Color Comp

Here are my color comps (despite lacking alot of color):

Site Wireframes

Here are the wireframes for my portfolio site:
Home page

Resume page

Gallery page

Portfolio Specs

Colors: Background will be a radial gradation. Text will be black against white place holders.




Fonts: Quantum - titles (site and piece)
Century Gothic - navigation and headers
Arial - body

Redesigned Home

Here is a redesign of my possible Home page.

Site Schematic

Home Page

Bio Page

Gallery Page

Resume Page

Site Architecture

The site's home page will contain my reel which will auto play. There will be three separate pages for my resume, bio, and gallery. All pages will contain contact information that will be clearly visible and link to each other for easy and fast navigation.

Content Organization

My pieces will be included in a reel on the home page of my portfolio site. Here are the pieces and the information about each piece.

Title: Quantum Design
Intent: A logo/ad for a design company called 'Quantum'
Technology: Photoshop

Title: Quantum
Intent: A company logo
Technology: Photoshop

Title: Lone Wolf
Intent: A graphic/logo
Technology: Photoshop

Title: Soviet Design
Intent: A poster design that mocks the capitalistic tenancies of today's design.
Technology: Photoshop

Title: Pac-man
Intent: A poster tribute to the arcade game.
Technology: Photoshop

Final Concept Choice

My final decision for my concept choice is a reel of my designs. This will allow me to show off my work in a unique way. I would like to make the reel as elaborate as possible, spending alot of time creating it instead of the actual site. I will also have a gallery of the work in the reel show that each piece can be viewed one at a time. The color scheme I will use will be black, white, and greys. This will allow the pieces in the reel to 'pop' from the site more and provide a more 'modern' look to the portfolio. Type faces I will use: Quantum (a rounded type with a technology savvy look) and Century Gothic (a sans-serif font). I will try to incorporate a 'Quantum' logo I designed into the background of the site.

Portfolio Concepts

Here are the 5 concepts I came up with for my portfolio:

1. A video reel of my work. I really like this video I found on Vimeo. I think a graphic design reel is a unique and creative way to display my work. I'm not sure how the interface design would be. I think a simple interface combined with the video would create a solid design that would look creative and professional.
   
2. A gallery of my work with a background that changes based on the work being viewed. When a piece is clicked on an viewed, the background will change to feature black and white 'pieces' of the work falling to the bottom of the page. The image will look like a graveyard of designs. The metaphor I'm trying to create with this design is the monument feel of my work and how it becomes somewhat symbolic. Here is a rough detail of what it might look like:
3. A vector/casino/007 themed portfolio design, specifically the opening titles to Casino Royale. Some of my work features gambling and James Bond themes which would fit this design. I feel the opening credits to the James Bond movies are works of art and are successful in grabbing the viewers intention. One of the key elements of a successful portfolio is to grab the attention of the person viewing the site. The vector style is also very graphic and visually appealing which would make the portfolio very attractive and memorable.
4. A combination of ideas 1 and 3. A portfolio reel presented like the title opening to a James Bond movie. I find the openings to have very visceral and appealing look to them. It would also fit in with some of the themes I use and would be a unique portfolio.
   

Digital Portfolio Must Haves

These are the 'must haves' for a digital portfolio:

1. Contact info: obviously needed so people can set up an interview with you.
   
2. Resume: again, needed to get the interview and to highlight your qualifications for the intended position.
3. Portfolio: highlights your skills and the kind of work you do in your intended field. shows your understanding of programs and creative process.
4. Bio: not extremely important, but useful in describing yourself and the way you think about things and the kind of employee you will be.
5. Best Pieces: shows your best work and helps sell your talent and abilities.
   

Resume 2

Building the Design

Here I'll outline the 5 steps I took in creating the 'Soviet Design' piece and the decisions I made:

Step 1: I create the initial layout of the piece. I apply a bevel and emboss with contour to the star to make it pop from the background and separate itself from the hammer and sickle.

Step 2: I add text with a 'Kremlin' font to make the piece look more dynamic.

Step 3: I add an image of Lenin to fill the empty space of the lower left corner. I apply a multiply filter to it so that it doesn't over saturate the space.

Step 4: I add a star shape to the upper right corner to again fill the space and to also balance out the dark colors.

Step 5: I finish the piece by adding a word bubble and the text, 'Now that's good design'. The font bubble was given a hue filter because I found a solid color too distracting and flat. The hue gives it a good color that isn't overpowering and makes it transparent which helps the bubble blend better.

Back In the USSR

This piece is not a tribute or ode to communism or the ideals of Lenin, but a mockery of the current state of design. Design has become so commercial that the designers are no longer inspired by innovation or creativity, but instead the all mighty dollar. Designers are hired to sell the corporate image, not to express individual creativity. This piece is meant suggest that perhaps design is dominated too much by capitalism and corporate greed. Maybe design needs a more socialist outlook.

Schemes of Mice and Men...

These are the 5 color schemes I came up with:

LINK

Faded Green: Green is my favorite color so this is an obvious choice.

Winter: I like a simple color scheme. What I really like about this is that there is no black. There's white and shades of grey but no black. Everyone uses black.

Beach Scheme: I really like blue, especially the way it is complimented by the browns. The scheme makes me think of a nice, pleasant day at the beach.

Simple Triad: I wanted to make something using RGB as a theme and got this. I like how it's bright and vibrant while still looking good.

Green: Again, green is my favorite color. I decided to go the opposite of Faded Green and make a scheme primarily of bright greens.

Highlighted Work

Here is all the work I will highlight in my portfolio:

My Portfolio and the Target Audience

Ironically nothing in my portfolio, save for my 'Quantum' logos, really speaks to the target audience I mentioned previously. Although I haven't made any effort to design logos/corporate identities I would like to persue that area of design. Obviously I will have to start creating mock logos and designs with this 'corporate' look in mind to flesh out my portfolio and gain experience in this kind of design field. Below are the only examples I have that I think are good pieces for my finished portfolio:

Target Audience

A site I used to help determine my target audience was Nathan King Design. The site is streamlined neat and clean. It has a very professional, 'corporate' look and gives the impression of high caliber design. The companies target audience is comprised of NY based companies looking for a well developed logo/identity. I was very impressed looking through the site's portfolio and think I would like to work for a company like this. Considering the audience/clients are companies looking for a corporate identity odds are that Nathan King Design is a company that holds itself very high. By that I mean the company probably has a strict 'corporate' mentality, in that the work done is all top-of-the-line 'conservative' designs. The clients are companies that expect the best in terms of design and Nathan King Design, more than likely, only expects the best-of-the-best work to be created and produced by them.

Porfolio Format

According to the book choices for a portfolio come down to 2 types: portable and online. In creating a portfolio for graphic design an online portfolio would be better than a portable one (cd, dvd, etc.). That being said, a personal website would probably be best because it can showcase not only the work I've done, but also my creativity in designing the actual site. Another idea I have for my portfolio would be a video montage of my work. In keeping with the online type of portfolio it might be a personal site with the video embedded in. A gallery site is another choice, but I feel a straight up gallery might be a little bland and simple.

Questions From Pg. 23

1. Credit classes
2. Painting/drawing/art fundamentals, video/animation, 3D modeling/rendering, and user interface/interaction
3. None
4. Photoshop, Flash, Maya, Dreamweaver, and Final Cut Pro
5. n/a
6. Still Learning
7. Creative outlet, req. for school, need the experience
   
8. n/a
9. n/a
10. Alone
11. Private space
12. I won't accept some types of clients or client work.
    
13. Personal, organized, structured, sarcastic, emotional
    

Analyzing My Work

Unifying elements in my work:
The main unifying element in my work is simplicity. I like using simple shapes with primary color schemes to create my work. My work tends to have a linear structure (which I'm trying to move away from) and can be described as organized.

Porfolio Trends

These are the portfolio's I looked at:

http://alexchamas.carbonmade.com/

http://astridbrisson.carbonmade.com/

http://collective-visions.carbonmade.com/

http://www.graphicdesign.com/portfolio.htm

http://pepino.carbonmade.com/

The most predominant trend I'm seeing with portfolios is the layout used. Both the links/categories of the work and the images of the work itself tend to be aligned in the center of the page. The pages are streamlined and very easy to navigate and the sites themselves use dark colors. The only exception the these trends I found was with the portfolio for Breez Graphic Design Studio. Compared to the others this site was more unique with the layout of it's work and functionality.

Portfolio Skills

The main skill I have that I think could help with my portfolio is video editing. I've taken editing classes before and it has become a pseudo hobby of mine. I would like to possibly edit together a video portfolio for my design work because it's different. A video portfolio would be more unique and interesting than just a gallery of images.

Font Family

Here's my font family:

Could Use Some Work

This piece is one I would like to have in my portfolio, but it needs some work. I just sort of rushed through this and the end result is a little sloppy. The major concern I have with this is the top which obviously needs to be fixed. That's the only thing I believe I have to fix but if I'm wrong please let me know.

Vimeo Video

Graphic Design from omar cornelio on Vimeo.

I think the logo designs in this video are great. They are simple, but effective and are great design showcases.

Concept Logos

Here are 3 more concept logos I made. Please let me know what you think.

Brand Identity

I've been trying to create brands involving my name/initials but with no success. I have, however, developed several brand identities that mean something to me personally. Here they are: