Art Portfolio Layout

[Kinetic]

[url="http://www.hostultra.com/~euphoria/index2.html"]http://www.hostultra.com/~euphoria/index2.html[/url]

As of right now, I'm working on a portfolio site to showcase my favorite works, and I'm pretty much done with the layout. I want to see what others think should be changed. I'm in the process of coding it/getting other people to do my work for me on it, lol. I'm also going to have random comics that I draw from time to time on there. That's for my friends at school mostly though, as it's usually an inside joke that I write about, or use in a similar situation to how it was really used. So what are your opinions?

[PiroMunkie]

[size=1]Host Ultra ... egh. I have a site there currently, and just recently they ave decided to whore their free services with pop-up ads, I suppose. However, it was the only free service I could find with PHP support.

As for your layout, it has some issues. The one that jumps out to me the quickest is the "Navigation." The word is placed far over to the left and makes it seem as though I should find the navigation right below it, yet the actual links are hidden way off to the right. My eye simply does not flow that way off of the word "Navigation."

Secondly, you have two appearances of the name "euphOria." It is redundant. And what I perceive is the main use of it, the one on the top left, does not jump out like it should. The name should be the first thing people see, saying "this is my site, this is what it is called." Second, in my opinion, people should see the navigation. Then pretty much everything else is tertiary. So it is pretty much, "This is what it is, this is where you can go, now look what is inside." I think that should be the general flow of a layout.

Your little quick-hit profile seems awkward just sitting there a-chillin'. I like the idea of having a little "this is me" right there constantly on the page, but if it was me, I would somehow make that and inline frame. The background staying the same color as your site background, and beveling the edges around the frame very slightly to get the effect that the page is "under" the chrome layout. You could also put all the information you want in there as well; you would not be confined to that small vertical space. However, your main problem here is that your image does not allow any decent horizontal space for an inline frame to fit.

Other than that, I have no problem with it. Given, you just have a template up right now. I am interested in how you plan on incorporating the content in since you just have one main image.

But overall, I would say it is average.[/size]

[Guest ScirosDarkblade]

I don't like it. The color scheme is pretty nice, and it [i]looks[/i] polished, but that's all I can really say that's positive.

A major problem: The content vs. space ratio looks to be unbelievably small. The heading, along with the I've-read-it-once-and-I-won't-read-it-again "about me" slab on the right, take up a good 40% of the space. Add to that all the other random space-wasting that is a by-product of the design and you end up actually UTILIZING maybe 45% of the layout. Now, I don't know about you, but I don't put something into a layout unless it's [i]supposed[/i] to be there. After all, visitors come looking for content, not a static visual "treat," if you can even call it that. Now, I'm not saying that the layout looks bad. It [i]looks good[/i], but I can't say that it works as a successful layout. Oh, and two "euph0ria" headings is redundant and the second one should be replaced.

Overall it appears that you really stressed looks over anything else for now.

I'd recommend getting rid of the content on the right portion of the layout and replacing it with something a bit more interesting, or at least utilize the space better and get rid of that "Info: Downloading..." crap. That stuff only works ok for loaders for Flash movies; nowhere else.

Now, there have been cool sites where only a small screen actually had anything worth caring about (Gotham Girls comes to mind) but they're few and far between. For the most part they're not worth visiting more than once. Official movie sites are a good example -- they look awesome and are clearly made by hardcore proffesionals, but they clearly stress looks over useability.

Anyway, I'm sorry I can't give you too many concrete suggestions. Right now I'm working on overhauling my own site and replacing it with version 2.0, and I'm doing it all in Flash, so my design philosophy has really been changing over the past month. But there's 2 things that seem to make a site "cool," and they're not LOOKS: one is obviously the content itself, and the second is how friendly the UI is (whether that means being innovative, or being very permissive with the paths visitors can take through your site, etc.). Looks can grab your attention for a couple of seconds, but after that they don't matter one bit.

[Psychotik]

its nice, I like the smooth feel to it, but the content to layout ratio is to small, the bars at either side take up too much space. The info on the bar on the right isn't rally neccessary, it would be better if you gave it, its own page with added detail. Also add some more graphics to it as it looks kinda bland. But apart from that good job!

[Baron Samedi]

[size=1][color=darkred]I would have to mimic a lot of other comments that a) the names are redundant, b) the Navigation thing looks silly so far over and c) you're not utilising the page properly.

What exactly is this for? Just art? I'd suggest putting up a "Piece of the Day" picture in the 'Content' Box, having the 'Partners' column replaced with a list of your works on there, and put a link to Partners in with the rest of your navigation buttons. Also, increase the overall size of your main area. Or at least centre it on the page. Thats about it...the colour scheme is nice, and it looks very good. I am just worried with the layout of it really.

Hope I helped.[/size][/color]

[Kinetic]

Thanks for all of the comments guys. I'll take everything you've said into consideration because they are all valid and crucial points to the layout. I'm thinking of just keeping it simple, but technical looking. Possibly a black and pink layout. I've loved that color scheme for a while now. Really, this was more of an experiment to see if I could pull off metal-ish look and I decided to make a layout out of it. I was worried about the size of the content box the entire time, and you guys did notice that, as I expected. I'm going to look at some of wrist cutter's layouts and study them, to see what looks good and convenient, since he is such a great designer. I'll probably look at Semjaza's too, although he doesn't do the centered layouts, like wrist cutter has done some of. That's the kind of layout I want for my portfolio because they look more professional (in my opinion), and they're just different. Thanks again guys :)

[Semjaza]

I might approach this from an angle you're not. I think of portfolio sites as being used to get actual jobs... not just a collection of work to show off. So I'm wording my thoughts on this with that in mind. Obviously if you just want this to hold stuff for random people to look at, you can ignore most of what I have to say. If you want to someday build this into something you can really use, my comments might be slightly more useful lol

There are some basic issues you have with this layout that really can't even be covered by the artistic aspects of this.

Firstly, when you approach these sorts of sites, you have to think about your audience and what exactly it is you want them to see. Obviously, this being a portfolio site, you want to show off your work. A busy or design-orientated site is fine to use in this situation, but you run the risk of it overtaking your work. You don't want something with so much going on that it takes away from the pieces you wish to display.

However, your design is fairly monotoned and smoothed out, so I don't think that's an issue for you. The issue this has is simply that there is almost no room to actually display your work. There's little reason to make a portfolio site where the work is not prominantly displayed from the start.

I don't know if you plan on having people clicking on little thumbnails to view larger versions or what. Having a site that basically would just have tiny 50x50 icons built into thank link to other windows is rather pointless. I'd suggest increasing the size of what you have here. It's far too short in general, but the content area is absolutely miniscule

In fact, considering your target audience, I'd go ahead and just make this for 1024x768 browsers and higher. Anyone of importance that wanted to see your work would be at a higher resolution as it is and there's little reason to decrease it for the amount of people out there with lower resolutions. Besides, most people with PCs are moving up to XP as it is and that won't even run below 800x600. If you so desired, you could make a version for 800x600 and one for 1024x768 and higher.

If you really want to keep it this small, you could just have it open in a pop-up that fits the site within it. This is obviously a fixed-size site and since it's in a large window, it just looks like you're wasting a large amount of space. There are times and places for that, but I don't think it works for what you're wanting to accomplish for this.

As for the rest of this... get rid of the second euphoria title. I'd also get rid of the partners part of the layout as it just takes up space. If you really would like to affiliate with others, put it on another page. It doesn't make sense to have this on a portfolio themed site, unless you just want this to show your friends and have no interest in actual job-type applications for it. No company gives a crap if you're friends with spong.com lol.

I also agree about the navigation issue. I don't find it confusing where the "navigation" part is placed in relation to the actual links, but a large amount of people will. A decent navigation is absolutely vital on a web site and, really, even if you think something you've done is common sense, it probably won't be for everyone. People decide whether or not they like a site within about 3 seconds and if they are remotely unsure about what you want them to click on... it's already too late. If you were just making a personal site with a billion and one things on it, obviously navigation would be more complex. It's all relative.

I would definitely ditch the little biography thing on the side though. Put it on its own page and leave it off the first page. Portfolio sites look pretentious when people paste crap about themselves all over it as soon as they load up. Most people do not think that's true, but it really just reflects badly on yourself in the minds of many. At least you didn't throw your picture on the main page lol.

I would also give up on the "loading" style text. It's really just superfluous on a site for this type of thing... especially given that it's nothing but static graphics.

I also think you're just using an odd combination of typefaces. You have these more plain ones on the side, but the navigation has a more uncommon appearance. I really just do not think they go together at all and their use is strange. This is probably the main thing that brings this design down for me.

People downplay the use of typefaces lately, especially in the amateur design community, but they mean a lot. They're probably the most important aspect of a decent design... especially on a web site, where people are meant to read things. Not that they are hard to read, they just do not mesh and most people will realize this when first looking at it, I think.

So sorry to go on and on, but hopefully that was of some help lol.

[Kinetic]

No problem, I actually enjoyed reading that, because it's helping me learn the ins and outs of web design. It feels good to get a constructive comment like that, especially from you, seeing as how you have made such successful websites.

I guess that I was only thinking of making something for a small group of friends when I made this, and for myself. Sort of like the myOtaku thing. It's just a place to put my things and just relax in. Now that you put the career thing in perspective for me, I'm considering it, but I'd have to improve a great deal before I even considered making a portfolio. For the time being, I think I'll just play around with different ideas for a new layout and then take it from there. I'm definately going to take your post into consideration because there are so many points that I failed to see before. I never really thought it through I suppose. I feel kind of foolish because I was so ignorant to all of these points you made, but I'll definately think out every move ahead of time on my future attempts. Thank you.

[PiroMunkie]

[size=1]If you are truly interested in learning the various aspects of design, I would suggest looking for classes you can take that may help you understand that. You might not have much of anything where you go, but anything can help. I would hardly suggest actual web and graphic design classes unless they actually have a reputation for being really good courses. Most teachers are just there to teach and nothing else.

For example -- and I probably mention this [i]way[/i] too often, but I am just that proud of it -- I have been fortunate enough to attend a high school with an [i]outstanding[/i] journalism program. Our adviser is incredibly passionate about it, and we have walls full of an uncountable number of various awards our paper as a whole and the individual people within it have won. It has won 8 Best of Show awards in three years; it has won the National Pacemaker Award, which is pretty much the Pulitzer of high school journalism. I give massive amounts of credit to that class helping me develop a better eye for design. I mean, as Tony said, many people overlook how important your mere font choice is in how a layout appears. They do not really teach you that in web design classes.

Or you could simply just look at different, successful websites. Try to find out what exactly makes them so attractive to many people. My journalism adviser has told me a story before of an editor who once stood up on the main desk in front of the classroom, held up our newspaper up next to another schools newspaper, and simply said, "Which one would you rather read?" And obviously ours was chosen, it is a lot cleaner in how things are organized. In fact, I have nothing better to do, so let's do just that, shall we?

[center][img]http://www.otakuboards.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=18738&stc=1[/img][/center]

See what I mean? The "North Star" has so many issues just with its front page it hurts when I walk. You could throw a dart and hit something that is not right. Whereas ares is much more refined. Not saying it does not have its problems, but they are a lot harder to find. It also helps that are visuals and topics are usually very striking and quality, but you could have good photos and such, and the layout can still look like crap. Thus, it takes away from what is actually good about what is on the inside.

So yeah, there is what advice I can think of, I kind of got side tracked putting that image together. So I forgot what I was going to say in all.[/size]

[Semjaza]

If you are interested in classes like Piro said... I recommend some in particular. Publishing is a big one, particularly magazine style publishing. While you obviously use different programs for publishing (such as Quark or InDesign) they will teach you things that elude a lot of web designers out there.

This is especially useful in the fact that many designers are trying to get out of the box styles that form most websites. Most sites are created according to some very basic block patterns and that works fine enough, but isn't always the best for something from the design perspective.

A class on that is particularly useful in something dynamic like Flash that allows vector work. You'll have a much easier time if you approach Flash designs more like a magazine than a plain old HTML site, I've found.

Typography is also a good one. If you can, take this with a rather finicky teacher because you'll get more out of it. This basically just involves lying out type well and most likely creating your own typeface by the end of the class. Absolutely necessary for anyone into graphic design on any level. You cannot understimate the importance of type at all.

Color Theory never hurts if you've not taken it. People mix incompatible colors online so often that it's not even funny. I don't think you have this problem, but the class can't hurt. I've thought back to it in many situations.

The problem with a lot of web designs is that people approach them from two very seperate angles. First you have the tech guys. They are able to show off coding skills and such, but a lot of their work feels very rigid and usually contains far too much information and nothing to break it up.

The other angle is that of the designer... who basically feels that they can get away with anything as long as they think it looks nice. Little consideration is taken for usefulness, usability or the abilities of the audience.

Obviously you want to mix these two up, and I feel those classes listed will give you a good background in that... obviously HTML classes help too lol.

Of course, I don't know how easily you can take these classes. Some high schools seem to offer courses to this effect now.

[James]

[QUOTE=Semjaza Azazel]
Typography is also a good one. If you can, take this with a rather finicky teacher because you'll get more out of it. This basically just involves lying out type well and most likely creating your own typeface by the end of the class. Absolutely necessary for anyone into graphic design on any level. You cannot understimate the importance of type at all.

[/QUOTE]
[color=#707875]I agree with that completely; I think it's one of the most important elements with any web design.

A lot of people do these really awful things on sites; they'll have size 1 text, with a white on dark background and so on. But if you learn about typography and the way the human eye interprets images, you actually realize that this is one of the most counter-intuitive ways to design things.

So, I think what Tony has mentioned here is really critical. A good web design isn't about art; the art is definitely secondary. A good design is about functionality above all else -- and that includes typography. Typography is one of the most underrated elements with web design, I would say.[/color]

[Hittokiri Zero]

Typography is my favorite thing to do :rolleyes: but that's besides the point...

Basically I don't like the layout your using alot of different fonts and not achieving much with them. On top of that your content space is quite small =\. The layout just kind of sits there as well there's not much to marvel at =O. That doesn't mean you need to add some fancy banner it just means you need to do something attractive throughout the layout. Something that makes it unique yet easy on the eyes, and easy to navigate! :p

[Kinetic]

I would really love to take some of those classes, but I go to a rather small school, and that's out of reach for me, as the only classes slightly relating to any of those topics are Art and Computer Literature, lol. I'm definately considering something like that for college though, as it's something I've been interested in for along time. I've just never taken the initiative step into the whole mess. Thanks alot for all of the tips :)