Portfolio Crit?

[PixiStyx]

Hi guys! So I've finally gotten away from the cookie cutter portfolio sites and designed my own from scratch. It's 99% complete...I just need to make a few tweaks here and there, like adding a little blurb on the gallery pages. However, I could use an outside eye and outside opinions about it. Is there anything I should change? What am I doing wrong? Or right, for that matter? I know some of the code is clunky...but I'm more of a designer than a coder.

Ze portfolio!-
http://redrobinarts.com/

[ZHGD]

I'm not a fan of how the background illustration on the left just ends at the bottom. There is also an overlap where the thumbnails hit the bottom of the page that is really awkward.

How wide is the main page? Its a bit big I think.

[PixiStyx]

Oo, good spot. Yes, I should definitely do something about that border down at the bottom.

The main title page is optimized for a widescreen monitor, about 1280x 960. But I tried to make it so that it could accomodate higher and lower resolutions, as well as crt monitors.

[Paj]

I like your colours and the general aesthetic - nice and moody. Some of your work is great too!

your site has a number of issues though. You need to set that swirly graphic as a background image in your CSS, that way it wont scroll if its too big for the window.

You should ideally be using a grid for your site. Have a look at www.960.gs - this site helped me a lot with my website designs.

Also, Im really not a fan of the way the thumbnails shift around the bottom of the page each time one of them is clicked - its terrible for usability. Sometimes they go off the page. Put the thumbs in a static position up the top, and make sure they dont move. Consider showing the main image in a separate lightbox if necessary.

Lastly, consider how you have grouped your work. A lot of these sections could be combined into a general 'illustration' section. Sequential art is confusing - I thought it was some sort of motion graphics. A bit more information about each piece would be good too. Who was the client? What was the piece used for? etc.

Love your masks!

[Audentia]

I would also like to see a little blurb explaining what each item was used for, or why it was created.
Adds some depth to what you are doing.

[PixiStyx]

Thanks guys! Yeah, I'm still working on the blurb thing. I'd really like to get some up, but the uploader for the javascript I'm using hasn't been working. I've had to use a workaround, instead. As a result, I'm still trying to figure out how to get a description on each piece.

In the meantime, though, perhaps I could do a side blurb in each gallery about the contents in general. Perhaps under the menu bar.

[dorito]

I love the look of your website, but as mentioned before, you should make it so the background will size to accommodate different monitors better. The screen size is too big and you shouldn't be able to scroll so much on a smaller monitor.

also, on your homepage somewhere, I think it should say that you're a graphics designer somewhere other than just the title on the browser tab. Just by looking at it, I get the sense that you're some kind of artist, but it doesn't really say that anywhere I can see on the front page and you could be an illustrator or something other than a designer. It took me longer to figure out you're a designer than I think you would want clients viewing the site to take to figure it out. Make things very clear and explicit.

also, I think I saw on a few of your pages the wrong title in the tab, like on about me, it said business design. at least on my screen anyways. Also, maybe instead of having an e-mail box automatically pop up when you click contact. it should bring the viewer to a page with a list of contact info. then when they see the email on the list, if they click e-mail, THEN the box thingy pops up. I think it would be less unexpected, uninvited, and annoying to use that way.