Portfolio research:

Part of the second year is to set up a portfolio to exhibit my work for universities and possibly for freelance experience if given that opportunity. To help me understand what makes a good portfolio I have gone and had a look at various portfolios, this includes both student and professional portfolios. I had a look at what they did that made them stand out.

Armand Serrano- Professional:

Portfolio link:

https://armandserrano.artstation.com/

Armand Serrano is an industry veteran who specializes in environmental design, production design and visual development. He has worked on various titles such as World of warcrafts, Big hero 6 and Olaf’s frozen adventure. Something to add is that he uses various websites to exhibit his work, I will be using his own website that was linked through art station.

 

Layout and navigation:

For me personally, I really like the navigation and layout of his site, it is very simple to understand and of course, navigate through. You will notice a top menu bar that shows various titles Armand worked on that he can display work for, rather than bundling all of his work into a confusing and in-cohesive order, he has structured it so it is in certain categories.

Menus:

Like I said in navigation, to me the menu design is very good and simple to understand and work through, there re no drop down menus hidden so if you are looking at his work you won’t miss anything in his portfolio.

Font type and colour:

Armand uses simple black, white and grey tones for his colour palette. He has done this so there is no distractions so that his work is the focus point. Font wise he has used a blocky, simple and easy to read font to once again avoid distraction the viewer.

Background colour or image

Like I said before it is a simple white colour to avoid distraction of the viewer so that his art can be admired and not the background. This is a good design choice.

Identify good and bad design:

Overall I thing this portfolio design is perfect, it is simple to understand menu and layout wise, it can be navigated easily and the colour and font design isn’t distracting either.

Jolyon Thittichai- Student

Portfolio link:

https://jolyont.carbonmade.com/

Jolyon Thittichai is a student studying Game art at Plymouth university. He likes to experiment with different work flows to improve his work and likes to draw aliens.

Layout and navigation:

I really like the overall layout of this portfolio as it is set into three specific but broad topics, his information can be found in the top left corner in a drop down menu, while I like the drop down menu I feel like a lot of people might not notice it, resulting in potential clients not being able to see his contact details.

Menus:

The menu can be found in the top left corner and is a drop down. Like I said earlier it is very small and far out (The icon) so it can often be overlooked. The menu shows his contacts, his work and a bit about him.I think his choice of what his portfolio has in the menu is good. It has everything you may need if you are interested in his work.

Font type and colour:

His font is very bold and looks like something from wordpress itself, there isn’t really anything special about it, it does the job and the white against the black works really well.

Background colour or image:

To me the black he used for his background wasn’t a good choice. I say this because a lot of his work uses dark colours and a lot of his work just blends in with the background and you can’t see it clearly at all. If I were him I would have used a lighter background colour.

Identify good and bad design:

Layout wise, I like his profile and menu topic choices but the colour choice ruins it for me since I can’t even see his work which is a shame because a lot of it seems really good.

Haley Newsome- Professional

Portfolio link:

https://lavendertowne.wixsite.com/lavendertowne

Haley Newsome is a freelance artist who has a large following on youtube for her art channel. She studied at Alberta College of Art and Design and has a degree so I consider her at a professional level. Her signature style is a western animation meets anime style but has proven multiple times she can draw in a range of styles (as seen in her portfolio). She is currently working on her own web comic and youtube videos.

Layout and navigation:

The layout is very simple, to me personally it is too simple however. There are only three options to look at, her main portfolio, her character designs and videos. If I was to do a portfolio I would have a lot more sections for my work. I like the simplicity of it but I would have more than character designs and videos but I don’t think that matters as Haley has said multiple times she focuses on character design so her portfolio needs to show this.

Menus:

Like I said in navigation and layout, the menu has a nice palette, shape and font, but there aren’t enough options as to what she has on her portfolio, there isn’t an option for life or art challenges she has done. I would add more options if I was her but like I said she may only want character designs here.

Font type and colour:

I really like the font and colours she has used for her fonts and colour pallet. I expected her to use bright pinks since that is her channel’s aesthetic but she stuck with a simple colour and font that won’t distract, which I really like.

Background colour or image:

Like I said before, it uses a black and white palette to avoid distracting the viewer, something I really like.

Identify good and bad design:

Overall I feel that Haley’s portfolio is a good one, however there are still things she can improve on. I would add a few more sections if I was her, maybe some more examples of character designs (She has a lot more character designs than the six she shows).

Portfolio providers:

For my portfolio I need a provider to display it! To make sure I choose the best option possible I will research different portfolio providers.

Wix:

 

• Is it free?

A basic domain with Wix is free, however for business features you do need to pay a subscription fee depending on what package you want.

• Does it look professional?

Wix offers over 500 website templates and has a unique drag and drop mechanic which is a simple and easy way to create your site or portfolio. With the right placement, colour, description and work it will look professional.

• Do they have an appropriate layout you like?

Wix has plenty of layout options that can be edited by the user, from what I have seen I really like a lot of them and can’t help but think about what I would like to do with my site.

• Is it suitable for presenting student work e.g. finished work, sketches, life drawing, ideas generation etc?

Because you can add plenty of pages there is a lot of room to add certain pages for ideas generation, environment art, sketch book pages, life drawing, character design etc. A friend of mine who is studying art at uni has recommend Wix as a portfolio provider. Haley Newsome used Wix for her portfolio and despite the lack of pages to me it is a very good looking portfolio!

 

ArtStation:

 

• Is it free?

ArtStation is a free site you can upload your work to, you can buy pro (It has bonuses if you buy it).

• Does it look professional?

Many professionals use ArtStation, ArtStation has very sleek and dark graphics so regardless of your style it will contrast nicely against the black.

• Do they have an appropriate layout you like?

ArtStation is a lot like DeviantArt with how your work is presented, they are presented as square or rectanglar images and are all next to one another. You can view the artists bio, their store and their blog (If they have one).

• Is it suitable for presenting student work e.g. finished work, sketches, life drawing, ideas generation etc?

To me art station is also a good option. It doesn’t have as must customization to it but many people have recommended it to me so I can store my art and use it as a portfolio.

What will I use as my main portfolio for university?: 

After thinking about what site I would like to set my portfolio up on I have decided that I will be using ArtStation over Wix, the reason I chose this is because it is on a site where other artists put their work, this means it I easier to get critique, feedback and to potentially network if I have that opportunity. The black background is neutral so my work will look good against the colour regardless. As well as this I feel the customization of Wix would distract me from actually working on portfolio work and that I would just worry about how my site looks.