the 3 previous versions! I finally got it right this time. :)

"You could do better than placing the package on a white background."

I had a different layout before, and it felt too cluttered. Think this is too bland?

"Also, do you really need so many categories -- could you consolidate this into less links, such as print, Web and logos? You could then afford to weed out the less effective pieces. It's better to have a few good pieces than to ruin your portfolio with filler pieces. As far as the interior pages go, I am not seeing any consistency."

What do you mean by consistency? A consistency to the design of the site or a consistency to my portfolio samples? Unfotunately, I haven't been able to have a consistent style to my work because I haven't had any creative freedom. It's been too much desktop publishing and production art for too many companies. I thought I'd show a wide range of the work I've done.

I think the apparel design work I've done is pretty consistent, though.

[LancasterJohn]

The hot dog package centered on the page is pretty bold. Why not pick a background color that is more bold than white? As far as consistency, I was referring to your internal Web page layouts -- they do seem to be all over the place. In looking at your portfolio pieces you do have some consistency issues, which will happen if the bulk of your work is production. Hey, it happens and you'll get consistency over time. For now you are going to have to go with less if you want to have a more solid book. For example, under the apparel section, there's too much of a jump from the really nice Eddie Bauer piece to the chipmunk shirt. That kind of inconsistency is going to make an art director question your judgement. You could afford to thin your book to ten pieces as a start. I hope this helps -- I don't want to discourage -- just keep 'em focused on the good stuff instead of barraging them with everything you ever made.

[wienerdog]

Thanks for the feedback, John. I made some adjustments to the front page graphic, and I think it looks a lot better. I plan on finishing up the portfoio pages, and re-organizing the layout of the site so each page is consistent. I plan on adding buttons on each page to ensure easy navigation to each part of the portfolio from anywhere on the site.

Anyone have any insight on my portfolio page header graphics? Sorry if you're on 800x600 display, they're just under 750 pixels wide. I'm wondering if I should use the same font throughout the headers on the portfolio?

http://www.wienergraphics.com/images/Special%20Occassion/special-occasion-header.jpg

http://www.wienergraphics.com/images/Marketing/marketing-design-header.gif
This will need to be changed to 'Print', I guess.

http://www.wienergraphics.com/images/Apparel/apparel-design-header.gif

[chalsema]

I think using the same font on the headers would really help keep consistancy.

[wienerdog]

I've been going back and forth on this one. I want to keep consistency, but I also think Special Occasion projects, Apparel, and Print are so different, it wouldn't hurt distinguishing them. But if it looks too amature, I suppose I could choose one font and go with it for all portfolio site graphics.

[LancasterJohn]

The headers are looking too clip art right now and will distract from the portfolio pieces, which you want to highlight. Definitely use the same font in the headers and try not to make the type so big -- very overwhelming. Liking the home page better.

[chalsema]

^^I definitely agree with that 100%

[kdonlan]

Could I suggest keeping a uniform look to the website? If there's one valuable thing I learned in schooling it's that you don't want people to wonder if they're still on the same website after clicking a link.

Is there a way to keep navigation on the portfolio pieces page and maybe have them show up on the hot dog image? Right now when you click a link it looks like you're taken to another site with a different layout - something you don't want people to think.

I love the concept of the hot dog package. Very clever and very original. I think you really need to go with that as the central theme of the site and not go back and forth between looks.

[wienerdog]

The headers are looking too clip art right now and will distract from the portfolio pieces, which you want to highlight. Definitely use the same font in the headers and try not to make the type so big -- very overwhelming. Liking the home page better.

Yeah, I think you're right. And clip art is not what we want to portray as designers. Unless I'm selling work to a clip art company. :)

Could I suggest keeping a uniform look to the website? If there's one valuable thing I learned in schooling it's that you don't want people to wonder if they're still on the same website after clicking a link.

Is there a way to keep navigation on the portfolio pieces page and maybe have them show up on the hot dog image? Right now when you click a link it looks like you're taken to another site with a different layout - something you don't want people to think.

I love the concept of the hot dog package. Very clever and very original. I think you really need to go with that as the central theme of the site and not go back and forth between looks.

Wow, you're right. And it's so funny how I really need others to see things like this to help me see it. Damn. I may have to play off the food packaging idea and make it look similar in style to the front page. At least that's gotten a pretty consistent, positive review, so I'm gonna run with it.

Thanks everyone. You've been a big help!

[wienerdog]

I think I finally got it!

So here's my idea: use the hot dog package graphic with the green label and yellow background from the front page, and use it on every page of the site!

I can place all the page info, samples, etc. on the green label. This way, the look of the site doesn't change when you click on links. Hmm... I think that would work much better, and give me that consistency I'm needing! Thanks to everyone again! I'm finally getting a handle on the direction for this thing.

My problem is, what's the easiest way to include portfolio thumnail and navigation buttons on top of the graphic on the front?

Should I make it in Illustrator and slice it up? Is there a way with CSS to make a table with the package image stay centered under a layout set up to be on top of the green label?