Sooo anyways, I'm working on designing a portfolio as I try to enter the workforce -- this is mainly to showcase my writing, but since I've recently realized I can do some concept rendering well enough, I've over-ambitiously decided to put too much work into it so that I can make a portfolio of the best creative work I've done (film/art/writing).
So here's the entry portal (HUGE work in progress, currently rendering the angel on the left, not sure whether to include color though):
I'm trying to decide whether I should render the "angel" dudes more vectorly and go for a graphic feel, or render the central "logo" more seriously and make the whole thing as finely shaded/etc as I can.
Since I'm mostly distracted by the art assets now, I'm not too focused on the design of the main site, but I'll start on that relatively soon, and I'll definitely need criticism because I want this to be the best graphic design I can accomplish and not just be a decent portal with some work in it.
Work to be Featured
This is related to a League of Legends character concept for which I'm writing fiction and I designed game mechanics.
These are some character assets I threw together quickly for a friend who needed them for a game jam he was at. I want to smooth them out and add some kind of zany logo for them.
These are logo designs I did for a friend who wanted to use them to do something like print them on some kind of martial arts clothing to distribute, but I think the overall project fell through. Had to vector out the kanji on the left, which was a bitch. -_-
BRO LET ME GET REAL WITH YOU AND SAY THAT MY FINGERS ARE PREPPED AND HOT LIKE THE SURFACE OF THE SUN TO BRING RADICAL BEATS SO SMOOTH THE SHIT WILL BE MEDICINAL-GRADE TRIPNASTY MAKING ALL BRAINWAVES ROLL ON THE SURFACE OF A BALLS-FEISTY NEURAL RAINBOW CRACKA-LACKIN' YOUR PERCEPTION OF THE HERE-NOW SPACE-TIME SITUATION THAT ALL OF LIFE BE JAMMED UP IN THROUGH THE UNIVERSAL FLOW BEATS
Posts
Are you a writer or an artist? You need to decide which will be your focus. I feel your portfolio should be centered on one thing, too many aspects of yourself can result in confusion - and ultimately cheapen the polish of your stronger asset. Just my opinion.
I'm a writer, but I'm not going to say I'm not an artist. I don't expect to be hired for the art, the main reason I jumped back into it, though, was to help me stand out in an application to Riot Games because they wanted writers who also had knowledge of visual art/comic layout, and the ability to do rough concepting for the position I was applying for would be a strong asset.
The writing will always be at the center, but I do want to feature the work I've done at a semi-professional capacity across the board. This site isn't going to help me with many positions I'm applying to (many of which are entry-level administrative in film/TV, because that's all you can really do to get employed out of college), but it will help with some -- the rare game writing job that surfaces on job boards, for instance.
As for confusion? I'm not too sold on that. Rarely have I seen anyone even ask for a writing portfolio, so doing this is just in case someone wants to look into my work further down the line. Some jobs want web content writers who can also design a basic HTML page for it -- this demonstrates I can do that. Some jobs want someone who understands a few mediums in order to lead a team of creatives. I frankly don't see how featuring creative content across the board (hell, I'm going to be working on making some music in the next year as well) is a weakness.
I feel like if someone is looking at the site because I'm an employee prospect, they'll focus on what they're looking for. Other than that, the website is for kicks and to give a portal to my work as I attempt to be published within the next five years, if even just in journals.
[EDIT]
Here's an alternate logo I'm shooting for, still need to reduce the complexity on the central floating city thing. I'm not sure if I want to use this as a main site banner and keep the other version above, or just have this version because of its simplicity. Regardless, I do want to keep rendering the angels.
I have to disagree. Why can't you be a writer and an artist? What is a cartoonist then?
note: Yes, not all cartoonist do both, but plenty of them do.
Also, I don't like your cover page. It feels forced together and looks like a bad photoshop job. I would recommend using the Sath'Ka picture and replacing the text on it with your portfolio information... or recreate the cover so its one, singular image. Heck even using that martial arts logo style for the front cover would look pretty classy, imo.
For sure make the website look pretty and have a personal flair too it, but I wouldn't be sticking stuff like logo design into it unless its clearly furthering a goal you want to pursue.
@zollmaniac -- The splash looks like a bad photoshop job because it is, it's not really finished at all and is more of a rough concept (also, Imageshack seems to compress pictures now?). I want to create something close to this, but with my own art assets instead of borrowed ones.
@Iruka -- Well, the logo design is meant to be the logo for the website, not to show off that I can do logos. I remember the best portfolio sites I've seen around here had some kind of sweet flair that showed off the person's aesthetic. Thanks for the suggestion about the character concept -- I really should do some sketches for his mechanics, that would help sell it anddemonstrate my understanding of how visualization meets game design.
I think the simple logo I did should probably be all I use -- if the full angels were as rendered as the Sath'Ka dude, it might take away from the overall site design, especially since I'm not that great at integrating those kinds of assets with graphic design yet (or rather I could, but it would take me a really long time to get it right). I need to make something smooth and not too distracting, especially if I'm gonna feature various writing that has no art involved in it.
Of course, if I get employed full time in the next month, I probably won't finish at that point. Gonna keep working on it for now, though.
Here's progress on the logo -- vectored out the angels and worked on the "clouds" on the bottom to try to make them smoother (which took a stupid amount of time -_- ).
I realized that my skill with visual art is in a weird place -- I haven't developed much skill since I don't practice often, but I kind of know how to make certain things happen well if I put in like twice as much time as someone who knows what they're doing. The Sath'Ka splash above took me at least 40 hours over two weeks -- on the one hand I was surprised I could do that, but on the other, it started nowhere near what it is and I was learning a lot while I did it.
I also wonder if I'll ever be able to draw clean lines with an Intuos? I can do pretty nice pencil lines, but when I try doing lines in Photoshop, it takes way longer. I guess it's time to focus on drawing on white paper and learning to Level out pencil lines and make them appear clean digitally.
I think the only way an extra page can work is if it has something the audience just can't say no to. For example, if there is a Web page for an upcoming movie, I wouldn't find it unreasonable if there is an entry page that has the trailer on it, and to get to the rest of the site I have to click on a link below the trailer. But that's what I want if I go to page for a movie. I want to see the trailer and know the release date. That's it. If you had a splash page that had a good sampling of art, with a link right below it that said ENTER or something, I could see that working, because then the view sees your art, is impressed (ideally) and wants to see more/contact you for a job.
If this site is to show you off as a writer, I'm not getting that vibe from the entry page. If you want your site to say, "I'm a writer, look at what I have written", then I would concentrate on keeping it simple and focusing on typography, things like blockquotes, etc.
Oh em gee, I forgot about this. Might try it out sometime soon.
@NibCrom -- I agree. I've ditched that initial concept.
This is kind of what I want to go for, but I'm aware that the color and design still isn't popping very professionally. I think I need some graphical depth effects, it looks really flat right now? The central shape I think needs to be more...I don't know, just better. Make it more of an object with depth and less 2-dimensional.
I need to throw together a few different site designs to compare and figure out what kind of layouts are possible and what would look best. Also need to experiment with colors more -- I remember a nice color scheme site, need to check that out.
I agree with Fantomas. Just putting 'Art' doesn't come through as clearly to most people than if you use specifics, such as visual arts or illustration. Plus, the first thing that comes to mind when reading the word is, 'What kind of art?' Its one reason why I hate putting my degree on my resume since my school didn't have anything besides an 'Art' major. I always include 'with a focus in...' to clarify.
I'm leaning more towards 'illustration' than 'fine arts' though.
nitpicking ftw.
It's kind of awful though because I forgot what little I knew about CSS. I think I would be able to script out all of the tumblr-like links so it just looks more like an actual website (I'm lazy and this makes a much more easily updated interface). However, I'm starting to agree with @nakirush -- there's just not a lot of jobs I'll probably end up being considered for that will want to know anything about my unrefined illustration abilities.
I'm working on another character concept because Riot opened up some new game design positions and I desperately want to work for them. I should probably put this time into learning how to script, but that's a much longer project. >_<
Old versions:
Basically tried to put several symbols tied with sci-fi into the image: an eye (humanity, looking into the future), a gear (machines, robots), the moon (space travel), horizon (progress, etc.), and some of my friends felt the gear also looks like a sun, which is convenient.
Thoughts? Gonna draft up several posters and placements, etc, but did this on my netbook. Probably will go with space imagery and texture in a large splash for the teeshirt (just used NASA photo to show off the logo to the festival director for now), with something simple like this logo plus the dates and maybe sponsors (if a major one is locked in in time).
Something along these lines shall be upon our bodies when we do fliers at NY Comic Con in October.
Here's some slight variants on the logo because there was some debate about the moon-ness of the moon shape I had in my head.
I do not have too many hot fonts -- always end up defaulting to Trajan like a lazy asshole.
And then some derpy text possibilities:
Huh! Thanks for telling me, I actually thought that one was awkward and worried it wouldn't work. I did think that a description and a quote should both be there though. Will probably mess with various vertical/horizontal layouts and some different decorative/background elements. Just waiting to hear back from the festival director.
More on this dude.
Here are some options on a tee with the logo above. I know it's not that sophisticated design-wise, but I hope it's working well enough? (The S's would be major sponsor logos.)
Just crossed my mind that space background might look nice within the borders of the first one's back side. At this point a lot depends on when I actually figure out the budget they currently have and look into printing options.
If the web address is absurdly long, is it a bad idea to have it on the back? I think there are several domains with similar names, which is the real issue...I would make it change if I could. Also, do the Facebook/Twitter logos look weird there? I figure maybe should leave them off a tee and just have them on the fliers and posters.
Gonna add some nebula smoke. Trying to make something elegant but that isn't too hardcore professional (as in I don't want to take days to make a 3D animation or start getting hardcore into animating textures or moving vectors). I think the initial blur looks nooby, and without it, it looks pretty good. If I add some non-nooby looking cloud/fog elements to the sides, it could work.
And "nooby" means "made by someone who's obviously using basic After Effects tricks."
I ended up making some quick iron-on teeshirts for NYCC. The design failed entirely, though, because it turns out on the actual print, the way the words line up with the clouds on the sides and how bright they are on the print, everyone's eyes are drawn to "Dick Science" before anything else...which isn't a TRUE "failure," but it made many people go, "Dick Science! Haha..."
Sucks that your initial prints failed though. I've never tried iron on.