Okay, I did a bunch more sketches because I didn’t like the pose in the first fun one, so these are super rough.
This one I think could work for anyone. Pose kindalike this, if you can’t decipher my scratchings. Probably go with rust and brass color scheme. I might do the figure as a photo - it depends on how well it blends and if I can get a good photo.
If I decide to go with a conservative and a fun front page, two options (one and two) for the conservative. Could go rust or dark blue. I think the second one is better? The first one is a little busy.
One option for the fun - a Sunday comic sorta thing. It might get too busy. Either each panel is me doing something or like an item or icon sorta thing with something fun under it all (me getting chased by cats or something.
Three more options. A - in a library, logo on the window. B - inspired by this splash page. I’d have to think of stuff to represent the various sections. My least favorite of my ideas. C - aggressively handing a business card. Poorly drawn, I know. I’d need to take photo reference. Captions of stuff. Could maybe be for both, but I need to think of a way of representing the different sections.
Opinions? Besides ‘your drawing sucks’? I’m leaning towards the second conservative one with the tilted photo and the library fun one.
I leave the house at 0545 in the morning. I’m lucky to get home by 1730 most days. Later if I have to stop and run any errands at any point on the way home.
When I get home I cook dinner for myself and my housemate.
I find time to go out and spend time with the dog.
Every other weekend I catch the train to the shopping centre to do the grocery shopping for the household. I cook dinner on the weekend nights too.
I do laundry every Sunday. Washing and hanging clothes out.
I do dishes when I’ve cooked something outside the scope of normal dinner.
I go for at least 30 minutes of walking a day when I’m at home, not walking to and from the bus stop, to make sure I’m still getting exercise on those days.
I vacuum the house.
I walk the dog some more.
I field all the paperwork that we need to do to get my ex declared as supporting himself by the government, negotiate payment of bills with my financial counsellors to try and clear out the crushing debt I’m weighed under, call the bank to rearrange payment terms for our loan because I’m short this week because I had to take unpaid sick leave.
On top of that I study. I’m only doing one unit at a time, but I carve out that time. I make that time where I can.
I fucking SUCK IT UP and do it.
Do you think ANY of these excuses are going to fly with a potential employer who’s looking at your portfolio?
“Sorry, I didn’t have a chance to learn Office because I only use OpenOffice”
“Sorry, I didn’t get my “A” material into my portfolio because daddy was vacuuming and making noise and it distracted me”
“Sorry, I didn’t have a chance to make my webpage look better because I was LE TIRED”
You’ve got PARENTS who expect you to do HOUSEWORK. Well whoopie fucking shit princess. I don’t have parents to pick up my slack when I don’t get the housework done. If I don’t do my housework it sits and sits until I fucking do it. My daddy doesn’t vacuum my house for me.
That’s the way of the fucking world.
“I don’t want to learn flash”
Tough shit. You don’t want to learn it, you don’t want a job that much.
A ton of people have given you some REALLY good advice in VERY gentle terms. An employer wouldn’t sit there and coach you through this shit with kid gloves on. They’ll take one look at your “portfolio” and go “Um, next” and you’re out the fucking door.
So you either put your big girl panties on, suck it up and put your nose to the goddamn grindstone, or you accept you don’t really want the reality of a job in this industry, you just want to get paid to play around and draw your weaboo bullshit and stop fething whining about how it’s too goddamn hard.
On top of all the really excellent “on point” advice you’ve gotten on your career as a designer, I think it’s important to point out you have a horribly unpleasant attitude. You might think you’re just being dismissive and abrasive because we are strangers on the Internet trying to help you, and that you’d be much nicer to prospective employees. But most people aren’t very good at hiding their true nature and I think you should seriously consider working on your attitude. I don’t know if you’re always unpleasant if it’s rooted in insecurity; I’d guess more the later. But you are going to get a lot of criticism and I hope you learn to take it a lot better than you have in this thread.
Seriously, for someone who wants advice you have been horrible pretty much throughout this thread. If you knew that much about design you wouldn’t need advice and your “art” wouldn’t look like it does. Someone doesn’t need to be a designer to be able to point out things to you. Face it, are your customers going to be designers? NO. If they were they wouldn’t need you.
CUSTOMERS are people who will make you successful so perhaps you might knock off the nasty attitude and work on taking constructive criticism instead of making excuses.
Actually, I have hobbies on top of that, darling. I roleplay every other week with a group of friends, I make time to go out on dates at least once every couple of weeks, and I play Team Fortress 2, Dawn of War and Half-Life 2.
Your attitude is disgusting, the whole way through this thread you’ve offered nothing but excuses and half-assed attempts to justify why you just can’t you just CAN’T do what people are telling you is REQUIRED to get a job in the graphic design field.
I’m here to tell you sweetheart that regardless of whether someone is a designer or not, anyone can smell a fucking awful attitude a mile away and you absolutely reek of it. And I say that as someone who has been responsible for hiring people, vetting resumes and generally sorting out the whiny dossbags from people who, you know, want to make an effort.
By the way, cupcake, do you think Prima Ballerinas or Astronauts sit and whine about their “Hobbies” when they’re fighting for that spot in the limited-run Broadway show, or get into the space program as a premier research scientist?
Or perhaps, just perhaps, do you think they EAT, SLEEP DRINK AND FUCKING BREATHE their task, always striving to get BETTER because they know that the competition is that tight?
“Hobbies” are the first thing you have to be willing to cull. By their very definition they’re something that’s not essential to day-to-day life. Ergo, if you’re trying to push into a limited field… Guess what darlin’. The dead weight’s gotta go.
But hey, I’m sure your Thundercats fan art will keep the bills paid for you. Good luck wit dat.
You want feedback from somebody who’s involved in design? Fine: I’m not a designer myself, but I’m occasionally part of interview loops for designers and I work with designers on a daily basis.
Looking at the various iterations of your web page that you’ve posted, it would take me anywhere between a quarter-second and two seconds to decide that you didn’t have what it takes for a gig in my organization. A lot of the stuff you’ve posted indicates a significant lack of professional judgment, “design eye”, and audience analysis capabilities. This is stuff that can be fixed, but it takes a lot of investment and dedication. As a hiring decision-maker, I frankly don’t care that you love comics–I want evidence to demonstrate your skills and judgment to indicate what you can do for me. Nor do I care why you don’t have the appropriate skillset; protest all you want to your friends, just don’t bother applying till you’ve developed some chops.
When you’re listing your portfolio, make it clear what you’ve done for clients. I don’t care if you like drawing cartoons; if you want to draw cartoons, start a freakin’ webcomic like everybody else in the universe.
Want to build up your portfolio? Go back to school to work on your skills, and get looped into an internship program.
And FWIW, the phrase “Professional child at heart” translates to “Please don’t hire me.”
I am a designer. I founded and run a professional development group in Silicon Valley. Over the past 6 months, I’ve evaluated over 200 portfolios and worked alongside designers from a respectable proportion of the products you know and use on the web.
The other posters in this thread have been too kind. The fundamental problem is not that your portfolio is bad, it’s that you seem to be lacking in basic talent in design in the first place. I’m honestly surprised to hear that you have formal training because your work shows a lack of understanding on the basics principles of visual design. Unless you fix this, everything else is merely going to be a bandaid fix.
It is possible for you to achieve what you want but it’s going to take a lot more work than you seem to be expecting. If I were you, here’s at least a starting guide:
Master the tools that you will be working with. It’s fine to not know flash if you don’t want to providing you’re willing to pass on the jobs that require flash (which, in reality, is becoming slowly obsolete). But when you mention that you weren’t able to solve a particular design problem without popups, that’s not acceptable on any level. Either have the ability to learn how to do it or modify your design so that popups are not required.
Develop an attitude of professionalism. Self-actualization is your own responsibility, your clients are hiring you as a professional to help them achieve some business objective. Your role as a designer is to best represent the goals of your client through a visual language. Your portfolio is a marketing tool, it should be designed like everything else you design to fulfill that design objective.
Develop a more positive attitude overall. Other posters have already commented on this. I have the feeling that this advice will be ignored in the same way that everyone else’s has because your attitude isn’t allowing you to hear constructive criticism at this point and, until it does, it will be very hard for you to succeed.
Whoa. Okay. You know what I’d like to do for a career? I’d like to design and implement cross-media (digital) marketing campaigns. Guess what I’m currently working as? An online copywriter at a large Finnish retail company. Most of my day is writing sales texts for ladies’ dresses and LCD-TVs and dogs’ life jackets and a six-pronged BBQ skewer sort of thing. It’s definitely not the most glamorous job available and my days are often quite long. If I see friends after work, they’re even longer. I’m also currently working on my Master’s thesis which has sadly been woefully neglected for a few months now because of work.
You know what though? I must have money. I must pay the rent and I must eat food preferably at least once every few days and sometimes I also need to go out and have a few beers with my friends, or go see a gig, or a movie, or buy the newest Pratchett or whatever. I must also build up job experience and this place is giving me some very good insights on what the Finnish market situation is like and what sort of things online customers find exciting and interesting and engaging. Having this place on my CV is going to open doors for me in the future. And so will having my Master’s.
So right now I forgo some of the gigs, some of the beers, some of the movies (but none of the Pratchetts), so I can work and write and achieve what I really want to do. It’s what people have to do unless/until they have established the resources for themselves that enable them to do only those things which are fun to them. God knows I don’t exactly scream with joy about 47 different brands of identical polo shirts appearing in my work queue or another evening of sitting down in front of “Using social media in political marketing - case XXX XXX” but it’s what I have to do right now. And, unfortunately, until the day when you’ve established yourself as a successful graphics designer/artist with a steady cash flow and long-term clients, you’re going to have to make sacrifices as well.
See, you just don’t seem to get it that you will have to work like a dog to break into this tough business. As others have pointed out, it doesn’t matter that you have great excuses. And “parents who expect me to do housework” is a seriously bad excuse. You think your struggling colleagues living in some crappy studio apartment have an advantage over you because they don’t have parents expecting them to do housework? Come on!
I am not telling you to forget it. I’m telling you to get that nose to the grindstone OR give it up. It’s really up to you.
eta: I would take Shalmanese’s post 71 as your new gospel. I’m basically stating his points 3&4 but 1&2 sound pretty good to me as well.
What I’m hearing is that in your opinion it’s not possible for you to increase your skillset. Nor is it possible for you to work any harder on your portfolio than you currently are.
You have asked for designers to weigh in with their opinions. Shalmanese has told you bluntly that, as it is now, your current level of skill is not high enough, but has given you some very reasonable pointers for how to increase your skills, and to make yourself more employable.
There is a third option. But it involves, as CarnalK says, working like a dog. Even when it’s boring, or difficult. Even when it’s more fun to start something new than finish something that’s gone stale. Even if it means fewer nights out, and fewer days spent watching tv.
You’re telling me that despite this being your ‘dream job’, you can’t even buy ear-defenders to block out the noise of the vacuum cleaner or whatever else is going on at home? If you’re not willing to make any changes to your life as it is, then you won’t ‘get a good graphics job’ and you need to accept that, and find something else to pursue.
Do you want to be a graphic designer, or do you want to be an artist? They’re two completely different things, and the vibe I get from you is that your dream is to draw.
I’m not a designer, but I work with them every day at my job. Graphic designers make business cards and posters and web designs and annual reports. Their art is a completely different thing.
Pick a focus - graphic design or comic book art and be the best you can be at it.
STG, You need to hang on to every word Shalmanese posted. Particularly:
Just like some people can play guitar seemingly seconds after leaving the birth canal, the rest of us have to work for years to even be passable. A few more years and maybe you’re a rhythm guy for a local band, or lead guitar for Creed.
The point is that a lack of natural talent need not be the end of your dream- You just have to work very hard to get where others go with less effort. Rather than being the guy who gets the perfect job right out of college, you are probably going to have to take a receptionist or other unrelated position at a design company. Get to know the people there (Ah, now we are networking!), and start feeling out the scene. Go to a few after work bullshit sessions. Make some buddies. Then, start being the squeaky wheel, and let everyone know what it is that you want. Maybe someone gets sick one day, and you are able to pinch-hit as atlantic did.
I dunno. I have no degrees of any kind, and I make more than my friends who went to school. My process has been the same for each phase of my life: Find something I wanted to do, then go in at the very bottom and work my way in to the position. I’ve been in emergency services (I wanted to be a fireman-Not much pay), restaurants (I wanted to own a bar- I grew up), and computer networking (I wanted to get a foot into the IT world for future possibilities). At 32, My latest goal is to delve into wealth management. It is something that has interested me for a while, I want to learn more about my own retirement, and I have wanted someplace where I could walk to work. I found a company 6 blocks from my home that is perfect. Six weeks ago, nobody knew me, and I didn’t know them. Since then, I have been to a few of their seminars, learned where most of the employees drink after work, and have even gotten to meet the owner. I may have to start off as the janitor (although I am hoping to use that IT experience to get me in), but I will be working for them at some point in the future.
So, get out there and start designating targets. Find a couple of companies that do what you want, and see if they have any type of job opening, period. Get a steady income, pay off some bills, and then use the extra time & stability to improve your skills. It won’t happen overnight, but you will get to where you want to be.
Which leads to a question- Where do you ultimately want to be?
Not really valid to the OP, but I have to say this sounds like an AWESOME job! Seriously - finding new and clever ways to say ‘This jacket will make sure fat dopey Fido doesn’t drown when he jumps out of the boat, AGAIN!’ sounds super fun. I suspect that there’s probably a lot of non-fun aspects as well, but the actual writing sounds great.
Now OP - I think you’ve got some excellent advice in this thread. Sadly, breaking into very competitive careers requires an obscene amount of work. Not wanting to do all that work is perfectly reasonable; however, it means you may need to rethink your career path.
Regarding what a typical day looks like, well, currently I’m a stay at home mom who spends all day shopping, knitting and playing with my baby. It’s AWESOME!! but it’s not going to advance my career at all.
Before Junior came along (also before I was married) I worked a full time job, owned my own home, took a full course load at University (3 courses, not five), worked a part time job in cosmetics - 'cus I love cosmetics, worked a part time job as an actor - 'cus I love acting, did Hap Ki Do 3 nights a week, still knit my face off, still went shopping, and painted in my spare time.
Then I finished my degree, got 4! (four!) promotions at work, quit my extra jobs, got married and had a baby, so now I’m getting a bit of a break. However, I’m 38 and have been working at the same place for 17 years. Also, I don’t have a particularly high-flying career - sure there was competition for my job, but it’s nothing at all like being a graphic designer.
I guess my point is, working a job and tidying the house is perfectly fine but it’s not going to get you anywhere anytime fast. That’s fine if you’re happy with that but not so fine if you want to break into a very competitive field.
If nobody is going to actually give me feedback about the sketches I posted (in other words, the work I am trying to do), I will be ignoring this thread.
I have no idea if you have talent or not. I’m not qualified to say. I do know one thing after a number of years on this planet and that is that talent is cheap. Lots and lots and lots of people have talent. What separates the successful from the chronically underemployed is work ethic. Virtually all successful people work their ass off. It may not look like it from the outside but they do.
If you aren’t willing to work very, very hard for a long time, you are doomed to a lifetime of failure. How good you are is irrelevant. Sorry, kiddo, but that’s a fact.
