My new portfolio website

[Andrey]

Hello guys!

I've created my online portfolio website. Please tell me what's good...what's bad, what should I improve, etc. I'm going to translate it to Slovak and Spanish and I'd like to make sure everything is OK in order to have less work when fixing something - better once than three times.
Do not hesitate to criticize me!
I'm still improving it.

The website is more or less abourt car design but it contais some of my fine arts works as well.
more at:... and5rey.uni.cc (http://and5rey.uni.cc)

-Andrey

[jfwalls]

You ready Andrey?

Artist websites with ads and banners are terrible. I use a company called Doteasy.com. All you have to pay is about $30 USD for the domain registry. There are a few limitations, but I don't think they will affect you. They also have some basic stuff like counters and e-mail forms you can use. The only problem is that there is a tiny banner with their logog on it, but it's pretty small and unobtrusive.

Your navigation is confusing. Visitors should be able to easily navigate through your pages. It's difficult to get back to certain portions of your site because the links are hard to find. I usually find it's best to include the words back or return, otherwise someone might not be sure where the link will go. Also, try to get your pop-up windows for your images to not have all the menus and stuff. If you have access to a program like Macromedia's Dreamweaver use it. It's fairly easy to learn the basics, and it's great for designing a nice clean site.

Aesthetically it's okay. I would make the design of your roll-over buttons and banner work better together. I think the handwritten letters on the buttons looks kind of sloppy. You'd be better off finding a font in that style. Try fontfreak.com for some really cool free fonts. I also don't like the inner-glow around the edge of the buttons. It just makes them look sloppy.

Alright, I'll stop for now. Good luck! I think you'll do great at an art school.

[Chris Beatrice]

Andrey,
Good to "see" you again, and congrats on your new site.

I agree with jfwalls' points.

Also I would just emphasize that your website is an incredible opportunity to present yourself as an artist, one we did not have "back in the day." Sure, we used to do mailings and things like that, but the ability to present yourself to the entire world, and to keep updating and improving the presentation on a regular basis is very valuable. Also, for better or worse, other artists are of course doing this too, so you need to keep up, to some degree.

As an art director, when I review applicants' submissions I am never impressed by technical mastery or flashiness (pardon the pun) of sites, but I am always looking for solid design (visual communication, ease of navigation) and also very much the artist's personality - that is, the personality s/he has chosen to present on the site. You should look at your site as another piece of artwork you are making, to some degree. That doesn't mean it needs to have a lot of custom art all over it, or anything like that. But often you'll see artists choose a particular piece of theirs, or just a portion of a piece to serve as an anchor point or logo. Not only are you NOT doing that, but the various ads and things are becoming the defacto logo - not good! Technically you don't need anything more than what you have: a simple menu that leads to subsections, with thumbnails. Maybe add some cross-navigation as jfwalls suggested. But think hard about the visual motif you are trying to present. With the handwritten labels you almost have a car airbrush look going, if that's what you intended... but you could do a lot more with the rollovers (maybe make the entire button a bright color, and try to render it like a car surface... I don't know).

You asked for feedback on the choices of work, but I'd say the overall presentation of the site is what's holding everything else back. I hope that helps, and good luck to you.

-Chris

[Andrey]

Thank you for your criticism & great explanations!

First, I've deleted all the ads and banners. You're right it's not very suitable for a portfolio website. And as you, Chris have explained the website shows my personality and I've realized it needs many changes.

I've improved the navigation a little bit. I've added the "< back" links.

However, as you guys have explained me what a portfolio website really is about and how it's considered, I intend to redesign it whole. I think I'll use some common buttons and create a site with better navigation. I'll consider the picture to show first as a logo or as a part of my website's visual communication. It also should all be more simple... OK, we'll see later what I'll come up with...

jfwalls, I think I know how to match a free hosting provider with a nice subdomain (ex: uni.cc) and without any ads. The counter I use is OK and as for the blue form, I know how to create a better one. And I'll try Macromedia's Dreamweaver. Looks interesting.

Chris, I'm glad to hear from you again. With those menu buttons I just wanted to make them look cool - sketchy. But you're right I don't need to have a lot of art on it. The art on my website can be it's simplicity, organization and the artwork displayed as well.

Now I'm going to work on it... I can post my website's progress here.

[Gregory Wohlwend]

i can't get any of the content to load, but...

don't put your age in the Title of the webpage, it sounds like you're groveling.

that's all i have for now, since i can't see the content. (i'm using firefox, and if it doesn't load on mozilla, you should fix that)

[Andrey]

What about this one?

andrejpariza.tk (http://andrejpariza.tk/)

Please comment & criticize the layout of the site.

[jfwalls]

Much better! The design is consistant, and the overall look is much simpler and cleaner. Major improvement over the first one you showed. Good job.

[oracrest]

I like the layout, but I would rearrange the hierarchy of the links, if this is your portfolio site, then I would make the art, and car design links first priority, profile and contact next, and links at the very bottom. Art is first and foremost for a portfolio site. Personal info and contact is for those browsers who are satisfied enough with your art to be interested enough to look into contacting you.

What I did for my site is imagine that I am just one of hundreds (which is most likely the case). Any holdups on your site, be it something like a title page, or confusing layout, is going to immediately turn off a potential employer. they have to cycle through many sites, and they just want to something that is easy and smooth to navigate. I would say keep this in mind. Simplicity far outrules aesthetic style on a portfolio page, at least from what I have heard from employers that peruse many pages of applicants.

[Andrey]

Thank you for your feedback. I think it's well arranged enough. The visitors who wouldn't like to contact me or browse through the links I recommend, they can just simply skim those pages.

andrejpariza.tk (http://andrejpariza.tk/)