Portfolio Critique (Website & Behance)

The Crit Pit
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#1

Much appreciation in advance!!

I’ve applied to 40+ jobs over the past month, looking to get some feedback on my portfolio website and behance profile. I know it’s a lot, so any feedback is much appreciated. I’ve been looking for brand, visual or web design positions, so I want to make sure I’m not missing anything that might be keeping me from getting calls.

You can find the portfolio site in my profile, and there is a link to Behance from the site!

#2

Welcome to the forums mate :beers:

Will be short and sharp: :dagger:

  • Your website lacks any explanation of design problems you’ve solved and while it links to examples of your work are there, they aren’t necessarily apparent and it took me a minute to figure out how to find them. Case studies of your work should be more prominant and displayed on your website if you’re using it for a portfolio.
  • If you’re applying for branding work, you don’t have enough examples of it on your website.
  • The slow circle following the mouse on your website is super annoying and gimmicky.
  • While I get that you have lot of experience with web and you want to showcase that, your website is not very intuitive and isn’t easy to navigate. For example when I click the hamburger menu, it wasn’t apparent what I needed to click on next. My advice would be to stick to something more traditional and easy to navigate like what you’ve done for your clients.

Hope this is helpful and good luck with your job search :beer: :sunglasses:

#3

I think there are a couple of problems going on.

You have a positioning problem. What are you and what is your goal? Are you a graphic design studio called Stringfellow Design that is in search of clients? Are you a freelance designer looking for clients? Are you a freelance designer looking for a full time job? Are you an unemployed designer looking for a job? Or are you an employed designer looking for the next thing? It seems odd that you are presenting yourself as a company (dba Stringfellow Design) but you have a personal resume. If your goal is to get hired, you may be better off presenting your website as “the online portfolio of Jacob Stringfellow” rather than presenting yourself as a company.

Why do you bump viewers over to behance for your portfolio instead of keeping the samples on your own site? Seems odd.

I think @pluto made some good comments. I’d sum it up like this: your site has a lot of sizzle and very little steak. Meaning there are the animated lines and the spinning thank you message and the circle that follows the mouse, but there isn’t a lot of content there to prove your design skills. Personally, I find the gimmicky type of things annoying and would rather see solid work.

On first pass, I didn’t realize how the menu worked. It seemed like a summary statement rather than clickable items.

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#4

Adding to what’s already been said.

I don’t think it’s a good idea to send people over to Behance. It makes it feel like a separate thing and is kind of an awkward surprise, plus you’re missing the opportunity to continue showing off your web ability on your own site.

I was expecting to see case studies for your web design work (like the MOAA Redesign you have on Behance) instead of just a list of links. Your presentation of MOAA is really nice. I think you should mimic that on your website for each of your projects.

I also found the menu a little confusing.

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#5

@mist @Steve_O @pluto

Thank you so much for your feedback and critique. I think your thoughts are spot on and I’m making changes, combining Behance and the portfolio site to make everything cohesive.

Also gonna clear up my messaging to narrow down the positions im actually looking for.

Thanks again, thankfully I got an intro interview with GitHub for a senior designer position so hopefully this works out and my portfolio can become a passion project instead of an extra job lol.

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