Self Promotion/Online Portfolio?

[Rob Moxon]

Hello, I am currently completing my final year at Cumbria University and am looking forward to getting into a real studio environment. But this is the problem, I am struggling to get any replies from busy design studios and agencies. I am currently looking for placements that may lead into work. Any advice on how I should go about this? Currently I have phoned the studios and asked if and who I should send the work to (so I had a name and e-mail address) Then i sent my PDF portfolio and Resumé, to that person with a covering letter and also included a link to my online portfolio. Is there anything I am doing wrong or could do better? Any suggestions would be welcome and greatly appreciated.

And if you don't mind, it would be great if you could have a look at my online portfolio and give any feedback on the work, the url is, www.robmoxon.co.uk

Thanks, Rob

[pinksta]

I would get rid of the splash page of your site, it just adds to the time it takes for the viewer to get to your portfolio which is the reason they are probably there. Time is money and all that.

Also the white previous/next button on the front page makes you think you can click it but of course you can't! Then you feel silly for trying to click it, making potential employers feel silly is not a good idea ;).

You have some nice work with good execution and ideas. I particularly like the "and so to bed" catalogue made to look like bedding packaging.

I had a quick look at the PDFs of your resume and portfolio, the first thing I noticed was the text was hard to read. Unless you zoom in quite close the font appears a bit jagged. It also looks quite squashed, try increasing the tracking a bit as it will probably help readability. Maybe it just isn't the most suitable font for onscreen reading, try changing to a font that is just as readable on screen as off.

You could try sending self-promotional material to agencies you are interested in, something nicely designed that they will enjoy looking at.

Also when you send an email you could put something in there about calling them next week to discuss coming in to show them your portfolio rather than just leaving the ball in their court and waiting to hear back.

Good luck, I'm sure you'll be fine. Good designers will get where they want to be eventually. Just got to keep trying to get placements.

[vanishdesign]

I like your portfolio, but your headings and links could use some styling. As it is, I'm guessing what is and isn't a link.

I'd advise against a splash page. Also I didn't figure at first that there was more work if you scroll down. I guess it's because of your fixed footer. It kind of simulates white space, so it looks like that's all there is to it.