first of all i think that you have done a great job for having only been at this a year or so. congrats on working hard and getting solid projects out of it. i live in san antonio and have got some friends that have gone through utsa. pretty sure i don't know anybody there right now though.

on the portfolio, it is a good first attempt but i will critique a few things. you are trying to get somewhere by using the grey band and moving it around for each page. i would go for more consistency. your font choice is not going to be popular around here. it could also stand being a little smaller and a little stronger. one idea i would have would be to use the grey as a consistent placeholder/textholder that is consistent through each page. your layouts are alright but jump around a little too much from page to page. i see that you are definitely trying to establish a hierarchy with more important things large and on the lower right. maybe be more consistent with that.

on the first project the renderings are very nice. on your line drawings, the lineweights are too heavy and make it where i don't even want to analyze them. try printing to an eps file at a scale of 1/4"=1'-0" or 1/8 and then scaling them down in pagemaker or photoshop or whatever you're using to make the sheets.

second project is also very nice. the plans and sections on this one read better because the lineweight is not so fat.

third project: the rendering lower right on page two is nice. consider making that a full page?

your last project is my favorite. there are some very cool images on the second sheet.

a final word. if you are doing multiple pages per project, i would consider first of all editing what you are showing and secondly simplifying the layout. it seems a bit overdesigned whereas your work is strong and can stand on its own. simplify it and go for elegant and graceful layouts rather than dynamic layouts. it may make for a nice contrast with your work. you just need a little more consistency. if you took everybody's first portfolio that would probably be a complaint on 95% of them. overall, good job.

if you want to return the favor mine is here: Oppelt_Portfolio.pdf (11.76 MB)

mine is way, way more cluttered than yours because i made the decision early on to limit it to one spread per project.

also as you can see by my third project i had the same lineweight issues early on. unfortunately i cannot change them because every single one of my files is now gone. i am left only with what was on previous portfolios.

Thank you for a thorough review.

You already mentioned that your portfolio would be cluttered, so I will moved past that.

I liked the consistency of the font, font size and highlights (even the use of traditional yellow to emphasize a highlight)

I also really like the summaries. They give a concise explanation on the project and the process at which you completed the design.

Some overlying concerns and then individual projects:

1. There are numerous renders, graphics, pictures, etc. and some of them are insignificant compared to others which are small. I would have liked to see a larger size of the more intricate renders that explained the highlighted words in your summaries. Some of the pictures were redundant, even if they were from a different perspective.

2. I've always heard that you should have a big, sexy picture to introduce the project. I'm not sure how it would be set into your layout, but that may be something to consider. I was wanting some specific render to catch my eye. This may be accomplished with my first point.

3. There were numerous diagrams that included font that was too small to read after zooming in 150%. After that, the font gets blurry. A lot of the floorplans had this problem.

Okay, now individual projects:

PVH - Residential diagram details could not be read.
i felt like this was one of the projects that had the redundant renders. I would much rather enjoy seeing a larger render of the exterior to see the details w/o zooming in too much.

HFH - great concept drawing. site plan and analysis font size and graphics are too small. Also, could you add a legend to the colors that represent the floorplan program? this is a good project

BMU - good model (i liked the Georgetown model better though). again, can't see the floorplan room names

PH - GREAT PROJECT. design process graphic very nice. can't see scripting of experience information

AGC - very nice 3D model with program info (top of page near text).

MH - i would like to see a large size of the matrix of activities diagram. font was too small and i think that was a strong part of the project.

EATC - best renderings out of all the projects!! I also really liked the design.

CPP - i think the colors represent something on the site plan, but i did not find a legend to understand this. this was probably my least favorite. it seemed to be more of a schematic design

MDA - section perspective was awesome! could that be bigger?

GMU - this is a great model. what about a picture of a detail of the windows or shading devices?

additional work - nice final touch to the portfolio to show your ability to still draw when we all get caught up in computer work


i think that the first project seems a little out of place. unless you're planning on designing in a big city, i'm not sure how relevant a large, multi-story building is in TX. But it depends on who you want to market your portfolio to. if you want to work for a very progressive firm, i would place the parasite house first. if something more conservative, i would go with the bryan mixed-use project. with your diversity of projects, you can place certain projects in the lead to suggest your preference of design.

also, i was always taught that there should be a priority of size regarding graphics, so a lot of my advice has to do with removing some renders to increase the size of better, more informative ones. it helps the reader to subconsciously find the meaning of each project if they don't want to spend the time to read each summary and analyze each graphic

overall, very, very good. how was work with overland partners? do you enjoy their approach to design?

@jwo

You have some beautiful images in your portfolio - if you would reconsider the 'one project per spread' rule you'd have a really stunning portfolio. As it is, there's just too much going on at too small of a scale!

i agree, it is pretty good work for being so early in your studies.

also agree, the quality of the work is sometimes lost by the over abundance of non-hierarchical and redundant graphics. ie, in the project showing an addition you have process I and process II series showing very small changes that say little about what and why the changes were made. To me that is not process at all and actually makes things less clear. you could easily and more clearly show the nature of the addition with one image - before and after is more than enough.

for me an informative process diagram would show that an addition needed to be on this corner because of x and y constraints (ie, size of site, view, conceptual desire), which you achieved by doing this and that. you could also show why the extension was not done on other sides of the existing building, and perhaps include the area around the site. perhaps the location of a street or an adjacent building, or whatever, was important in design process. for very awesome examples of process diagrams i would look at the work BIG or JDS websites. they are masters.


if you are at a loss about how to make hierarchy i think the most important part of portfolio is to make a story or narrative that shows the drive for the project. everything relates to the narrative, from graphic content to fonts to diagrams. same applies to portfolio as a whole, if you have time. make the document into a story of ideas with some kind of structure. like SMLXL by oma ages and ages ago, a fantastic monograph that is more than sum of its parts. not easy, but very impressive if you can pull off...

These guys do amazing process diagrams

BIG