Please feel free to contribute any constructive comments or criticism. I welcome new ideas and criticism, though I ask that you please explain your comments, state your ideas clearly, and be as professionally constructive as possible.
I'm not going to critique this artistically-- I'm going to use my background in publication design.
Separate your double-trucks into single pages.
I know it sucks to have a gap between pages in PDF... but there is no way in hell I will be able to print this. And even if I do have a large format printer... I'm not spending the dollar a page it costs to print it.
If this bothers you, you may want to add in a page after the title page and blank page that says "for best viewing."
Your subheads.
They are so-so.
Bump up the orange font by 3-4 pts.
The text on the right (studio, time frame, et cetera) should be bolder or the stuff on the left should be italicized.
I'd reduce the overall size these take up by two to three picas horizontally and a pica and a half vertically.
Reduce the tracking space.
Abbreviations
Don't use them on the page unless you've explained them or included an appendix.
Page 5
What software did you use to make that? I'd also remove the excess lines or remove the photo that this is suppose to be overlaying... none of it matches up in scale.
Page 9
Methodology?
Your transects are impossible... on what should be marked as page 10
Not picking on ideas but two to three lines of text might clarify what your trying to communicate.
By the way, are you trying to communicate planning or landscaping ideas? Because I would maybe desaturate the coloring on the ideas I'm trying to not communicate.
Page 13... video
It doesn't communicate anything. Good job on making an animation in sketchup... shizz is hard. But color the implied use of the buildings different stories and perhaps slow the video down.
Page 12... and here and there
Simplify or complicate your maps a little bit.
Do all the water features have to be named? What are you necessarily suggesting here?
This feels more like transit planning than it does landscape architecture. I have to cycle back through the pages to see you're addressing regional planning. Put more tags on the footer of the pages.
Also, for this being regional planning, you're not showing the time lapse of 10 years ago, now, 10 years later and 30 years later. What am I suppose to be seeing happening?
Page 18
The most important part of this page is the environment impact map!
Also, the text on the graphics needs to be erased and put in through your layout as a vector image. I'm going to be really pissed if I printed this in large format, wasted twenty bucks and that the juicy stuff is all fuzzy grey text.
Page 24 and 25
Awesome! DO THIS EVERYWHERE. But get rid of that nagging dashed line in the middle.
Page 26 and 27
More awesomeness.
Page 28
Fade out that picture an extra 10 percent and put a gradient over the left hand side to feather it in to the whiteness of the page.
The Rest
Looks pretty sweet! It could be cleaned up here and there but it definitely better than the first half.
Resume needs text work... grey. Eww. BOLD THAT SHIZZ.
Also, get rid of the douchebag photo at the end. I know you want people to think you are cool and outdoorsy... but no. Unless it has a badge in it.
I'd pick a better picture. I don't like the idea of hiring someone who could snap their femur over the weekend and die in an arroyo from sepsis.
Thanks. I really appreciate the thorough analysis and notes, again.
I don't intend on this being printed. I think for the most part this will be emailed and posted on online job apps. Would you consider it common practice for an employer to print full portfolios of candidates? If you or I did need to print this it's actually pretty easy through acrobat to separate the pages. But I see your point.
Oddly, I certainly considered the first half of the ptf stronger in all aspects than the second half...interesting.
**I realize there was an issue exporting the master text on the left hand facing pages..I couldn't figure out why it wasn't showing up upon export, any suggestions?
Overall, I agree with most of your comments. I think some of the comments on graphic style are subjective.
As for the douchebag photo I just thought it showed that I do other things besides LA and sorta have a life, though I can see how it's a little douchebaggy I guess. I am cool though (thats at 12,000 feet on Longs Peak at 5am).
Thanks for the constructive comments..and taking the time.
Lol, yea if you're cynical the photo would seem douchebaggy, ha ha. I'm sure you're a very cool person, though. Try taking a photo where you're working on a sketch or model in studio or something of that sort. Make it b/w, and maybe have some lens flare or blur in it or something.
lol h&r, re the dieing from the being outsy-dorsy thing.
i get a resume or two every week and we never print them. if we like them we store them in a file on drive, and if person comes to interview they bring their own copy. so the format is not even remotely an issue to me.
the pic doesn't bother me. i have seen some amazingly pretentious photos of people in portolios. your pic is fine. it at least communicates something about your personality. but whatever. i am like all surfer-dude with such things...
the content of portolio is fine. it lacks something for me personally. maybe h&r's comment that the dwgs should say more or say less rings most true.
perhaps some more explanations that gives me insight - about what you think - would make me happier, but i am second guessing myself. without commenting on the work itself i do find that i can't see the depth very easily. it feels...workmanly? is that a real word? anyway, you know, the photoshop filters and the organisation is nice but does not turn me on. that is it looks like you spent time on the presentation, but there is nothing there that makes me say WTF?!? which is what i personally look for.
it is perhaps counter-intuitive but for me if i were hiring i would not be looking for cad skills, photoshop skills or rendering skills. i can do all that. what i would be looking for is someone who could knock me out with conceptual capacity and ability to express ideas. not everyone is into that of course, but i have noticed it is those people whose portoflios we keep. someone who is going to challenge us would be ideal.
which is to say...it looks pretty good to me, but depends on where you want to work and what kind of job you are hoping to get.
not sure if that helps. apologies if offends. not intended. good luck!
I like it. The style of your drawings (or rather, how you represent your ideas through drawing) is inconsistent (some would say 'varied'), but in many ways that is exactly what makes the portfolio strong. It shows that you are flexible and that you, as a designer, have explored various methods of graphic representation and are not tied down to any specific mode of representation. And it shows that you have a very diverse set of interests. I think that is what many employers look for.
A few specific comments:
I would eliminate the drawings with the title blocks (or at least eliminate the title blocks themselves). If you get an interview, you can show them your CD's when you're face-to-face. No need to include the actual CD page in a personal portfolio.
There's a bit of inconsistency with your page formatting. Some pages are simple and focused, other pages are dispersed with apparent disorder. Some pages are more rigid, whereas others are loosely defined. I personally prefer the simple, clean, and focused format.
I don't think you need to add scales, dimensions, north arrows (unless it's relevant to your design re: sunlight and exposure), technical info. I tend to believe portfolios can be a bit more about design itself than about the technical aspects of the design.
Is it necessary to have your resume be part of your portfolio? There are benefits to having a simple 8x11 resume as a separate file so employers can print out the resume on standard paper without the need to print the portfolio. Though, again, this is pretty minor.
Portrait pic doesn't bother me either. As far as portfolio pics are concerned, yours is not bad. At least it shows some character.
Overall, it's very good. Certainly would be placed in the 'keep' pile, even if you made none of the very minor changes above.
New graduates hear all kinds of things coming out of school- you need to be ready to work, be productive, efficient, and you're not going to design much.
Hence, it seems I see alot of undergraduate ptf's chock full of bizarro diagrams, collages, and graphic art. In response, I wanted my portfolio to convey quantifiable, defensible, well-illustrated ideas over intangible notions or artifacts. This is why i focused so much on graphic presentation, especially in perspective.
As much as I think I learned new ways of thinking in studio, I want to convey that I learned an array of methods in communicating ideas non verbally.
I think it's probably slightly irregular for an office to be looking for conceptual skill without strong graphic representation. On that note, I wholeheartedly acknowledge that I have alot more to learn in that capacity than I already know and bring with me.
That's the brunt of my defense.
I could see how overall it reads a bit emotively flat, but is that in the layout or in each piece of work?
I know that each of you purposely avoided commenting on the design work itself, so I have to assume the flatness comes from the layout, not the imagery? If that is the case, that's probably fine with me.
jump-
what do you mean by 'make you say wtf!?!'?
If by this you mean I am not testing the boundaries enough, I understand.
Thanks for the comments. I think, for the most part, this is the final revision, but I may very well make some of the changes you all suggested within reason.
Thanks, your forst paragraph is precisely what I wanted to convey first and foremost. I also hoped that the illustrations would convey the level of idea development and depth in the design, but this may or may not be true. As an antry level, I think this is probably okay.
Thanks for the comments and taking the time to look...
I think it looks great. Takes some guts to put a portfolio on here - its not exactly like showing it to your grandparents.
The graphic thing is subjective like you said but the switch in style was pretty noticeable to me. But thats what you wanted? It supports your 'range of methods' at the expense of the integrity of the whole thing.
And on the printing. I' submitted my pdf portfolio digitally and was then called in for an interview. The secretary had printed it for the office manager and my long total 18 inch horizontal spread was reduced to the 8.5 portrait width. I went into major panic mode.
But yeah - every office is different - and I'm not sure the best way to avoid that one.
But yeah, real good stuff...congratulations and good luck
For a recent BSLA grad, you're well on the way to having a strong portfolio with some nice projects. One big question is what is the purpose of this folio? Get a job, apply to grad school, document undergrad, or ? Each of these needs it's own book. Start and end with your two strongest projects and eliminate all 'weak' ones - don't be limited to organizing by chronology or academic/professional categories. Shorter is often better.
I especially appreciate seeing the PV umbrellas integrated into the design of your capstone. Nice range of details, structures, and regional plans. For most purposes you need more planting palettes and another grading plan or two with the first several projects (I'm guilty of not having enough planting plans/plant palettes in my portfolio too). If applying to grad school, more developmental/process diagrams/sketches and less montages. If looking for work, focus on your production and skills and reduce the amount of school projects.
It is typical to credit the professor & include the course title/# or what year in the studio sequence so your personal development can be seen.
My one pet peeve is your over-use of the photoshop style filters - it becomes very overwrought when used on almost every project.
by wtf! i mean indeed that i don't see the pushing of boundaries. its very straightforward and even neutral work. nothing wrong with that. but i prefer to see personality in portfolio. i also like to see people take a stance, even if i don't agree with it.
technically the work looks like it was done by a young person who is just getting started. some nice projects and i think some potential in there too, but i get no feeling that you have your own voice....yet. this doesn't mean you don't actually have one, only that i am not feeling it.
the photoshop filters are also pet-peeve of mine.
anyway, i get your point of view and the intent of the portfolio, but this is creative business. some offices don't see it that way, but for me most ideal person to work with is going to push me as much as i push him/her. otherwise why would i hire them? i see our office as collaborative environment though. my partner and i take final decisions because we are in the end the bosses but ideas are valued regardless of source of voice. so that is what i look for. not easy to find, mind you.
after a quick skim it looks pretty good... like tk said, i'm wondering what the purpose of the portfolio is... if it is for a grad school application it is too long and you should probably eliminate some of the detail/construction doc pages... if it is for a job, it is probably still too long and i'd tailor the selection of projects to the type of work that the firm that you're applying to does... unless you want to do residential work, i'd definitely lose that project...
and since jump won't say it himself... yes, his work is pretty incredible... if you're going to listen to anyone on this site, jump and treekiller's comments should be on the top of the heap.
I just think the tone and content of jumps comments are sort of counter-productive, which is disappointing coming from someone with so much experience. I don't think it should matter who you are or what you've built, we're all human.
I'll add a quote by Paul Rand which I think helps address the 'workmanliness' of my work:
"Trendiness is seductive, especially to the young and inexperienced, for the principal reason that it offers no restraints, is lots of ‘fun’, permits unlimited possibilities for ‘self-expression,’ and doesn’t require conforming to the dictates of reason or aesthetics."
I think so many students jump from layperson to expert city planner in six months. Admittedly, I'm trying to figure out the nuts and bolts of different design dilemmas, especially with regard to the urban planning projects. If this means my work is 'wormanly,' then so be it.
larchinect...take the criticism on this site with a grain of salt. Don't take it personal. You did, after all, ask for criticism, and negative criticism is often just as helpful as (if not more helpful than) positive criticism. It's up to you to decide which opinions you agree with and are willing to affect your work. You're off to a good start though. Keep refining your portfolio. Trust me, in a few years you're gonna look back at this portfolio and think you were crazy to think it was nice...not because it's not well done, but because you'll have grown as a designer so much that this portfolio will no longer be an accurate reflection of "you."
This is a huge, HUGE improvement from the portfolio you posted a couple weeks ago. It is much more concise and the graphics are clearer and more readable.
I agree that it is still a bit too long. I would definitely take out the project showing the big suburban house towards the end. It isn't really necessary and is an all together uninspiring project (not your work but dealing with rich suburban homes is not really on the cutting edge of design.)
Now that we know this is for a job search the next question is what sort of firm are you looking to work for? If you are going for a leading design firm you may want to only show your best work and take out some of the more standard projects. You have more projects than you need so perhaps you can edit out certain pages depending on the firm you are sending it too. Then if you are invited to an interview you can bring the extra work that you edited out.
Thanks, I've already made some of the changes mentioned above. I replaced the 'suburban' project at the end with some older garden design 'experiments.' I have so much work that I cut from the actual book, lots of GIS, plans, perspectives, and elevations, so I think you're right about taking cut sheets to interviews.
I also added some brief decriptions and a few support graphics to help explain the projects a bit more, though I didn't want to mess with the layout too much as I'm pretty happy with it.
i really am sorry if i offended. i am trying to describe the things about the portfolio's we tend to hold onto that come in to the office. we have a large digital pile of them and throw away quite a few.
i am architect and planner so my education is not in larch directly. If credentials are required, my business partner was trained by adriaan geuze and our own work is usually informed by environmental and landscape ideas - but that is the extent of my expertise on the subject. so you should absolutely take my pov with grain of salt.
the quote is nice. what he is taking about is a very difficult line to hold, and obviously rand was good at it. but he was never workmanly.
but anyway, perhaps that is not the correct word to use and i am not trying to say your own work is workamanly, just that i can't see what you think about your projects as much as i would like. that doesnt mean your work needs to be over the top. I would however like to know what you were thinking and why...so while the presentation is clear and easy to understand as a documentary of someones work it requires a bit of effort for me to see YOU in there. in general since i am actually kind of busy that means i often dont read a portfolio through to the end if it doesn't have some kind of story to tell. and i guess that narrative is what i am missing.
as an end note, when i look at a portfolio i am trying to work out whether or not a person would be cool to work with or not. the actual work itself doesn't interest me so much, odd as that may seem. the reason for this is that i have an agenda and i am looking for people who are going to help me make my goals work out. whether i am corporate office or creative atelier that is the hard truth. so a portfolio is about showing how you fit into that reality. if i cannot picture you in the office then the portfolio isn't working. thats why i prefer to see personality, and a bit of the ol WTF! and so on....
I get your points, and am glad you came back with a little more tact than my first response.
What I interpreted from your original comment about workmanliness and such is that the work has to be weird or unintelligable to be 'good.' This is kind of a pet-peeve of mine.
Through my final two semesters and particularly the urban design studio I became a bit frustrated by the examples my professor held in the highest regard. One example that always came up was Michael Sorkin's work.
After studying sorkins book, it seemed everyone in the studio was doing sorkin cities.
What struck me is that none of us had a clue about how a city works and how to design one.
I studied traditional work (and some of sorkins 'real' projects), which is probably why my urban work looks sort of 'familiar.'
I can't tell you how many times i heard from professionals how important it is to have a good personality and to convey that. I'm disappointed that this doesn't come through in my ptf. I can only hope that the imagery is strong enough to get me in for an interview.
To me, that dotted line is distracting--you're able to present in this seamless electronic format and yet you insist on maintaining the part of a bound book that's most irritating! The pages where that line are obscured are so much cleaner and more beautiful.
You may also want to rethink the "biography" in the front, especially in combination with the photo in the back. I'm sure the impression varies from group to group (age, region, gender, etc) but to me (and from the comments, I suspect a few others), it gives the impression that you're a little immature and see LA as a Christopher Robin style adventure, aka you're not ready to take your career seriously. Whimsy has it's place, but I doubt it will help your cause if it's the sole impression you give about your motivations. Just something to consider
I understand what you're saying about using the photo to project having a life and other interests, but the particular photo lacks subtlety in that respect--seems to me the depth of your work would be a better way to show it. The photo has a side of (cue John O'Hurley voice), "I'm ACTIVELY ACTIVE which you can tell because I'm often engaged in ACTIVE ACTIVITY" to it.
"they're not filters."
Filters or not, there's a lot of filter style picture obstruction (see pencilish diagonal graining on p 18, 20-21, 22-23, 26-27, 30-31, etc.) In some cases I think it works, but in others you may want to think about why you're using it and whether it's helping your presentation or adding a layer of affectation?
Best wishes on landing the job of your dreams, hope the comments give you a few other things to consider as you decide how to present yourself.
Planning is so serious... you're not even allowed to use douchebaggy narratives that lack quantitative data, any piece of anything historical unless it has three different cross-references and you're not allowed to change anything at all (even if the office you work in is still all paper and has to borrow the fax machine from Kinko's down the street to conduct official government business).
If you change anything at all, you're labeled as pinko communist who is trying to tax everyone out of house and trailer park.
So, my recent growing interest in architecture I feel as a step down into a more "relaxed" and "liberal" environment.
But I should have just stayed being a history major. I don't think the picture is necessarily bad but on the East Coast... you'll get eaten alive for that.
"I can picture the douchebaggy photo you'd all like to see at the end of my portfoliio; black turtleneck, black-frame designr specs, pensive glare."
Surely there are a range of options between a Bear Grylls shot and Corbu! But to get down to it: why include a photo at all? And, if many unbiased people here don't perceive it the same way you intended it, why not consider a change.
"Is architecture/landscape architecture the only profession that takes itself so seriously?"
Nick, I don't think it's as much about the profession as it is about projecting yourself as a professional. Most lines of work, from wait staff, admin, firefighter, office manager, stock broker on out, don't want to hear about your childhood dreams. Of course the memories are special to you, and they're charming, too, but that's not the point.
I know it's hard to put your work out there, but keep the goal in mind: you want to see if your port reads the way you intended and reads well. Criticizing the responses doesn't change the read.
I know criticizing the responses isn't helping and that it reads how it reads.
I'm a bit confused at how the ptf can be workmanly and whimsical at the same time? I guess I can try to find some middle ground.
The point of the bio was to personalize the thing a bit, and its true, but maybe I can make some better word choices, and tone the idealism down a bit. I see how it reads christopher robin-ish, whicch isn't my thing either.
I'm just trying to make the thing a little different, we've all seen the 'corbu,' I'm going to revolutionize the profession style.
"Surely there are a range of options between a Bear Grylls shot and Corbu! But to get down to it: why include a photo at all? And, if many unbiased people here don't perceive it the same way you intended it, why not consider a change."
Why include a photo at all? The dude is handsome... that'll get him a lot farther than a 4.0.
i don't read bios unless i find the work compelling enough to want more after getting to end of portfolio. almost never do.
in the end, the portfolio is fine. don't worry about it. maybe some of the critiques will make sense 10 years from now, but if not don't worry over it.
taking work seriously doesn't mean you can't have fun. good luck with job search!
a few comments scanning through the portfolio without really looking at content.. please take my comments for what it is.
i think the bios is a nice touch... but i think condensing the text even further to your main points might be more effective... time is precious in office environment.
i think the pages that tend to be most successful for me are the ones that mix sketch, photograph, technical drawings, as well as varying the scale of images... just like successful cities.
successful examples of this might be:
2-3
8
16-17
25
30-31
33
34
41
44
47
I like the simplicity of 22-23
i also think some of the more successful pages mentioned above uses white 'negative' space well...
i feel that the following pages (for me) was a little repetitive in content and scale... i think you should try removing some redundant images or varying the scales of images (or both!) as a test (it may actually communicate your voice more strongly.) a little editing is needed here IMHO.
simplifying some of your diagrams so that it is more legible ons-creen may help.... i feel these pages the white spaces could be used more effectively.
couple more thoughts... could be great if done, but not absolutely necessary if takes a long time. i think there's a lot of different text sizes on these pages... 42-43 is most obvious one... this is something that drives me a little crazy when reading construction drawings (LOL)... which carries over to portfolio graphics for me.
This is a tough time to really take criticism contructively and objectively as I'm starting to fire this ptf out there and getting zero responses. Honestly, I would expect to get many responses in good economic times, so I'm probably taking alot of the criticism to heart.
Regardless, criticism is good and you can always make things better, right?
draftingarm, excellent idea prioritizing the comments--wish I had done the same because the portfolio is, imho, very nice and, Nick, I hope you were able to take my comments as "this might be something that could fine tune things" instead of "trash--all trash! What were you thinking?!?" which isn't where I was going with this.
Good luck with the search, hope something really good comes your way soon! (and, if you were offended, I am sorry, but don't worry because I have a M.Arch portfolio I'll be posting soon and then it will be my turn)
Critique my LA Portfolio Round 2
In response to the very constructive criticism I found here a few weeks ago, I made some major format and content revisions.
This is an undergrad (BSLA) Landscape Architecture portfolio.
My specific objectives in this version address issues brought up by archinectors several weeks ago and include:
1. Condense overall length
2. Reduce/edit writing
3. Re-evaluate content choices
You can find a link to a 8.7 meg pdf here:
http://www.nickaceto.com
Please feel free to contribute any constructive comments or criticism. I welcome new ideas and criticism, though I ask that you please explain your comments, state your ideas clearly, and be as professionally constructive as possible.
Thanks for looking..
Okay...
I'm not going to critique this artistically-- I'm going to use my background in publication design.
Separate your double-trucks into single pages.
I know it sucks to have a gap between pages in PDF... but there is no way in hell I will be able to print this. And even if I do have a large format printer... I'm not spending the dollar a page it costs to print it.
If this bothers you, you may want to add in a page after the title page and blank page that says "for best viewing."
Your subheads.
They are so-so.
Bump up the orange font by 3-4 pts.
The text on the right (studio, time frame, et cetera) should be bolder or the stuff on the left should be italicized.
I'd reduce the overall size these take up by two to three picas horizontally and a pica and a half vertically.
Reduce the tracking space.
Abbreviations
Don't use them on the page unless you've explained them or included an appendix.
Page 5
What software did you use to make that? I'd also remove the excess lines or remove the photo that this is suppose to be overlaying... none of it matches up in scale.
Page 9
Methodology?
Your transects are impossible... on what should be marked as page 10
Not picking on ideas but two to three lines of text might clarify what your trying to communicate.
By the way, are you trying to communicate planning or landscaping ideas? Because I would maybe desaturate the coloring on the ideas I'm trying to not communicate.
Page 13... video
It doesn't communicate anything. Good job on making an animation in sketchup... shizz is hard. But color the implied use of the buildings different stories and perhaps slow the video down.
Page 12... and here and there
Simplify or complicate your maps a little bit.
Do all the water features have to be named? What are you necessarily suggesting here?
This feels more like transit planning than it does landscape architecture. I have to cycle back through the pages to see you're addressing regional planning. Put more tags on the footer of the pages.
Also, for this being regional planning, you're not showing the time lapse of 10 years ago, now, 10 years later and 30 years later. What am I suppose to be seeing happening?
Page 18
The most important part of this page is the environment impact map!
Also, the text on the graphics needs to be erased and put in through your layout as a vector image. I'm going to be really pissed if I printed this in large format, wasted twenty bucks and that the juicy stuff is all fuzzy grey text.
Page 24 and 25
Awesome! DO THIS EVERYWHERE. But get rid of that nagging dashed line in the middle.
Page 26 and 27
More awesomeness.
Page 28
Fade out that picture an extra 10 percent and put a gradient over the left hand side to feather it in to the whiteness of the page.
The Rest
Looks pretty sweet! It could be cleaned up here and there but it definitely better than the first half.
Resume needs text work... grey. Eww. BOLD THAT SHIZZ.
Also, get rid of the douchebag photo at the end. I know you want people to think you are cool and outdoorsy... but no. Unless it has a badge in it.
I'd pick a better picture. I don't like the idea of hiring someone who could snap their femur over the weekend and die in an arroyo from sepsis.
Hill and Rock-
Thanks. I really appreciate the thorough analysis and notes, again.
I don't intend on this being printed. I think for the most part this will be emailed and posted on online job apps. Would you consider it common practice for an employer to print full portfolios of candidates? If you or I did need to print this it's actually pretty easy through acrobat to separate the pages. But I see your point.
Oddly, I certainly considered the first half of the ptf stronger in all aspects than the second half...interesting.
**I realize there was an issue exporting the master text on the left hand facing pages..I couldn't figure out why it wasn't showing up upon export, any suggestions?
Overall, I agree with most of your comments. I think some of the comments on graphic style are subjective.
As for the douchebag photo I just thought it showed that I do other things besides LA and sorta have a life, though I can see how it's a little douchebaggy I guess. I am cool though (thats at 12,000 feet on Longs Peak at 5am).
Thanks for the constructive comments..and taking the time.
Lol, yea if you're cynical the photo would seem douchebaggy, ha ha. I'm sure you're a very cool person, though. Try taking a photo where you're working on a sketch or model in studio or something of that sort. Make it b/w, and maybe have some lens flare or blur in it or something.
Nice portfolio though! I like your sketch style.
page 43, remove dimensions and add scale.
lol h&r, re the dieing from the being outsy-dorsy thing.
i get a resume or two every week and we never print them. if we like them we store them in a file on drive, and if person comes to interview they bring their own copy. so the format is not even remotely an issue to me.
the pic doesn't bother me. i have seen some amazingly pretentious photos of people in portolios. your pic is fine. it at least communicates something about your personality. but whatever. i am like all surfer-dude with such things...
the content of portolio is fine. it lacks something for me personally. maybe h&r's comment that the dwgs should say more or say less rings most true.
perhaps some more explanations that gives me insight - about what you think - would make me happier, but i am second guessing myself. without commenting on the work itself i do find that i can't see the depth very easily. it feels...workmanly? is that a real word? anyway, you know, the photoshop filters and the organisation is nice but does not turn me on. that is it looks like you spent time on the presentation, but there is nothing there that makes me say WTF?!? which is what i personally look for.
it is perhaps counter-intuitive but for me if i were hiring i would not be looking for cad skills, photoshop skills or rendering skills. i can do all that. what i would be looking for is someone who could knock me out with conceptual capacity and ability to express ideas. not everyone is into that of course, but i have noticed it is those people whose portoflios we keep. someone who is going to challenge us would be ideal.
which is to say...it looks pretty good to me, but depends on where you want to work and what kind of job you are hoping to get.
not sure if that helps. apologies if offends. not intended. good luck!
I like it. The style of your drawings (or rather, how you represent your ideas through drawing) is inconsistent (some would say 'varied'), but in many ways that is exactly what makes the portfolio strong. It shows that you are flexible and that you, as a designer, have explored various methods of graphic representation and are not tied down to any specific mode of representation. And it shows that you have a very diverse set of interests. I think that is what many employers look for.
A few specific comments:
I would eliminate the drawings with the title blocks (or at least eliminate the title blocks themselves). If you get an interview, you can show them your CD's when you're face-to-face. No need to include the actual CD page in a personal portfolio.
There's a bit of inconsistency with your page formatting. Some pages are simple and focused, other pages are dispersed with apparent disorder. Some pages are more rigid, whereas others are loosely defined. I personally prefer the simple, clean, and focused format.
I don't think you need to add scales, dimensions, north arrows (unless it's relevant to your design re: sunlight and exposure), technical info. I tend to believe portfolios can be a bit more about design itself than about the technical aspects of the design.
Is it necessary to have your resume be part of your portfolio? There are benefits to having a simple 8x11 resume as a separate file so employers can print out the resume on standard paper without the need to print the portfolio. Though, again, this is pretty minor.
Portrait pic doesn't bother me either. As far as portfolio pics are concerned, yours is not bad. At least it shows some character.
Overall, it's very good. Certainly would be placed in the 'keep' pile, even if you made none of the very minor changes above.
Best of luck to you.
So...
workmanly, shallow, and I look like a douchebag.
New graduates hear all kinds of things coming out of school- you need to be ready to work, be productive, efficient, and you're not going to design much.
Hence, it seems I see alot of undergraduate ptf's chock full of bizarro diagrams, collages, and graphic art. In response, I wanted my portfolio to convey quantifiable, defensible, well-illustrated ideas over intangible notions or artifacts. This is why i focused so much on graphic presentation, especially in perspective.
As much as I think I learned new ways of thinking in studio, I want to convey that I learned an array of methods in communicating ideas non verbally.
I think it's probably slightly irregular for an office to be looking for conceptual skill without strong graphic representation. On that note, I wholeheartedly acknowledge that I have alot more to learn in that capacity than I already know and bring with me.
That's the brunt of my defense.
I could see how overall it reads a bit emotively flat, but is that in the layout or in each piece of work?
I know that each of you purposely avoided commenting on the design work itself, so I have to assume the flatness comes from the layout, not the imagery? If that is the case, that's probably fine with me.
jump-
what do you mean by 'make you say wtf!?!'?
If by this you mean I am not testing the boundaries enough, I understand.
Thanks for the comments. I think, for the most part, this is the final revision, but I may very well make some of the changes you all suggested within reason.
Thanks again for the honest evaluations..
FP-
Thanks, your forst paragraph is precisely what I wanted to convey first and foremost. I also hoped that the illustrations would convey the level of idea development and depth in the design, but this may or may not be true. As an antry level, I think this is probably okay.
Thanks for the comments and taking the time to look...
that's it time to go skiing..
I think it looks great. Takes some guts to put a portfolio on here - its not exactly like showing it to your grandparents.
The graphic thing is subjective like you said but the switch in style was pretty noticeable to me. But thats what you wanted? It supports your 'range of methods' at the expense of the integrity of the whole thing.
And on the printing. I' submitted my pdf portfolio digitally and was then called in for an interview. The secretary had printed it for the office manager and my long total 18 inch horizontal spread was reduced to the 8.5 portrait width. I went into major panic mode.
But yeah - every office is different - and I'm not sure the best way to avoid that one.
But yeah, real good stuff...congratulations and good luck
Nick,
For a recent BSLA grad, you're well on the way to having a strong portfolio with some nice projects. One big question is what is the purpose of this folio? Get a job, apply to grad school, document undergrad, or ? Each of these needs it's own book. Start and end with your two strongest projects and eliminate all 'weak' ones - don't be limited to organizing by chronology or academic/professional categories. Shorter is often better.
I especially appreciate seeing the PV umbrellas integrated into the design of your capstone. Nice range of details, structures, and regional plans. For most purposes you need more planting palettes and another grading plan or two with the first several projects (I'm guilty of not having enough planting plans/plant palettes in my portfolio too). If applying to grad school, more developmental/process diagrams/sketches and less montages. If looking for work, focus on your production and skills and reduce the amount of school projects.
It is typical to credit the professor & include the course title/# or what year in the studio sequence so your personal development can be seen.
My one pet peeve is your over-use of the photoshop style filters - it becomes very overwrought when used on almost every project.
Thanks for sharing and good luck!
TK rla
nick,
by wtf! i mean indeed that i don't see the pushing of boundaries. its very straightforward and even neutral work. nothing wrong with that. but i prefer to see personality in portfolio. i also like to see people take a stance, even if i don't agree with it.
technically the work looks like it was done by a young person who is just getting started. some nice projects and i think some potential in there too, but i get no feeling that you have your own voice....yet. this doesn't mean you don't actually have one, only that i am not feeling it.
the photoshop filters are also pet-peeve of mine.
anyway, i get your point of view and the intent of the portfolio, but this is creative business. some offices don't see it that way, but for me most ideal person to work with is going to push me as much as i push him/her. otherwise why would i hire them? i see our office as collaborative environment though. my partner and i take final decisions because we are in the end the bosses but ideas are valued regardless of source of voice. so that is what i look for. not easy to find, mind you.
jump-
they're not filters. technically your comment sounds curiously aggressive. you might check your own voice. your work must be incredible!
after a quick skim it looks pretty good... like tk said, i'm wondering what the purpose of the portfolio is... if it is for a grad school application it is too long and you should probably eliminate some of the detail/construction doc pages... if it is for a job, it is probably still too long and i'd tailor the selection of projects to the type of work that the firm that you're applying to does... unless you want to do residential work, i'd definitely lose that project...
and since jump won't say it himself... yes, his work is pretty incredible... if you're going to listen to anyone on this site, jump and treekiller's comments should be on the top of the heap.
I'll take another look at the work I've included.
I just think the tone and content of jumps comments are sort of counter-productive, which is disappointing coming from someone with so much experience. I don't think it should matter who you are or what you've built, we're all human.
I'll add a quote by Paul Rand which I think helps address the 'workmanliness' of my work:
"Trendiness is seductive, especially to the young and inexperienced, for the principal reason that it offers no restraints, is lots of ‘fun’, permits unlimited possibilities for ‘self-expression,’ and doesn’t require conforming to the dictates of reason or aesthetics."
I think so many students jump from layperson to expert city planner in six months. Admittedly, I'm trying to figure out the nuts and bolts of different design dilemmas, especially with regard to the urban planning projects. If this means my work is 'wormanly,' then so be it.
I also meant to include that the purpose of the portfolio is to find a job.
larchinect...take the criticism on this site with a grain of salt. Don't take it personal. You did, after all, ask for criticism, and negative criticism is often just as helpful as (if not more helpful than) positive criticism. It's up to you to decide which opinions you agree with and are willing to affect your work. You're off to a good start though. Keep refining your portfolio. Trust me, in a few years you're gonna look back at this portfolio and think you were crazy to think it was nice...not because it's not well done, but because you'll have grown as a designer so much that this portfolio will no longer be an accurate reflection of "you."
This is a huge, HUGE improvement from the portfolio you posted a couple weeks ago. It is much more concise and the graphics are clearer and more readable.
I agree that it is still a bit too long. I would definitely take out the project showing the big suburban house towards the end. It isn't really necessary and is an all together uninspiring project (not your work but dealing with rich suburban homes is not really on the cutting edge of design.)
Now that we know this is for a job search the next question is what sort of firm are you looking to work for? If you are going for a leading design firm you may want to only show your best work and take out some of the more standard projects. You have more projects than you need so perhaps you can edit out certain pages depending on the firm you are sending it too. Then if you are invited to an interview you can bring the extra work that you edited out.
Thanks, I've already made some of the changes mentioned above. I replaced the 'suburban' project at the end with some older garden design 'experiments.' I have so much work that I cut from the actual book, lots of GIS, plans, perspectives, and elevations, so I think you're right about taking cut sheets to interviews.
I also added some brief decriptions and a few support graphics to help explain the projects a bit more, though I didn't want to mess with the layout too much as I'm pretty happy with it.
thanks for looking..
larchinect,
i really am sorry if i offended. i am trying to describe the things about the portfolio's we tend to hold onto that come in to the office. we have a large digital pile of them and throw away quite a few.
i am architect and planner so my education is not in larch directly. If credentials are required, my business partner was trained by adriaan geuze and our own work is usually informed by environmental and landscape ideas - but that is the extent of my expertise on the subject. so you should absolutely take my pov with grain of salt.
the quote is nice. what he is taking about is a very difficult line to hold, and obviously rand was good at it. but he was never workmanly.
but anyway, perhaps that is not the correct word to use and i am not trying to say your own work is workamanly, just that i can't see what you think about your projects as much as i would like. that doesnt mean your work needs to be over the top. I would however like to know what you were thinking and why...so while the presentation is clear and easy to understand as a documentary of someones work it requires a bit of effort for me to see YOU in there. in general since i am actually kind of busy that means i often dont read a portfolio through to the end if it doesn't have some kind of story to tell. and i guess that narrative is what i am missing.
as an end note, when i look at a portfolio i am trying to work out whether or not a person would be cool to work with or not. the actual work itself doesn't interest me so much, odd as that may seem. the reason for this is that i have an agenda and i am looking for people who are going to help me make my goals work out. whether i am corporate office or creative atelier that is the hard truth. so a portfolio is about showing how you fit into that reality. if i cannot picture you in the office then the portfolio isn't working. thats why i prefer to see personality, and a bit of the ol WTF! and so on....
apologies if i have made things less clear.
Thanks for that response jump-
I get your points, and am glad you came back with a little more tact than my first response.
What I interpreted from your original comment about workmanliness and such is that the work has to be weird or unintelligable to be 'good.' This is kind of a pet-peeve of mine.
Through my final two semesters and particularly the urban design studio I became a bit frustrated by the examples my professor held in the highest regard. One example that always came up was Michael Sorkin's work.
After studying sorkins book, it seemed everyone in the studio was doing sorkin cities.
What struck me is that none of us had a clue about how a city works and how to design one.
I studied traditional work (and some of sorkins 'real' projects), which is probably why my urban work looks sort of 'familiar.'
I can't tell you how many times i heard from professionals how important it is to have a good personality and to convey that. I'm disappointed that this doesn't come through in my ptf. I can only hope that the imagery is strong enough to get me in for an interview.
thanks
Nice look, overall.
But, you asked for suggestions so here goes:
To me, that dotted line is distracting--you're able to present in this seamless electronic format and yet you insist on maintaining the part of a bound book that's most irritating! The pages where that line are obscured are so much cleaner and more beautiful.
You may also want to rethink the "biography" in the front, especially in combination with the photo in the back. I'm sure the impression varies from group to group (age, region, gender, etc) but to me (and from the comments, I suspect a few others), it gives the impression that you're a little immature and see LA as a Christopher Robin style adventure, aka you're not ready to take your career seriously. Whimsy has it's place, but I doubt it will help your cause if it's the sole impression you give about your motivations. Just something to consider
I understand what you're saying about using the photo to project having a life and other interests, but the particular photo lacks subtlety in that respect--seems to me the depth of your work would be a better way to show it. The photo has a side of (cue John O'Hurley voice), "I'm ACTIVELY ACTIVE which you can tell because I'm often engaged in ACTIVE ACTIVITY" to it.
"they're not filters."
Filters or not, there's a lot of filter style picture obstruction (see pencilish diagonal graining on p 18, 20-21, 22-23, 26-27, 30-31, etc.) In some cases I think it works, but in others you may want to think about why you're using it and whether it's helping your presentation or adding a layer of affectation?
Best wishes on landing the job of your dreams, hope the comments give you a few other things to consider as you decide how to present yourself.
Is architecture/landscape architecture the only profession that takes itself so seriously?
I can picture the douchebaggy photo you'd all like to see at the end of my portfoliio; black turtleneck, black-frame designr specs, pensive glare.
Frankly, I'd rather do something else for work if it comes down to my photo appearing too whimsical.
I respect the opinions, but they're sort of superficial. If these are the things I should be concerned about, I'm f*cked.
Try planning!!!
Planning is so serious... you're not even allowed to use douchebaggy narratives that lack quantitative data, any piece of anything historical unless it has three different cross-references and you're not allowed to change anything at all (even if the office you work in is still all paper and has to borrow the fax machine from Kinko's down the street to conduct official government business).
If you change anything at all, you're labeled as pinko communist who is trying to tax everyone out of house and trailer park.
So, my recent growing interest in architecture I feel as a step down into a more "relaxed" and "liberal" environment.
But I should have just stayed being a history major. I don't think the picture is necessarily bad but on the East Coast... you'll get eaten alive for that.
"I can picture the douchebaggy photo you'd all like to see at the end of my portfoliio; black turtleneck, black-frame designr specs, pensive glare."
Surely there are a range of options between a Bear Grylls shot and Corbu! But to get down to it: why include a photo at all? And, if many unbiased people here don't perceive it the same way you intended it, why not consider a change.
"Is architecture/landscape architecture the only profession that takes itself so seriously?"
Nick, I don't think it's as much about the profession as it is about projecting yourself as a professional. Most lines of work, from wait staff, admin, firefighter, office manager, stock broker on out, don't want to hear about your childhood dreams. Of course the memories are special to you, and they're charming, too, but that's not the point.
I know it's hard to put your work out there, but keep the goal in mind: you want to see if your port reads the way you intended and reads well. Criticizing the responses doesn't change the read.
I know criticizing the responses isn't helping and that it reads how it reads.
I'm a bit confused at how the ptf can be workmanly and whimsical at the same time? I guess I can try to find some middle ground.
The point of the bio was to personalize the thing a bit, and its true, but maybe I can make some better word choices, and tone the idealism down a bit. I see how it reads christopher robin-ish, whicch isn't my thing either.
I'm just trying to make the thing a little different, we've all seen the 'corbu,' I'm going to revolutionize the profession style.
Thanks..
"Surely there are a range of options between a Bear Grylls shot and Corbu! But to get down to it: why include a photo at all? And, if many unbiased people here don't perceive it the same way you intended it, why not consider a change."
Why include a photo at all? The dude is handsome... that'll get him a lot farther than a 4.0.
photo is unimportant.
i don't read bios unless i find the work compelling enough to want more after getting to end of portfolio. almost never do.
in the end, the portfolio is fine. don't worry about it. maybe some of the critiques will make sense 10 years from now, but if not don't worry over it.
taking work seriously doesn't mean you can't have fun. good luck with job search!
Hi all,
my first archinect post, wohoo...
a few comments scanning through the portfolio without really looking at content.. please take my comments for what it is.
i think the bios is a nice touch... but i think condensing the text even further to your main points might be more effective... time is precious in office environment.
i think the pages that tend to be most successful for me are the ones that mix sketch, photograph, technical drawings, as well as varying the scale of images... just like successful cities.
successful examples of this might be:
2-3
8
16-17
25
30-31
33
34
41
44
47
I like the simplicity of 22-23
i also think some of the more successful pages mentioned above uses white 'negative' space well...
i feel that the following pages (for me) was a little repetitive in content and scale... i think you should try removing some redundant images or varying the scales of images (or both!) as a test (it may actually communicate your voice more strongly.) a little editing is needed here IMHO.
7
9
10
12-13
18
24-25
26-27
28-29
32-33
34-35
36-37
38-39
42-43
44-45
46-47
simplifying some of your diagrams so that it is more legible ons-creen may help.... i feel these pages the white spaces could be used more effectively.
couple more thoughts... could be great if done, but not absolutely necessary if takes a long time. i think there's a lot of different text sizes on these pages... 42-43 is most obvious one... this is something that drives me a little crazy when reading construction drawings (LOL)... which carries over to portfolio graphics for me.
hope this was helpful.
Very useful comments, thanks!
This is a tough time to really take criticism contructively and objectively as I'm starting to fire this ptf out there and getting zero responses. Honestly, I would expect to get many responses in good economic times, so I'm probably taking alot of the criticism to heart.
Regardless, criticism is good and you can always make things better, right?
Thanks again for taking the time..
-n
draftingarm, excellent idea prioritizing the comments--wish I had done the same because the portfolio is, imho, very nice and, Nick, I hope you were able to take my comments as "this might be something that could fine tune things" instead of "trash--all trash! What were you thinking?!?" which isn't where I was going with this.
Good luck with the search, hope something really good comes your way soon! (and, if you were offended, I am sorry, but don't worry because I have a M.Arch portfolio I'll be posting soon and then it will be my turn)
october-
got it, no problem.
I appreciate the empathy and thanks for the encouraging words.
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