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?