Seriously? The title of this thread is “How do I get a good graphics job?” Now you don’t want that advice anymore?
Well, I looked at them, and honestly I think you would need to flesh them out a bit more before anyone can provide any real constructive feedback. Right now they look like scribbles. The idea pages you linked to could be interesting but I think if you’re going to go with something that elaborate you really need to have top notch programming skills, otherwise it’s going to look pretty amateurish.
Agreed. Seeing a sketch on a sheet of paper is completely different than seeing the website on a screen. And, honestly, sketching it out is the easy part. Writing the code so that the sketch becomes a reality is where the real work begins.
Shame. You got the best professional advice in your life so far from it.
(delete)
Ignoring Shalmanese’s post would be a very foolish thing for you to do. Like he said, you’ve got more serious problems than your web layout
Frankly, I’m surprised posters have continued to give her good and free advice for as long as they have. I gave up on this thread very early because it was clear to me from her very first response to the initial (and gentle) criticism that the advice was going to be wasted, so why bother?
The only one I liked at all was conservative one. Although I’m not sure about dedicating the majority of the front page to different photos of yourself – you might instead want to use that space to feature work from your portfolio. Or better yet, do something that both highlights your work and introduces you, e.g. create the packaging to sell an action-figure version of yourself and feature it there.
The reason I hate most of the other sketches is that you’re trying to do something that’s overdone (e.g. the room full of objects that each take you to different areas of the site), and is likely to highlight your weaknesses instead of your strengths. Clean and easily navigable is the way to go, IMO.
If she’s going with that one, I’d also add:
[ul]
[li]Drop the “Professional Child at Heart” line. From a professional standpoint, it sends a message that you’re impulsive and immature, not fun and quirky.[/li][li]Make “Character Design” last in the list of services, not first.[/li][li]Don’t use any of the Windows standard fonts in any graphics.[/li][li]Personal photos: nothing nerdy, furry, weeaboo, etc. Unless you’re very photogenic, people probably want to see your work front and center. Consider the other sites you and others posted.[/li][/ul]
I looked at the website, snickered rudely, and declined to comment because I would not be able to do so within the ruleset of IMHO. Lost cause.
Admittedly, it bears a strong resemblance to the first website I ever made. That was about 15 years ago, when everybody I knew had their own free tripod page instead of facebook or myspace. And I was 11.
Thank you. I’ll drop / minimize the photo.
Elmwood - I never use standard Windows fonts.
I would have pitted the OP, but my dad was vacuuming and I forgot.
Ooooh! I wanna help!
Your fontstack for Lydean Works (the part where you put Gill Sans, Helvetica, Arial) is wrong. 99% of the time, if you are using a non-standard font, you need to put it in quotes. If you put “Gill Sans” more browsers would pick it up, but since Gill Sans isn’t a standard font, many people won’t have it anyway. I do have it, but because of the error in the fontstack, I actually get Arial.
To get the font for almost all users, you would need to embed it with @font-face, but that is getting into territory beyond what you’re trying to do with your site.
You’re a real piece of work, you know that?
STG, you are getting some really good advice here. Don’t blow it off because it’s not what you wanted to hear.
This thread is a perfect example of what dealing with customers will be like. People will range from rude to downright mean and if you want their money you will have to put up with crap.
Your situation is almost exactly like what one of my close friends went through. He was huge into anime and dreamed of being a comic book artist. He started a design degree at an art school and thought he would walk out of there with a degree and straight into a job at Dark Horse. Towards the end of his second year he began to realize that getting into a good career was like, hard. He realized that even after he finished his degree he would have a long way to go before he reached that dream job.
Now he’s a firefighter who still draws in his spare time & once in a while he’ll do a band flyer or something like that.
You seem to genuinely love the work you want to build your career in. At some point though you’re going to have to make the choice between doing what you love and doing what someone else wants. Eventually you need to accept that there is a good chance you’ll never get that perfect job. You may have to take a position that doesn’t use the full extent of your knowledge but that doesn’t mean you still can’t do your drawings or design on the side.
I direct your attention to this moderator note, posted earlier in the thread:
For choosing to ignore a moderator’s instructions, I am issuing warnings to rachelellogram for this post:
And to Agent Foxtrot for this post:
Since there are others who appear still willing to offer Silver Tyger Girl advice, I am leaving the thread open. If anyone is inclined to offer further insults, you are directed to the Pit. Any more insults posted here will also result in official warnings.
Ellen Cherry
IMHO Moderator
Those sketches look OK, I guess, but as said above, the actual execution is the only way to really judge them. Also, how long is it going to take a a person with coding problems like yourself to put it together.
I am not in Design, but it really seems to me you are putting the cart before the horse. Shouldn’t your portfolio be your first priority? That old website you posted a picture of wasn’t bad, quite passable, actually. If I were you, I’d tweek that one (e.g. lose or shrink the Polaroid, maybe move the hanging-out paper to the other side and have your logo on that instead of the folder, make it look like it’s sitting on a wooden desk instead of plain red background*). Then get to improving what people hiring designers care about - your work as displayed in your portfolio.
- I know you’d almost have to start from scratch to tweek it, but you could still salvage a lot of the coding and you would have done it once before, so it’d be a lot simpler than a brand new layout.
Thanks. I didn’t know about the quotes.
I am trying to do what a client wants. My last three freelance gigs weren’t what I would choose and didn’t end up how I would want them, but the client was happy, so it’s all good.
I follow a work forum. Most clients are not bad. The ones that are you do the work and don’t work with them again, say you can’t give them what they want and cut them adrift, or charge them an asshole/idiot tax (not called that naturally). That’s not my opinion; that’s what I see all sorts of independent creators do.
I’m not expecting the perfect job (that would be the one where I do whatever I want and they send me money 
). But I don’t want another job where I spend five years making the same labels over and over again or I start working there and they fire everyone one Friday. I’m looking for something like a printer who needs another set of hands, especially since I need to learn more pre-press.
I don’t think I have coding problems. Yeah, there’s a lot I don’t know, but I manage. None of my ideas are things I can’t do. I can get it all done in a weekend or two.
I’ve asked for feedback at a graphics forum. I also finished two more portfolio pieces today and am letting them simmer in case I missed something. I’ve got a third of the art pencilled for a front page.
Well that’s all good stuff. I think my point still kind of stands though. If you could punch up your old website in a day, you could spend the rest of those two weekends working on your projects and maybe reading one of those suggested books on the reading list Shalmanese linked.
One point about your resume: Saying “Windows 95-XP” and “Microsoft Office 2003” sounds a bit out of date, since those are older programs. Consider just saying “Windows” and “Microsoft Office” instead. (And on top of everything else you have to do, learn the newer versions). 
Perhaps more broadly, though, do you need those items on your resume at all? If they’re only there for the temp work, then consider having separate resumes for temp work and for your design work.