Portfolio Site [WIP]

[cgCody]

Ok, I'm ready for some feedback.

Some things to note:

• I've been out of touch for 5+ years. I'm finding myself having to relearn a lot of things here. It's a slow process.
• I've trashed my portfolio from "back in the day". It's really crap, so I'm using some past artwork as placeholders.
• Only the Main and About links function so far.
• I have two people entertaining the idea of joining forces in the future. Both have art degrees, neither have experience in web-anything. We'll see how it goes...

I still have lots to do:

• I need to gracefully degrade the JS functions for those with JS disabled.
• I plan to disable the JS animations on the smallest @media query, and instead serve a 100% width "text beside image" layout
• I need to add and reword the page copy.
• The JS animations are choppy in Firefox. I've yet to figure this one out.

http://warriorsofdesign.com/test.html
Thanks for having a look.

[ralph.m]

Looks great to me! Nice and clean and attractive, so well done. I'd perhaps add a few words to the home page text with one or more calls to action. If someone comes to the site wanting thes service, it's nice to give them a nudge in the right direction—like where to click to contact you, or what to look at to convince them you are the right provider etc.

[Ryum]

Very clean and tidy. The layout is great, and the color scheme is fantastic. So calming! I really like that the two drawings, while so different, still matches up in the way they are placed. I wouldn't change too much about this design, but you think about how the website would change if you were to expand it with more content. Right now your front page has place for 6 images. Are you gonna use a paging system, a slider or what? And I have to agree with ralph.m, it lacks something which calls to action. As a portfolio, the appropriate action would be to contact you. So maybe a fancy "contact me" button or easily accessible contact information?

[cgCody]

Looks great to me! Nice and clean and attractive, so well done. I'd perhaps add a few words to the home page text with one or more calls to action. If someone comes to the site wanting thes service, it's nice to give them a nudge in the right direction—like where to click to contact you, or what to look at to convince them you are the right provider etc.

Thank you. More calls to action, got it. I'll see what I can cook up.

By the way, I'm glad you posted here. Gives me a chance to point out that I stole an idea from you! The other day, when I was checking out your site, I fell in love with that felt-esque texture on the background. It's so simple, yet it adds a lot. So I incorporated a similar texture to the dark gray headers and footer on my site.

Very clean and tidy. The layout is great, and the color scheme is fantastic. So calming! I really like that the two drawings, while so different, still matches up in the way they are placed. I wouldn't change too much about this design, but you think about how the website would change if you were to expand it with more content. Right now your front page has place for 6 images. Are you gonna use a paging system, a slider or what? And I have to agree with ralph.m, it lacks something which calls to action.

Thanks.

I have yet to decide what I'll do once my portfolio grows beyond six. A carousel slider sounds like a nice idea. Or I could have a link to a portfolio page with more examples listed. Or I may simply choose to go the less is more route, and only showcase the six very best examples.

As a portfolio, the appropriate action would be to contact you. So maybe a fancy "contact me" button or easily accessible contact information?

You gave me a great idea, actually. More on that with my next update...

[ralph.m]

I stole an idea from you!

Ha ha, I don't think you can steal things like this, as it's so common. Your version is better than mine, anyhow. Of course, I saw others doing it ... But I'm about about to ditch my old site and launch a redesign that won't include that effect. O well!

[cgCody]

I know, but it's always good to give credit when I can. I'll be keeping an eye out for that new design.

[short story]
I'm still working on those changes, but I hit a speed bump.

[long story]
I set about making those changes you guys suggested, only to get caught up going down another tangent. You see, the site started out as a fixed width, pixel based design. Then I decided to translate the entire layout to em based units (What you saw in the above link.) The problem was that I left the base font at 100%, so dividing everything by 16 gave me many numbers that looked something like 0.3125em. Isn't math fun? HAHA! So when I started making some changes to the layout, the numbers were getting ridiculous to juggle. I then decided to recode my grid system using the ol' 62.5% base font trick. Yeah, I learned the hard way that media queries in ems don't respect changes to the base font...

Then the wheel in my noggin started turning. When I originally decided to switch to ems, I wanted to create a fixed width design that was responsive, and device agnostic. If a responsive design is done right, even with a fixed width layout, resolution is a non-issue. High res, low res, non maximized window, mobile, tv, etc. It doesn't matter. What matters is that the content fits the screen intelligently. BUT, here I was completely forgetting my goal by defining everything in pixels only to divide it by 16 to arrive at these crazy numbers I'll never remember. Once I realized this, I knew I had to start my grid system from scratch again. This time, if I am to fully EMbrace the em, I need to stop thinking in pixels. Content and proportion; That's all that matters.

Enter the 12em.gs. The grid system I'm working on right now is based on multiples of 12em. It's easily divided into 3 and 4 columns, and I can selectively set break points at 24, 36, 48, 60, and 72 ems. So now all I'm worrying about is fitting the proportions I've created in the above site into this scheme. Who's seeing my site under 48ems, and who's seeing it under 60ems? Who cares, as long as I know that the content is legible, the proportions are pleasing to the eye, and the layout fits the screen intelligently. There may be those that will harp on any kind of non-fluid design, and/or grid system, but I don't mind. To each his own. I like them, and I definitely think they have their place. However, that doesn't mean I'm electing to throw accessibility out the window.

[ralph.m]

There may be those that will harp on any kind of non-fluid design, and/or grid system ...

Seems fair enough to me. I like what you've done. There will always be some device that won't play ball, but I'm not going to lose too much sleep over that.

[pantho007]

good site.good concept.infact good concept.i love this.

the only problem it takes time to load.

[tomford]

I think it looks pretty good. Is that wordpress?

[corwinm]

The site looks good, however it's a bit too empty for me. I need more of "what can this do for me" right there in my face. When you get down to it, your entire homepage is 6 images and 1 line of text. What if I don't like these particular ones? What if I want for example a business card, which you mention you can do, what's the process for me to get it? What is the process to get anything?

On a related topic, I would be happy to get a bit more data of what to expect when I want a design from you. I know the site isn't complete yet, but I don't see a natural placeholder for this information anywhere.

I hope this helps.

Good luck.

[bloggersjoy]

Really nice site with nice design. Although there are some things to improve after which your website will become the choice designing beginners. Your site looks good but make it more informative. Design wise it is good but also make it content oriented and hope it helps.

[audiotx]

I agree - I thought it looked really good

The fold/paper slit is innovative
I think you are too modest. I am on similar learning curve having used raw html years ago and I would be very pleased with this site
Word content for SEO will be key depending on the aims of the site

[Smohil]

Portfolio page on website shows the Past Work .And You did it very fine .

[Infranight]

Very nice and clean, but logo could be a little smaller, with a little more padding around it. Footer, I assume it's not finished yet, but a darker border above the footer and a darker border below the footer would be nice as well.

The body itself is really nice, with the border around the screenshots really wrapping together the entire neutral feel. A tiny detail, but a little more padding below the heading "Highlighted Works" would be nice as well.

[cgCody]

Thanks for all your critiques. I'm still working on this, but it's kinda on the back burner. Two things happened. First, I made a crap ton of changes, after which my computer crashed, the hard drive became currupted, and I had to reinstall windows. I lost all the changes, but it gave me the opportunity to go in a better direction. Then I got a second job, so I'm now working 60+ hours a week. So I'll get back to this one of these days.

[io9]

Overall, I think the design is good. I really like the simplicity of the tiled images in the main content area. I'm not fully convinced that I care for the logo -- I'm fine with the helmet, but I think the text could be given some more work. There is a lot going on in it -- differences in color, font, and the dropped 'of', etc, and I'm not sure all of this is necessary. I think this could be cleaned up quite a bit. I would echo the need for having a bit more padding around the logo as well.

I personally would also like to see more on the home page to really suck people in. I think it's missing a mission statement for me. You tell us that you design, but I always like to how this is done, what you are trying to accomplish, etc...

[wazzaday]

Its simple design done well. The click effect for the artwork is great, the color scheme works really well, I think the navigation looks a bit cheap and the logo isn't very good though, the rounded corners for it don't work to well and the contrast is too low.

[Lieto]

Its good from "design" point of view and will appeal to designers, but even then it lacks a bit flavor (looks a lot like the other dozen good design portfolios on the internets. But that isnt a huge downside). The main problem however, as it was said, its a bit dull from marketing point of view. I am afraid you wont sell anything on that site (this is only a problem if you want to find clients and not a problem if you are looking for a perm job)

[erdmask]

Clean&simple,but maybe you could do something with a background, 'cause to grey for the moment)