Hi everyone, I’m a graphics designer perfecting my works for about two to three years now and I’m about to go full time with graphics designer as my new career. So please can you help me rate some of my works? If it’s good enough. You can check my dribbble profile to see some of my works.
All the logos, graphics and typography is 100% my design and idea
Thanks. Drop your comments to let me know if it’s good enough.
I don’t want to seem overly harsh, but there is nothing about your work that remotely reaches a professional level. I see somebody, a high school student would be my bet, that is messing about with software. What I don’t see is somebody that has even a tenuous grasp on design principles or typography. Also, you say that all of the graphics are 100% yours, but then you show work that says, “designed by freepik.com.”
If you want to make your living in graphic design, that’s fine. I’m not saying you can’t. But I am saying you’re not there, yet.
Thanks for your feedback. The logos and typography is 100% my idea not the book cover. I got that PNG for that book cover from freepik but everything in the logos and typography is 100% my idea. The typography is a TTF font I created.
The typography is the ‘Rabbit Digital Font’. It’s a typeface I created so I made some graphic presentation showing what the font file is all about and the characters it contains. Every single graphics in the presentation is truly created by me and it’s my idea and also the font characters are created by me and it’s my own idea. The font file is in TTF. I’d like to hear more feedbacks if it’s good enough.
I don’t think you understand what graphic design is.
Graphic design is not about creating interesting patterns or images and putting random names into the composition.
Graphic design is a combination of communication and visual art. It is meant to convey specific messages to specific audiences. For example, when a designer creates a soup can label or a book cover, the problem is creating a design that communicates a visual message that catches potential buyers’ attention and helps persuade them to make a purchase.
In other words, the colors, imagery, composition, typography, and written words must work together in nuanced ways to attract attention and create a desirable psychological impression in the minds and emotions of potential buyers.
The same is true of almost all graphic design. Clients always have a goal in mind, and it’s the designer’s job to create a design that visually communicates a positive visual and psychological impression to the identified target audiences in ways that help clients achieve those goals.
Thanks for the feedback, any advice on how to improve a logo portfolio for freelance job?
Yes; get an education. I am not meaning to sound flippant, but as others have said you area long, long way off being able to do this professionally. I have no idea how old you are, but, even if still at school, the same advice applies. DO NOT jump on to the bandwagon of ‘logo designer’. It’s a sure fire way to crash and burn. Logos on their own are meaningless. You need to understand how they work as part of the wider field of brand identity. Otherwise, you are just making pretty (or not so) things.
Do yourself a favour and learn what you currently have no idea about. A formal education (not a YouTube vid or two) will help you two-fold. The entrance process itself will weed out people who don’t have the requisite ability, talent and temperament in the first place. If you do get in, you’ll then do your three to four years (if you do a foundation year first, which is always a good idea). Then you will go out into the world and work in studios for 4-5 years to gain practical experience. Only then, can you call yourself a designer.
Good luck.
Thanks for the feedback. I have an online degree in graphic design, I know how to use Photoshop and illustrator very well. The imagery in my profile are sample logos I created.
There are different types of logos, I decided to create abstract and animated logos. I very much understand how graphics design works. I understand how logos creation works. You have to create a logo synegatically based on what the product is all about and what will attract costumer. I’ve learnt all that in my online class and earned a degree.
I just wanted to find out if my sample logos are okay and if my font creation is okay, then I can move on to a better portfolio.
Your Feedback please.
Firstly, I know for a fact that my first portfolio was better, not bigging myself up or anything, but it was ‘better’. Come to think of it my first portfolio wasn’t even my first, as I’d tinkered with design and print from an early teen age with a home computer and printer, without ever knowing there was a whole profession around it. Even my first first portfolio probably was not much better, but hey.
My first website was terrible, I created it using HTML for Dummies, and it was for the Karate club I was in, and I bought the book, studied it, had it by my side and went line by line hand coding the entire website, there was no templates, or Dreamweaver, or anything like that.
Basically the same way I learned Quark, InDesign, Photoshop, Illustrator etc. I bought the books, and when I needed to do something, I looked it up, I used to have about 10 books on my desk as go-to guides on howto do something. But I got into a company that sent me to college and I ended up being way ahead of my class, who struggled with even turning on the computer, it was frustrating at times.
But knowing how to manipulate the software is not the same as knowing how to design well, one side is the software manipulation, the other sides is pushing expectations beyond what the client wants, and giving them what they need.
It looks like you’ve gone straight to software for your designs, which is the wrong approach. You need to start with pencil and paper and start iterating thumbnails, then when you’ve got a good approach to the problem (the logo/design) then scale up the thumbnail - all on paper - never on the computer. Only go to the computer when you’ve got a solid idea on paper. And don’t deviate from the paper sketch no matter how tempting it is on the computer to add a 3D shadow bevel and emboss - it’s not good.
Design should be simple! You’ll come across the phrase in design if you haven’t already, the K.I.S.S method, KEEP IT SIMPLE STUPID, which seems rude, but it’s good advice and a well known graphic design acroymn.
Because in life there’s an infinite amount of ‘wants’ but a limited amount of ‘needs’. It’s all to do with ‘Sacrcity’ to satisfy unlimited wants and balanced with needs from limited resources.
So, yes, Economics matters in Graphic Design. So, giving people what they want is not the same as what they need.
My first portfolio would have consisted of a newsletter called ‘Nice Steak Gazette’, a newsletter that my friend and I published and posted in the letterboxes of neighbours who never asked for it. Articles included Mr Clegg with a leg for an arm and an arm for a leg. And news from the stock market, the FUTSE not FTSE, the FUTSE was an acronym for the Federal Unicorn Tampon Stock Exchange, that was explained in the newsletter, and rapturous laughs from us as we thought of it, we thought we were brilliant! But it’s not, it’s really not, but I miss being a kid and hate being a grown up for the simple fact that I still have a twisted sense of humour that doesn’t fit a grown man - anyway I digress.
We got the name of the newsletter by turning on the TV and the first words we heard was ‘Nice Steak’ on a cooking show, so the newsletter was the Nice Steak Gazette. We did this newsletter for months, printing off 50 copies took about 4 hours. Then we’d post it to the neighbours in the estate and run off giggling.
I did more serious things, like created a logo for my younger sister for her majorettes team, and it was good, I’m not going to lie, I did the whole thing in MS Paint, pixel by pixel, and it worked.
I made posters for my older brother who was an aspiring DJ (he’s not a DJ now) but he’d put on discos in the local community hall and I’d make the posters.
All the while, I didn’t know that there was an entire profession that did all this, for me as a kid it was fun.
But that would be my first portfolio, and even at that, it’s better than what you’ve shown here.
It looks like you’re having lots of fun - and sure why not!
Life is fun. Keep having fun. If you can find clients that are happy with your fun and want to work with you then have at it.
But if you want this to be a profession and you want to make real money at this then you need to ditch everything and start over.
I’ve literally been in the position of doing over 10,000 hours of work on a publication, from design of the cover, logo, typography, typesetting of thousands of pages, refining suggesting edits, and all that.
Then at the end it was all done, and the client notices a comma missing, a COMMA, that they never supplied. And they went absolute ape (mental, crazy) at ME, for something THEY supplied, but apparently I should have noticed. They refused to pay the final bill, absolutely adamant that I should have proofread it. So in a project that spanned nearly 5 years - they refused to pay the final bill, then it took me another 2 years to get them to court and get them to pay.
I kid you not.
So, thanks for sharing your work. You clearly have passion and have invested a lot of time into your typography and logos. Every designer grows through iterative improvement. Instead of feeling discouraged by criticism, use it as a stepping stone to further hone your skills. Keep experimenting and refining – you’re on the right track, even if you’re just leaving the station.
Best of luck with your portfolio. Keep pushing and learning; every iteration brings you closer to where you want to be. But ask yourself – are you ready for the journey if you decide to turn this into a professional career?
Thanks for the feedback.
I am sorry to be blunt, but the short answer is no, they are not okay. You are new to this forum and don’t know the folks, so let me say that the collective wisdom in this thread represents over century’s worth of experience, and everyone is telling you the same thing. You, of course, are free to embrace the feedback and use it to get better or ignore the feedback.
Curious, what do you mean by ‘online degree’? Yes, there are tutorials and various short/comprehensive self-study design courses online, but they are not degrees - you can only get a design degree if you study in a college/university for a minimum of 2 years (associates) or more. Some college/university programs also provide design certificate programs - they’re not degrees, but the next best option for learning professional graphic design. Whether college/university degree/certificate programs are offered in-person or online, there is a huge difference between them and tutorials/self-study courses online.
I concur with everyone here - level up your fundamental design knowledge and skills. I don’t know what you have or haven’t learned of the fundamentals, but, from your work, it appears that you have not learned these essentials.
I’m new to design myself and totally understand the struggle to learn. I started my journey learning design through self-study on Skillshare (definitely recommend Dan Scott!), but at some point, I knew I needed to go further with my design knowledge to gain professional graphic design skills. It would have been best to get an actual degree, but monetary-wise, it wasn’t feasible, so I chose to attend Shillington School of Graphic Design, a design certificate program. But, if you choose something like Shillington, I’d advise to supplement your knowledge and skills with design books and online courses/tutorials cause these certificate programs don’t cover everything.
If you can’t afford any degree or certificate programs right now, then I suggest starting with Baseline, a free online self-study mini-course to get you started with the fundamentals and foundations of graphic design.
I can see your passion for design and you have the potential, so keep learning and growing your knowledge and skills - you can do it!
Thanks for all the feedback. I really learnt a lot of tips from your Feedbacks.
I’ve removed the logos for further improvement.
Thanks again.
It’s what any body need to do at list before presenting your skills to the professional world. It’s okay to give feedback for someone to discover mistakes and get correction. 