Portfolio Design Help

Soldato
Joined
20 Sep 2008
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5,787
Hey,

Just wondered if I could grab a few tips regarding portfolios.
It will be for Web Design/Photography/Graphic Design.
Currently in very early stages, as I keep hopping from design to design.
I've hit a rather small block that I need to get around. On my design it just seems a bit "boring", the borders are all very simple. Of course I could make it to look like a page etc and all of that kind of stuff, but it doesn't quite fit.

I'm currently in class, but will be playing around when I get home as I have some ideas.
Any advice would be great, Cheers.

Edited versions with advice taken in:

Portfolio3.jpg


Different text:

Portfolio4.jpg


Need to resize the image when I get home - School computers fail at Photobucket :(
 
Last edited:
OP, i feel that you it would be much better if you have 3 sites in one site.

use a gallery software for your photos.
design a site to show of your webdesign
Design a site around your graphic design

then Create a site that links all these together, this will be the main address.

if you look at my portfolio www.smogsy.co.uk

smogsy.co.uk is a link to all my sites
photos.smogsy.co.uk - photos
smogsy.deviantart.com for photo gallery
appgecko for software

i feel its a much better feel as each user could look at what there interested in.

Also, having different sites allow you to tailor that site to perfect needs of its content. for example if you have pictures in 800x600 showing of a resized webdesign at 800x600 may look sqaushed/unreadable

in your picture you have to much in your bg which takes the focus out of the content which why it looks boring :)

hope it helps
smogsy
 
I agree to the extent of talouring the needs of the design to the certain 'area'.
However, i'm going for a rather neutral design to cater for this, as I find it myself personally much more annoying to open new windows for different sections of site.

Yup there is too much background - I usually start off with a bit extra so I can get the feel and space it out well, then cut it down afterwards if needed, for example the height of this is much larger than usual.

Thanks for the input :)
 
Ah okay - well, personally I prefer it without a solid colour, I do have a version with a solid colour but I don't think it looks as effective. I'll upload it later. To me it's subtle enough to get away with.

Personal preference of course. Will take it on board & upload later.
 
Here's my view - I quite like the overall layout but the non textured one is a bit flat and I don't like the purple on the other one as it doesn't work well (too wishy washy) with the grey, it neither blends or contrasts if you get what I mean. However I prefer the textured finish although your choice could be a little too textured and would also be a pain to do as a tile on a webpage without a massive file size.

So I did a quick mockup (used your files so some quality issues on text as I was lazy)to show where I would go with your design.


What I've done -
Added a subtle noise filter to the background to stop it from being bland
added an orange border to lift the 'webpage' off the background and to draw the eye to it.
Used the orange (#f15d04) on the date and on the Palmer bit of the title (with a subtle gradient :))

Y9ou can use any colour you fancy if you don't like the orange but I picked the orange as it seemed to work quite well with the current greys you've chosen
 
Here's my view - I quite like the overall layout but the non textured one is a bit flat and I don't like the purple on the other one as it doesn't work well (too wishy washy) with the grey, it neither blends or contrasts if you get what I mean. However I prefer the textured finish although your choice could be a little too textured and would also be a pain to do as a tile on a webpage without a massive file size.

So I did a quick mockup (used your files so some quality issues on text as I was lazy)to show where I would go with your design.


What I've done -
Added a subtle noise filter to the background to stop it from being bland
added an orange border to lift the 'webpage' off the background and to draw the eye to it.
Used the orange (#f15d04) on the date and on the Palmer bit of the title (with a subtle gradient :))

Y9ou can use any colour you fancy if you don't like the orange but I picked the orange as it seemed to work quite well with the current greys you've chosen

Very smart!!

If it was me i'd add something down the bottom though, a footer, or a sitemap at the bottom of everypage like on the Apple / Microsoft site. that technique has become pretty popular now.
 
i think design 2 is my favorite. design 1 looks like it is run by a girl because of the colours and the heart/star image.

how would you do the pages with content as atm you have only provided a quick intro page.
 
Thanks for the tips guys.
lsg1r, loos better, personal prefeerence I dont like orange, but I understand what you mean and will have a play when I get home.
The first design was a lot darker when I was designing it, however, the fool I am I forgot to put on Proof Colours to see what the design would be on the web.
This is why it looks rather wishy washy and purple.
Will try and sort it out later and reupload a darker version.

The non textured version was just a quik slap of a colour in to show someone above what it looked lie non textured. I agree about the girl bit, will fiddle with the colours.

There will be a footer bit at the bottom, just havn't got round to it yet, exams at the moment limiting my time.
Mamalian i'll be getting to that within the next few days.
Cheers for the tips :)
 
Prefer my orange (sorry :p). I think the red palmer needs to be brighter, its blending into the background too much. Also don't think the red border on the sample image at the top is needed.

As to text - It's kind of weird in that I like the red text in the top half but not the bottom half so maybe try a 50/50 split with red on top section and grey on bottom.

And now for super picky mode :)
I'd shift the blog title in line with text and move the photography title over to the left as every other title is left aligned. Alternatively do a left, centre and right alignment depending on column.
Maybe try adding a bit of 'white space' on the right of the photography images (may need to shrink middle text) so that the gap between last picture and red border is the same as the red border and text on the other side.
 
it's good, but still this isn't the full site, so is hard to judge on the layout as you may find you can't do what you want with your content so the layout is useless or has to change a lot.

i'd make the images on the bottom right in same red border to match, put a little padding between logo and the wrapped content area, perhaps add a deep red
(like in second word of logo) to the about/blog etc headers
 
Thanks to both. Will take another bash tonight.
The texts etc haven't been properly aligned yet, just put in the rough area ;)
The gap between the Date & the last image are roughly the same.
I agree that I like the red text ontop but grey below, will have a go later.

:)
 
another thing to remember is although we can see the site in full, the actual design will be much different as you'll only see parts of it, e.g. on a small screen you may only see the top half which may not look as good on it's own
 
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