I like it.

I would lose the section on the end with drawings/photos etc. They are pretty bland. Also, assuming this is a professional portfolio, no one wants to think you'll be spending your afternoons photo-shopping baby pics instead of working.

You sort of lose me on the comic book aesthetic after the table of contents, which I actually liked. This is a hard style to maintain throughout the book, as your drawings/diagrams do not necessarily substantiate it. Instead of changing all these drawings to match the font, just change the font. It is also hard to jive that aesthetic with Helvetica or whatever you used. If helvetica and that comic font were in a room together Helvetica would probably start smoking and playing with its iphone. Also black is tough.

I don't think it would hurt to give your images a little more breathing room either.

I agree with 10. Definitely lose the section with drawings and photographs. I don't mind the black color throughout and some of the fonts, but I do think their is too much information on pages at times (basically every title page for a new project). I always lean towards spreading information out to make it easier to focus on one or two specific graphics/text/image per page

i agree with 10...the photos and drawings aren't as good as your actual architecture work..and they don't (to me) add anything..they're actually kind of disappointing after seeing the quality of your projects... sort of made me take a second look at the portfolio to make sure that i actually liked the projects or i'd been mistaken.

i don't really like the font either..but i guess it works... but what does making your portfolio look like a comic book get you? especially as what 10 said also...your aesthetic doesn't really seem to support it.

anyway..liked the first part didn't like the last... and i personally don't like framing images.. but maybe others would disagree.

"but what does making your portfolio look like a comic book get you? especially as what 10 said also...your aesthetic doesn't really seem to support it."

perhaps overly influenced by BIG?

I agree with the above content....your projects look good. Any hand sketching from your designs? That would add something in my mind.

seems like he's more influenced by frank miller/sin city...but if you're gonna go that route i'd go all in and really make the portfolio kick that way... do something more radical like go with black/white/red and shadows and such

Thank you for all the input... I may have grown attached to the graphic styling and lost track of whether it was working or not. I think it worked well with some projects but not all of them (ie the beach preservation project and the njit housing)

As this is a portfolio to help me find work, do you think the sin-city/comic aestic is too taste specific and could possibly rub potential employers the wrong way?

I do have have some more design sketches for each project I can add. Do you think adding the sketches and giving the images more "breathing room" justifies adding 1-2pages per project, or does it start to become too long?

Its difficult to see digitally, but the paper I am using (matte photo) creates a very saturated deep black which make the drawings pop and i have also created a custom black plex-glass enclosure with my name frosted into it...

I do really like the aesthetic I have, but I agree I either need to get rid of it or make it more consistant. Do you think it would be worth the extra work to alter drawings to make it more fluid, or am I better off changing the overall styling to please a broader range of potential employers?

I also have resume/sample sheets and a web porfolio in the works if anyone would like to offer more criticism....

Rsume / Sample Sheets http://issuu.com/skeller/docs/keller_steve_resume

Web Portfolio - (still working on it)
http://steverkeller.com

Definitely lose the section with drawings and photographs.
your particular graphic styling, even though it has a certain appeal, it is taste specific...i would tone it down significantly -

also, i would give your images more space to breathe...but that's more my personal opinion -

i would say that you should stick with your strengths..if your sketches are strong i'd show them..but otherwise no..

i think overall the layout works for me... although i personally tend to keep the black towards the bottom and white towards the top..
for instance the pages where you have the sections on the bottom and images on top with a black border..i'd just reverse it... put the images below and use the black of the ground to frame your images..and then not have a white border around the image.

regarding the styling... i'm not sure who would see it as a positive necessarily... are you pigeonholing yourself to the sin city fans?

i guess my general thought would be that your portfolio is your presentation style/foot in the door... is your future employer going to question your presentation style... (would he do this if he were working on a presentation for me?)

i know you want to have a personality..but at the same time you don't want to have something that makes you look amateurish...if you decide to stick to your guns i would remove all colors other than black white and red and really shoot for the look you're close to..
and then maybe have a second, more typical portfolio that you can present to more conservative firms... all in all it will make your portfolio stand out... but whether that's a positive in this case... i'm not sure

i would focus more on the ideas behind projects (diagrams maybe) than sexy renderings. also, i don't like the font (it's too cartoony, and you're not making a comic book).

Everyone seems to be on the same page. I can ignore the manner or tone you set your portfolio and look at the real meat that is your work. You have a fascination towards the comic books or at least the graphical aspect of it and felt you wanted to mimic the same…but it still lacks the aesthetics of a true comic book. The fonts, the captures, the layouts; even the layout pages plays a great deal in graphic novels in how they transition or bleeds from one panel to the next but lacks in this portfolio, which is why people are saying, “comic book theme?! Bah!!” – with a disgusted face. Even the cover page is not comic book worthy. Spend some time actually looking at one and observe all the little details that people don’t notice at first. That said, I think you have a good collection of work samples but as a work employer, this wouldn’t really qualify as a great portfolio. I’ll give it a second glance and even skim through it again but it doesn’t sell.

Looks like someone is enamored with 'Yes is More!'.

"You sort of lose me on the comic book aesthetic" which is true for me. This sort of gimmicky language BIG Yes is More copy cat is doing nothing for your design work. Lose it and either develop your own language, or go for something more simple.

I second the suggestion to do something about the photos and drawings - either remove it, or improve it considerable to match your architectural projects (the 2nd option is more time consuming)

It seems your architectural projects are much stronger than your photography and your drawing/hand rendering skills (which is a good thing!). However, the photos and drawings distract and take away the strength of your portfolio.

Also, remember that people tend to remember you best from first impressions and the last impression - so put your BEST work in *front* and at the *end*.

Hope this helps. And best of luck!

the website is taste specific comic book style, but it is a cute. when i clicked on an architecture project is brought me to photos, so maybe work that out. but does "another day in paradise" really have to be the title of a photograph of the dominican? looks like you're advertising yourself as a party photographer.

You have interesting diagrams and visuals but the strong contrast and mismatch with the background palette distracts the focus on the foreground images. If your images are monochrome, they work better but the colored images against the black background make the portfolio appear like a photo album. Your drawings are also a little abit oversized and seem to be cramped up in one page, more empty space wouldn't kill. The background and foreground needs to also have some relationship.