My overall impression is that it's pretty solid. Most of my complaints are mostly geared at the type setting

Things I would work on.

1: The 4 column grid you are using for your type (starting from the design inspiration page) is too narrow. You barely get 2 or 3 words per line, which makes it really difficult to read. I would either make this a 3 column grid or just 2 columns so you get a better line length. Also I would probably justify both sides of the column so you have clean lines. This will help out more on the following pages when you have text and images. Reducing the visual noise from the raging created by the right alignment might help to make the text disappear a little more on those pages (which is good).

2: Whatever font you are using for the titles, something is wrong with the italics. It almost looks as if there wasn't an italic weight and you just made one up. The letter spacing is totally random and it's honestly really distracting. I would not even bother with the italics. You already made those words bold. I think that is probably enough.

3: I think the pages with full-bleed images (ex:12) should be just that, a full-bleed image. No text, no page numbers.

4: Within the projects, I would make titles a little smaller than the main project title. So for example the title on page 6 which is a title page might be a 24pt while the following page might just be an 14pt. This will help make sure the title pages really stand out as titles.

5: Page 19... same deal about the column width. It's just too small. In this case, this page might have to be reformatted to adjust for the text. Repeat for all similar pages.

6: If at all possible, I would edit down the volume of text. In a job interview, you are going to be proctoring the projects anyway, so it's doubtful they will read the text. Graduate school committees spend maybe 10 minutes on your application so it's also unlikely they will read everything also.

7: There is something about the library project that just isn't working for me. I think it's because the pages have so much on them that doesn't coordinate. 35-36 is an example. It's just overwhelming and I don't feel compelled to look at any of it.

8: Curious why the resume page is at the end? Also you do know that it is not the same page size as the others?

I'd leave your personal contact info off when posting on here...there is a lot of weirdo's out there. Like me for example, I just left you 16 voice messages.

Thanks whyARCH for letting me know, completely didn't think of that (i know, i'm naive), I'm uploading the new version now.

And I really appreciate the suggestions Cherith. I agree on the italic/spacing, I was just playing with the font but wasn't really sure how I felt about the result, so I will definitely fix that and the other text issues as well.

Do you think the library project just needs some more editing or should I leave it out altogether?

As for the resume, I felt that I needed something to cap off the whole book. Also, I saw some portfolio examples that had the resume at the end, and I liked how it brought the book to a close. Do you think it should be placed elsewhere or should I leave it out?

The link I posted earlier is now defunct, but I'll post the new link once it finishes uploading. Thanks again for the comments!

new website:

http://issuu.com/csmith23/docs/design_portfolio

Looks great! The new version, that is. Haven't seen the original.

At 56 pages, it is way too long though. Someone flipping through your portfolio may instantly develop speed flipping technique. The double pages with photos on the left and a sketch and project text on the right may be the lest interesting of the whole book. I would recommend a purging exercise to see how low you can go. If you are applying to a position that has a 5 (or even 2) Megabyte attachment limit, the size of portfolio will be a big problem.

For the purpose of applying to grad schools, the size is more than appropriate.

The only thing that bugs me (and it's probably only me) is your use of fonts for all the titles. I looks K I N D A like T H I S. It instantly reminds me of technique used by conservative bloggers (not sure why this is popular only with them) It goes something like this: "... and if our MUSLIM president Obama would do his job and NOT let immigrants who are ILLEGALLY in this country..." Shiver....

With just a quick glance at it it looks pretty good, but I can agree with some of the comments above, the narrative on the first two pages might look better if they were both 3 columns instead of having 4/3.

I know pretty much anyway you cut it you're going to have some odd leftover white space left on Page 2, but maybe add a small conceptual/process sketch to "fill in" the column.

I think the way you did the page numbering system worked well, I do like having the project name down there.

However, I think putting your name on every page might be overkill. And this might just be my personal opinion here, but I think having it on the cover, and then possibly the first page/index and/or last page/resume/wrap-up is where your name can go. If it were me, I would most likely just have page numbers on the left, and page numbers/project name on the right, or vice-versa. No need to jump up and down shouting "look at me!".

Page 34, I'm sure many of us have tons of chipboard & zap-a-gapped models laying around, but I would only use mine as smaller process images, I would seriously think about if that model deserves a full-page image.

Page 36, not a bad image (composition wise), but it's very unclear just what the heck you're looking at, which makes it annoying. Yes, it seems to be looking up a staircase/atrium space, but the whole staircase itself is very ill-defined, and I have no clue what that translucent glass thing is in the lower left, and why those people are standing behind it leaning sideways, and why the lady in black at the top-left seems to be leaning weirdly also.


So, like I said, I just gave it a quick once over, and those were the things that stood out. Overall a fairly clear presentation, with a just few head-scratchers and "why didn't she hide that model in her closet" moments.

I really like it - wish mine was so full of good stuff. Looks like a lot of work! I love how you show so many conceptual diagramms, they really made me feel like I would understand quickly what it's all about. I would suggest, however, to get rid of the last two pages (the sketches and the watercolour). They are less impressive than the rest and I don't think you should end with that.

I think your portfolio and work are very consistent.

My only major concern is what is the size of your portfolio. If it's 11x17 / A3 I think you have a major scale issue. There are a quite a few pages where you seem to dedicate one full page to only minimal amounts of information.

I think in a way that made your portfolio, in my reading, feel as if there were no rests/breaks - chapters. In a strange way, everything flowed together too seamlessly which adversely affected you. Most of the content seemed to be treated equally, from size, placement, texts, pictures, etc. If you can, maybe through text or colors try to spice it up a little every now and then. However, only very minimally - you don't need much.


1) I'm not sure if it has been mentioned yet but there seems to be a lack of hierarchy with your text. The project titles and those "caption texts" are the same size and color. Maybe reduce the caption text size by half which is more than enough.

However, overall i think the portfolio is good. You have a lot of content to work with which is a plus!


@Milwaukee08: i believe putting your name on every page is one of the requirements for some grad schools.

@gotzmlk really? That's really odd... Are they worried about "what if the cover falls off and we don't know who's it is" or something?

Meh, I still stand by my comment, cover, title page/introduction/index or epilogue/resume page should be acceptable places for your name, anywhere else, no.

Not the cover page but most like other pages which can slip out of the binding/stack. This especially holds true if you're sending your portfolio via e-mail because they usually print it out.

And just like every single aspiring archinect user out there, read the reqs for Harvard GSD closely.

Thanks so much for all your comments! This is really great advice and will help to make my portfolio that much better.

The size of my portfolio is 7 by 10.5 in so I don't know if that will affect the scale issue. And I will definitely rework the library section (not sure though if I want to keep it though).

As for the name on every page, I guess it's just a personal edit decision. I will take it off of the portfolio for business interviews, but leave it on for grad school applications.

gotzmlk: I understand what you mean about it reading too seamlessly, but I wasn't sure how I can break that up. Do you have examples or clearer suggestions about how to use the color and text?

Thanks again guys, this really helps. : )