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Yet another portfolio critique request

Plastic Marquee

Hi everyone,

I'm currently about to embark on a job hunt abroad, and to that end I have just uploaded my latest professional portfolio. I have tried to achieve a balance between all stages of the design process (SDs, DDs, CDs,...) but I'm not too sure about the result... I have also tried to keep it concise, and have included both built works and design competitions. I would be very grateful if anyone could have a quick look and give me their opinion (whether it be on presentation, contents, stuff you might eliminate/add). Any suggestions you may have that could increase my chances of landing a decent job are welcome!

http://issuu.com/peadar_mcgrath/docs/peadar_mcgrath_portfolio_eng

Many thanks for your time!

 
Jan 14, 15 8:28 pm
Beepbeep

I feel that this is a really strong professional portfolio. Clean,simple and concise graphics. Short and from what a quick glance gives strong content. I would interview you.

Jan 14, 15 8:47 pm  · 
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Plastic Marquee

Many thanks for the feedback, Beepbeep!

Jan 14, 15 8:51 pm  · 
 · 
RemIsActuallyAnAutobot

Zzzzzzz

Jan 15, 15 1:57 pm  · 
 · 
Fruehling

I really appreciate the CAP SALOU Spread, I wish one of the other projects had a photo that large to capture your completed design.  I feel like you could get more impact on your 3/4 spread by reducing the number of images, and making one more dominant.

 

The Hatch of the section cut reads gnarly on my monitor ISSUU? PDF? CHROME? Problem?. If you have the Original a flat poche could be nice... 

 

 

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzz IS EXTREMELY HELPFUL> CLEARLY your spaces made him so relaxed, he could no longer be asked for coherence.

Jan 15, 15 10:36 pm  · 
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Plastic Marquee

Many thanks for your input, Fruehling!!! I appreciate it... Fair comments, I'll play around with it a bit, see what happens...

(And yes, "Zzzzzzz" is not exactly unequivocal... is it? I take it as a sign of boredom, which is fair enough... But hey! I could be wrong...)

Jan 16, 15 4:13 am  · 
 · 
subgenius

looked fine, but the centerfold was unnecessary and perhaps out-of-step with the rest of the portfolio. Perhaps the only criticism was that it was a bit predictable and homogenized - but that is not always a bad thing if that is who you are.

Jan 16, 15 9:27 am  · 
 · 

PDF drawings (of your sections for example) only display properly when printed, not when displayed on screen. To make a correctly displayed drawing, you need to convert those PDF's to jpegs first before using them in your layout (if display by screen will be the primary mode of application.)

Jan 16, 15 9:37 am  · 
 · 
SpatialSojourner

The way to make vectors read not bold is a setting in Adobe Acrobat/Reader but the person reading the document has to have their local computer with the box unchecked. 

I do this crazy thing where I export high quality pdf from indesign with just my images/vector layer turned on.  Open that pdf up in another pdf reader that I've found has a nice image exporter and export it as pngs with an auto # (ie P_001) name at whatever resolution makes sense (300 dpi usually but for smaller file sizes I go down to 120 dpi).  Then I have them linked full page on a png layer in indesign and so after the initial set up all I do is update links (delete files in folder and then they get replaced upon export).  Then I turn on my text and png layers and export to high quality pdf.  That way, I can get a 5mb file easily witha nice crispy look plus having the text be nice crispy text.  

Lol @RemIsActuallyAnAutobot, I kind of want you to look at my portfolio, even though you seem brash, I usually have the same gut reaction.   

Jan 16, 15 10:28 am  · 
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Plastic Marquee

Thanks for your comments, everyone... I'm going to try and improve the resolution of that annoying hatch in my sections which doesn't seem to display correctly on screen... I actually use InDesign for my layout, and I always use jpgs for any content I include on it (I stopped exporting pdfs from AutoCad, via Acrobat Distiller, ever since I discovered the Postscript Printer...). In any case, reducing the file size of the pdf export from InDesign is always a nuisance... So I have to end up compromising quality in order to obtain a file which is smaller than 5 mb (which I believe is a non-written rule when sending attached files to potential employers). As regards the predictable presentation of the portfolio, I can only say that this hasn't been my first attempt at it, and on this occasion I decided to be disciplined and strictly adhere to the grid lines when placing content on each page in order to try and get a coherent and professional overall appearance (the previous versions of my portfolio were way too messy!).

Thanks for your time, you've been very helpful!

  

Jan 17, 15 4:28 pm  · 
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