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Are there any members of the board who are qualified and would be interested in critiquing my design portfolio?

I currently would on a support desk and I'm desperate to try and make more use of my design skills. I have a portfolio of my work and need to find out if my work is actually any good, or I'm kidding myself. This isn't about touting for work, I just need to be told whether I should carry on looking or accept that that I'm just a keen amateur and look for something else.

Any takers?

First up I'd say put some prices to your work - your website doesn't quote any prices for web design or anything else (or if it does I didn't see it)

Price / Quality is relevant to the question so I couldn't say if your are wasting your time or not, if you put a price on it - people will be able to value your work (or potentially just laugh depending on your prices)

At the moment I'm trying more to use the website as an online CV more than freelance work as I don't feel confident enough to do proper freelance work

That makes it quite difficult to work out of you are kidding yourself or not - your website stuff looks OK but you might be kidding yourself in terms of what money you think it could earn you.
Same goes for some of the other stuff too...... You might want to add details such as timescales as well - something at took you a week and takes someone else a day makes all the difference to your value / potential.... that's my take anyway

Hi Wolfstand I took some time to browse through your website. While I can't judge the quality of your work I can certainly help out with the CV aspect of the website. (I work as an HR Consultant so I have a decent idea of the do's and don'ts for resumes).

My concerns lay mostly with the lack of self advertisement in the website. It is very helpful for some freelance websites to include a footer at the bottom of each page that lists (in a small font) your companies name, your name, and some basic contact info. Otherwise when I'm viewing your photography or web design all I see is Wulfstan Design. As a prospective client I shouldn't have to navigate to your contact/about me page to learn basic information beyond your company's name.

I was most disappointed with the About Me page. On the one hand you list your software skills, portfolio, and Resume - good stuff. What troubles me is this line:

"Although not trained as a designer, I did study technical illustration and have been involved in numerous design projects over the years."

It's honest, but honesty will not land you work. They don't need to know that you are not trained as a designer, your work should speak for itself and your resume will make it clear what you have and have not accomplished. Only talk about your experience and what you are capable off. You don't want to advertise your lack of experience or accreditation. Lastly, your name isn't anywhere on the page. I either have to open your resume or assume your name is Christian "Something" from your email address listed. Your contact information should be visible, near the top of the page so that it sticks in people's minds. When I click on your about me page, the first thing I look at is the random Adobe symbol.... I should be drown to your name and contact info, followed by a brief description of your expertise, services, and abilities.

Hope this helps


Edit: I noticed on your resume that the second thing listed is your marital status. Is this a required or customary inclusion for a resume in the UK? In Canada that information is illegal to request and would get a raised eyebrow from any recruiter - I'm just curious.

 gossipmeng wrote:
Hi Wolfstand I took some time to browse through your website. While I can't judge the quality of your work I can certainly help out with the CV aspect of the website. (I work as an HR Consultant so I have a decent idea of the do's and don'ts for resumes).

My concerns lay mostly with the lack of self advertisement in the website. It is very helpful for some freelance websites to include a footer at the bottom of each page that lists (in a small font) your companies name, your name, and some basic contact info. Otherwise when I'm viewing your photography or web design all I see is Wulfstan Design. As a prospective client I shouldn't have to navigate to your contact/about me page to learn basic information beyond your company's name.

I was most disappointed with the About Me page. On the one hand you list your software skills, portfolio, and Resume - good stuff. What troubles me is this line:

"Although not trained as a designer, I did study technical illustration and have been involved in numerous design projects over the years."

It's honest, but honesty will not land you work. They don't need to know that you are not trained as a designer, your work should speak for itself and your resume will make it clear what you have and have not accomplished. Only talk about your experience and what you are capable off. You don't want to advertise your lack of experience or accreditation. Lastly, your name isn't anywhere on the page. I either have to open your resume or assume your name is Christian "Something" from your email address listed. Your contact information should be visible, near the top of the page so that it sticks in people's minds. When I click on your about me page, the first thing I look at is the random Adobe symbol.... I should be drown to your name and contact info, followed by a brief description of your expertise, services, and abilities.

Hope this helps


Edit: I noticed on your resume that the second thing listed is your marital status. Is this a required or customary inclusion for a resume in the UK? In Canada that information is illegal to request and would get a raised eyebrow from any recruiter - I'm just curious.

Many thanks for the feedback @gossipmeng. My website is a bit behind my CV & Portfolio as I was trying out Adobe's Muse package. As I no longer have it I need to redo it in hard code. With regard to marital status I think it was just automatic to put it in there. I had removed my age & DOB, so on reflection removing marital status makes sense as well.

I see your point about pointing out my weaknesses, I need to be more neutral and let my examples talk for me. Having had a look at the About Me page, It's now obvious where some of the weaknesses are, I will look to correct them when I revamp the site.

Many thanks for the feedback. Every bit helps.