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Can I have a feedback on my Portfolio PDF?

Hi I've been working on my portfolio for a while,
Is not perfect, but I think I should get some feedback on it, so I can move to the right path.


Link:
https://www.behance.net/gallery/126407967/Portfolio

Michael Gnadenou
Michael Gnadenou
Visual communicator

Replies4

  • Michael Gnadenou
    Michael Gnadenou
    Visual communicator
    @Heloise Lam-Hoff
    Ahaha! LOL

    Listen, thank you so much for taking the time to go through it, and actually give such a detailed feedback !

    I really appreciated;
    You actually mentioned a few things about design that I never heard about but kinda make sense.

    This is the kind of honesty that I was searching for, and I will make good use of every piece of information and criticism you gave me.

    I will be happy to review your portfolio! Send me a link, I would be very happy to repay the favour!
  • Heloise Lam-Hoff
    Heloise Lam-Hoff
    Graphic Designer / Artistic Director
    Okay this might be a bit long, take what you need, but I want to be comprehensive and honest:

    You have really promising works and your personality definitely shines through in your portfolio! I can tell you’re looking to have a more creative layout.

    I’d say that the elements you added around your illustrations are still a quite messy though. They take up too much space, consequently we can’t enjoy your works enough.
    Now you could say this is a matter of opinion and taste, but personally I find that for portfolios “No-Design” works the best, basically have a design that’s discreet and just let’s your works speak for itself.

    For example, your 5th page with the mock-up is the one that works best and really shows off your work! We only have 1. your illustration 2. shown in its context with the mockup 3. a small explication. (And actually I think you should make the bubble smaller and center it a bit more around the text)

    There would be a way to make your design both fun while not being distracting.
    It’s cool to add shapes and colors… but could you find a way to have them make more sense with each project? (maybe matching colors with a project and using a shape that’s seen in the illustration being shown)
    Also choosing a calmer font to use could be great. Because the one you picked has personality, but suddenly with the colors and the shapes everything is just clashing with all of your illustrations. And we can’t appreciate enough. Maybe just a classic and clean sans-serif would work better.

    Something fun if you did want to keep it original and have color backgrounds, then I’d recommend looking on Unsplash for some textured color photos. (Maybe stick to matching with colors in the illustrations, and throughout the portfolio choose always paper or whatever of the same type of texture). But something that’s a bit more lively, because a digital color looks super flat and just has less of a finished feel when seen onscreen. Thats also why mockups often add so much life to portfolios, personally I live by them.

    Now onto more specific things:
    On the third page the black on purple really isn’t recommended. Yes technically it’s is still readable, but only just, and anyone who knows design will be turned off by it. The white font on the background used on the other pages worked great!

    The Instagram posts come off super messy. If you’d like to show the illustration twice then make a bigger size difference and show off some cool detail in the bigger one! And its great to show context (the fact that its one instagram, but just a screen shot like that is NOT the way to go. There would be two options, they could be combined too. 1. They’re too much useless information, cut off the top bit of the interface, we can already see your username above the post. And the little “promote post” is really bad, crop that out. People looking at your Instagram don’t see that. 2. Aphone mock-up could make the page more exciting! And it would still work fine if you put in the Instagram page with less detail. Once again we want to concentrate on 1. your Illustration and it’s details 2. that it was made for Instagram. Anything more is distracting and should go.


    Thats about it, already a lot, I hope that at least one thing or another can be helpful to you. I really hope I wasn't too harsh, I swear I wouldn't have taken this much time or thought if I didnt like your work. I think its mainly the design around your projects that needs to be worked on more. But I can see youre on your way to great things.

    Maybe my last piece of advice would be, with this portfolio what type of job are you looking for? Illustrations for newspapers and magazine articles? Art that people can commission? Book covers?
    You should try to show that off more!
    Make up a projects to show off your skill in the meantime, like that the day someone is looking for that service they'll see how competent you already are!

    Best of luck with your works!
    And I'm gonna be asking for critiques on my portfolio too, so feel free to send back some of this heat my way and roast me.

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