exizldelfuego

Here's the situation:

This is my last year before becoming a graduate with a BA in Fine Arts, emphasis in Digital Design with minors in Computer Science and Mathematics. And seeing as how Spring is quickly approaching, it's time for me to really start cranking on a portfolio/resume site for myself.

This has been a long, drawn out project which I've been working on now for several months whenever I've had a shred of free time. I'm completely new to web design, so it's been an adventure. I just quit my long-standing student job in order to really focus on this site and finding a job for when my schooling runs out.

I'm extremely happy with how it's shaping up. It fits perfectly with the style I've been cultivating for myself over the years and I've coded everything by hand, making this a true learning experience. And perhaps my favorite part about the site so far is that it's all done using basic HTML with very rudimentary CSS and Javascript sprinkled about for functionality. I love simplicity!

With that said, I have very little access to other computers at the moment (especially Windows computers), so I'm having a hard time knowing how cross-platform/browser my site really is. It should look great on a Mac running any recent browser. Outside of that, I don't know.

So without further ado: The Arbolic Mind

PS: Only my [Ryan Price] resume and portfolio are up. The other two haven't yet contributed.

Dizzet

Okay im gonna give it a shoot

Well first of all there is somthing with this tree for me it isent saying we are creativ it more appeals to somthing like nature science or something like that...

Then there is the way the gallery is set up it makes much chaos with pictures different sizes so I would suggest you made all the thunbnails the same size. Look at this gallery it is just perfect Art by Feng Zue

Another thing is the front page where you have got alle the employes I guess I think that you should sperate them in boxes instead of just making some symbols to sperate them... A suggestion would be make 3 boxes with a portrait picture of the person and in the just next to the picture the 3 links would be...

Well that about it for now good luck...

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clavus

The prtfollio is a litte jacked on a PC. You ought to make it fit all on one screen without so much scrolling up/down and side to side. Lose the huge spaces under each line of text and bring the pictures more towards the center.

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gallopingwanker

my personal opinion would be to redo it. because for a designers website it's not very creative...not even "simplistic" creative...if you want to keep the brain/tree thing, i would make varying widths on the strokes, because it's very boring and flat, i would use more colors in your website, i would use a different font in your website, i would set your galleries up different...and i'd take the advice of the previous posters...

exizldelfuego

Wow guys, I appreciate your... candor.
As of this posting, order has been brought to the portfolio galleries. The thumbnails are all 100x100px squares anchored to the top right the frame.

Dizzet:
Thanks for the thumbnail reference. I probably should have done a little research before taking on that aspect of the site.
The rationale behind using the brain-tree as the character of the site is the significance of creating physical products rooted firmly in (hopefully good) ideas.

Clavus:
I'm not sure why the table data cells containing the portfolio galleries are sizing themselves to fill the entire height of the area. They're not intended to. Still hunting down that problem.

GallopingWanker:
The entire purpose of this resume/portfolio site is to convey to any future employers information regarding my qualifications and strengths, as well as provide a timeline of my progression to show where I'm coming from and where I'm at now to help an employer extrapolate where I might be going in the future and whether or not that syncs with the needs of said employer. As it is, I'm really happy with the choices I have made in creating the site. As such, I feel that the site is indicative of me and my abilities.

Once again, thanks guys for your input.

skier

I think it would be very visually impressive to integrate your site navigation with your "brain-tree" symbol. Have the leaves as Links to various portions of your site, for instance. Also, up the contrast on the titles you want to "flash" at your clients. I woulda thought you would have learned this in your graphic design class. Black & white = high contrast, easy to read. Black & ruddy brown = lower contrast, fades into the background a bit.

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Desario

I don't have a critique for your website, but your artwork is incredible. I'm impressed with your digital imaging. The simple, yet clear form is very nice. I've taken life drawing couple times, and getting the form down is a very hard thing to accomplish. Also, nice job on the desktop calenders. The whole digital, matrix-esque theme is very cool. Keep up the good work.

exizldelfuego

Skier:
I had precisely that same idea (brain-tree navigation) when first conceiving the site, but my html know-how was insufficient to implement it. Now that I have a few more tools under my belt, perhaps it's time to resurrect the idea. Thanks for reminding me!
As for contrast, I'm well aware that high-contrast can help legibility. But in this case, I felt that too much contrast would be distracting. I suppose that part of a recurring problem is that the idea of "The Arbolic Mind" was initially a loose affiliation between a couple of friends and myself, but I've co-opted it and turned it into a portfolio/resume delivery site for us. And since it is a delivery site, I want the site to look nice and be functional, but to also fade into the background when the viewer gets to the portfolio portions. So the title graphics you are seeing are the balance I struck. They're functional, still eyecatching because they're the only things on their given page which look the way the do, they're in a consistent location (I should perhaps resize them for further consistency), and they won't detract from the work they are intended to present. The interior color of the letters coincides with the color outside the border, and they've been given a nice (IMO) stroked outline. Perhaps I could reconsider the outline's darkness though.

Desario:
Thanks for the kind words and encouragement! One of the more difficult aspects of asking for a critique is that the focus tends to be on what you've done wrong and not on what you've done right. And as helpful as that may be, sometimes it can become a little discouraging. Your comment was just what I needed to perk me a bit.

Well, I've taken a little break from working on the site to regroup my faculties. Now it's time to get back to work! I'll keep this thread apprised of updates. Thanks a bunch, fellas!