Current Student Portfolio Review

The Crit Pit
#1

Hi all! I’m currently a graphic/visual design student in college :slight_smile: I’ve been keeping an Adobe Portfolio to store the works I’m proud of. Sometimes I use it to promote freelance design services, and I’ve gotten a few small clients. At my college, we have a class in our final year where we create our portfolios and critique them, but I wanted to get a head start.

Not sure if this is relevant, but upon graduation I’d love to work in health care as a graphic designer. I used to be a biology major so it has been a major interest. I’m currently interning at a hospital in my home state and it’s been fantastic. I’m going into the 3rd year of my program this fall, and I have some design/communication experience from my trade school.

Going forward, I might take the purple out of my portfolio. I see a lot of black and white ones, but let me know what you guys think.

Any advice/critiques/thoughts are welcome! I want to improve how I present myself, and if you guys have any suggestions on different websites to build a portfolio on let me know!

https://sarahgrantdesign.com

#2

Hi Sarah, I took a look through, I especially like your Black Bear infographic. My key comments would be below

  • On your homepage the scroll depth is so short it feels unnecessary, with your works displayed as it is. If possible I’d increase the imagery size, so you can a) have that reason to scroll, but more importantly b) you can see your work on preview properly.

  • Clicking around your site I felt lost pretty quickly when I went into your UMASS Spotlight, with the multiple levels, and no clear way to get back to the main portfolio.

  • Clicking on your resume, I’m seeing it in Times New Roman. Back in my day (I’m old) TNR was the default typeface so I’d recommend changing that to the same as your resume for consistency, using the same styles colours etc. Consistency is key.

  • If you think purple represents you well go for it! If you see a lot of black and white, that’s what you want to avoid, you want to stand out. Maybe just introduce a complementary colour for a bit of contrast and interest.

  • Adobe Portfolio is absolutely fine (and free with Adobe). It’s simple, limited, but does everything you need to. The key thing is big visuals that show off your work. Show different levels of “zoom”, show an overall picture, and also “macro” of some details you like or where you think you’re works strongest.

Hope this helps.

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#3

Thank you so much, design bear! I definitely can agree with easily getting lost, I was trying to figure out a way to put back buttons into Adobe Portfolio, but I haven’t come across it yet. I originally had more projects on my home page but a lot were older works for school that I took down, so that’s why the page is so short now. I love your idea of making the imagery bigger for a reason to scroll. I’ll be sure to update my resume as well :slight_smile:

Thank you to much for taking the time to review this! this is some good feedback!

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#4

Welcome to the forum, Sarah.

Here are my thoughts on your website:

The purple doesn’t bother me.

The “Sarah Grant Design” in the nav bar feels incredibly generic. I’d like to see a mark or a type treatment that has some originality — especially since you say you’re passionate about typography on your about page.

I understand that you want to highlight the Mass Memorial work, but it seems a little off to have that be a hero section. Especially since I have to click on it then click through a second time to see the work. I’d have the individual pieces for Mass Memorial be treated like the other pieces in your portfolio.

That said, the Social Drivers of Health piece should not be included in your portfolio. It’s fine for what it is, but it’s not portfolio-quality work.

On some portfolio pieces, you’re showing the same thing twice — for example, the Good Samaritan Agency. This isn’t necessary and just adds visual clutter.

Are you strictly looking for freelance clients or are you looking for a full-time position in the medical field? If the latter, I think you need to say so on the about page.

I think your resume design should tie in with the website design. I could be wrong, though. If the resume is design as it is for strategic reasons, such as passing HR gatekeepers, that’s fine.

I once talked to a guy that was a creative director for a hospital with a staff of in-house designers. He said it’s a pretty sweet gig for a designer with plenty of perks. So I’d encourage you to go all-in with that direction.

Hope that helps.

3 Likes
#5

Hi @Steve_O, thank you so much for looking over my page! I saw that I have the option to upload a photo in the nav bar for a logo, so I can definitely work on a design to update that :slight_smile: I like your suggestion with putting the UMass pieces in the overall portfolio page-- plus it would give some more scroll ability like @DesignBear was saying! I should utilize the hero section in a different way.

I am looking for a full time position in the medical field, so I can put that in my about section. Freelance is nice, but I definitely want to focus more on a full-time position.

In my portfolio class that I’ll take next year, we do make “design” portfolios that tie into our brand more. The one I have is just pretty barebones to hopefully not be rejected by AI scanners before a human can read it haha. Thank you for the encouragement too! I’m glad to hear that its a good gig. I’ve definitely liked working in this environment so far.

Thank you again so much for looking this over and giving me some advice!

#6

I like what I see. You’re also doing everything necessary to start a career in design: a degree, internships, focusing on pursuing a goal, and you’re choosing a career path in a field that’s growing (health care). I think you will do well.

If it were me, I’d ditch the purple. You might like it. I might like it. Unfortunately, it’s a quirky color that can draw attention to itself rather than creating a neutral background for the subject matter.

Your homepage has a hierarchy issue. I understand your desire to emphasize your work at UMass Memorial Health, which is great and worth highlighting. However, the emphasis is so visually strong that, at first glance, it appears the website is about UMass Memorial rather than Sarah Grant’s graphic design portfolio, which is the most important thing.

I like the bear infographic, but I’m wondering why you’ve included two identical versions. Is it a website glitch? While I appreciate the illustrations, the mountain peaks and dense conifer forests look more like the Rocky Mountains than the hills and deciduous forests in Massachusetts. Maybe I’m being overly picky.

I probably wouldn’t include the Social Drivers of Health Resources Guides. It’s typical boilerplate material that comes with the job (I’ve made similar things myself). Still, there’s nothing in it that showcases your design skills, even though it does imply you’re adaptable to the situation.

I also like the Maine Writing Project. I’d probably wear one of those t-shirts.

In the project overview on the Behavioral Health Care Road Map page, you have two hyphens replacing an em dash, but neither is correct here. Instead, use a comma. When it comes to em dashes, never use two hyphens as a substitute unless it’s absolutely necessary. The copy editors I’ve worked with would throw fits over these kinds of mistakes.

In that same project overview and other parts of your portfolio, I believe you sometimes forget that you’re writing for a specific target audience. For example, you mention Harrington without explaining what Harrington is. You know it’s a healthcare facility associated with UMass Memorial, but will your target audience understand that? Have you considered who exactly your portfolio is targeting and what it’s meant to communicate and accomplish?

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#7

This is good stuff @Just-B, thank you so much! You and others have mentioned the wonky hierarchy and placement when it comes to my UMass material, so I’m actively working on rearranging that :slight_smile: As for the bear infrographic, I’m not sre why I included it twice, so I can get rid of the double instance. Sometimes when I’m up in Maine for school I forget not all of New England has goregous moutains even though I’m from Mass :sob: I get what your saying for the Social Drivers of Health too! It really was just to show I can do that stuff, but it’s not on the same level as my other projects.

I’m glad you like the t-shirts! I asked them to snag me a pic of people wearing them at their event and then never did :frowning:

I also appreciate you looking over my copy as well! good catch with my fake em dash. I’ll have to dedicate some time to adding some clarity and fixing grammar issues :slight_smile: Thank you so much!!

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