Interlopers.net Forum - Half-Life 2 News & Tutorials

Hey All,

I've been coming here to 'lopers for a few years now, and recently (about 6-8 months ago) I started an only portfolio to contain my work & my creations. It has since became outdated and unattractive to me, and im looking for some suggestions on how to better lay it out & present my work. I'm open to any comments and suggestions. My site is:

Hammer Head Studios

Thanks guys!
DrFeelGood

I guess I'll just go with this for now :/

http://www.thestkclan.net/forums/viewtopic.php?pid=33#p33

Maybe you should wait more than three hours before getting impatient.

My advice:

I am personally very tired of the wireframe Hammer screenshot on portfolio sites. Get rid of that and get rid of a lot the buttons on your website. If it supposed to show off all your work let it just do that. I would install wordpress and find a minimalistic sexy theme.

Only show your best work. Get rid of anything with the word killbox. It is almost the point of a killbox map to be ugly. Honestly you don't have that much work to show and none of it is good enough for someone to want to hire you which is the whole idea of a portfolio.

You should just forget about a portfolio website and work on stuff you can actually show off.

Gee, thanks for the fucking inspiration.....

You asked for suggestions and you got them.

Anyway, I would say I agree with cheesemoo0 about minimalism. A portfolio, to me, is all about the work. The less the design takes away from the work you are showing off, the better. Unless your portfolio is about web design, which it isn't. You don't even really need WordPress. A single static page with a lightbox script and collapsible sections would work just as well and be easier to maintain.

Ok, so first...
The logo needs work. If I had to guess the name "hammer head" is based on the idea similar to that of a "gear head" works on cars and stuff, you work in hammer thus making you "hammer head". So if I am correct the logo you have is a bit generic and does not really get that idea across. A while ago I helped a friend with a logo for a website called cog nog. I came up with the idea for a gear inside a silhouette of a persons head. It was simple but combined with the text it came across exactly what it was meant to be. So, just an idea, but maybe have something like a hammer inside a head, or the hammer logo replacing the brain of someone, or someones head opened up to reveal where the brain should be but there is a hammer in its place.

Second...
The font you have for studio comes across more like hammer head soda shoppe than hammer head studios. It is a nice font but does not really fit the theme of the site.

Third,
There are a lot of sites out there that have a black/dark background and blue type. Honestly it is bland and stressful on the viewers eyes. Light grays and muted colors are far more pleasing to the eye and more inviting to the viewer. That will also allow the screenshots to pop off the page more since the contrast between the background and the screenshot will be greater. Just look at this site and see how well it works.

All this is not meant to bash you. I have studied design and have a degree is graphic design. At the risk of tooting my own horn, I am pretty decent at helping people refine design schemes. So take this as constructive critz as it is intended...

I would listen to the man above me. He suggested all these things for my site and I ignored them because I was happy with my results at the time but when I look back now I see what he meant. It's a mish mash of unrelated graphics. My loss but don't let it be YOURS.

Also aren't you the dude whose work I already commented on? According to that thread it said the man was 30 something. If that is you, why the language?

IMO, giving yourself a studio name isnt what your looking for. Make it personal. Companies are hiring you, not the brand/studio.

Put yourself on the site. Some portfolios have most things to showcase on 1 page. This isnt a must but Human Resources is only making a quick first glance, less clicks the better. Mine isnt the greatest but its simple and 1 page (with a blog on another page)

http://tedmcilwain.com

Mayham - I like your suggestions. I just havent had a chance to work on this much cause I've been down with the flu the past few weeks.. but hoping to work on this soon....

Habboi - Yes you are, and I value your input...

cashed - I'm really not looking to get "hired" by anyone, I'm mainly doing a portfolio to show what i have learned and accomplished in level design thus far, and what I have planned as far as my future endeavors take me....

If this is just your own personal site, I would suggest dropping the "blah blah studio" and just putting your name / gamername on it. Main reason being you aren't a real studio and it looks silly when people portray themselves as a "studio", If you want people to come to this site to see your work and what "you" have done, ditch the "studio"

As for the design of the site I would agree with the others in saying you have to many buttons. People just want the quick, sweet, and simple when it comes to checking out images.

Uninteresting/crappy (no offense) webdesign can usually only be used if the media you post on it makes you eyes cry golden tears. Now in the occasion your media doesnt get women pregnant by looking at it, i'd advice you to make your website look a bit less crappy. A stunning website makes your media look better too. In webdesign there are 2 key elements that make or break a website. Accessability/interaction and visual design. You want the website to be logical when it comes down to interaction/navigation. You want the website to be visually appealing, because it makes your work look more professional; and people are usually watching your media in a different way, a more positive way.

Like said before, a portfolio website should be personal; unless you 'are' an actual company.

Listen to what the people above me said, what they said is wise;and it should really help you.

Well, how should I go about doing this then? www.justongriggs.com just sounds odd to me...

www.juston.com is just an advertisement, meaning it hasn't been purchased yet, right?

DrFeelGood wrote:Well, how should I go about doing this then? http://www.justongriggs.com just sounds odd to me...

Your portfolio should be personal not your domainname perse, though it's more logical.

http://www.arsenevandebilt.com doesn't seem like a good idea for me, since it's too long; people most likely won't remember it or spell it wrong.

In your case however, I don't see what would be odd about it.

Gary wrote:http://www.juston.com is just an advertisement, meaning it hasn't been purchased yet, right?

No. A domain that hasn't been bought doesn't resolve, aka if you go to the address your browser will tell, there's nothing here. A domain name is just a redirection to an ip-address, if it hasn't been bought, it can't be showing anything, since it doesn't exist.

If your looking for a good template check out http://www.themeforest.net and buy a good portfolio template, this place has really nice pre-made templates designed by professional web template artists for dirt cheap. The guys there get paid a commission for every sale.