New portfolio complete
A month ago I told you I was experimenting with a new portfolio design.
Since then, and in between client work, I’ve been doing what I can to beef-up the case studies with larger contextual images, sketches, and mind-maps. The aim was to finally point the portfolio buttons here on my blog over to the new portfolio site.
Today it’s ready to go.
You’ll probably be familiar with most of the projects, so I made sure to include detailed scans from my notebook, and new shots of the design work in context (on clothing, cars, surf boards, etc.).
Here’s hoping the notes give a little extra insight into my thought process.
Please do head across, let me know what you think, and thanks very much to everyone who offered feedback last month. You were a great help.
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42 appreciated comments on “New portfolio complete”
What are your thoughts?
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Looks great David, I so love the quality of your logos, and I like that you have included the process for them in your portfolio.
Good work!
Jen
You should really think about cutting down the size of the logos.
http://www.davidairey.co.uk/aspect46
If you cut the first two’s height in half you’d be able to fit both before the fold. It’d make for a lot less scrolling.
Also, the Contact Me link on the sidebar should point to http://www.davidairey.com/contact/ so users don’t have to click two links to contact you. Just my preference though.
Including rough sketches in your new portfolio is a really nice touch. Love the unused concept for Henri Ehrhart.
Looks sweet, David! It’s awesome to see the design process for each logo. I especially like the images at the bottom that showcase the logo in context of actually usage.
Great point, Adam. I’ll get a contact form up there as soon as I find a decent one. For now, though, I’ve linked the “contact” button directly back here.
Thanks a lot, Jenni, Kirsten, Andrew. I think my “blog” portfolio has been lacking larger images for a long time, and it’s nice to feature my work a little bigger for a change.
I’m really not wanting to get into a debate with anyone here so all I’ll say is it’s looking really good David. Good on you for sticking to your guns with regards to colour palette (or a lack of it as some had complained) and the site’s overall minimalism as your true intention, of letting the work speak for itself whilst being showcased by a clean, good-looking site, is now obvious for all to see.
Wow, I’m gladly astonished David, the new “In context” section you included is a great idea, those pics are amazing!
Congratulations!
I don’t actually mind the scrolling David. I would maybe drop a ‘back to top’ link in at the bottom of your portfolio pieces for a quick switch back to the top of the site.
I love your in-context shots. Seeing the logo on a white background only tells half of the story sometimes.
Well done mate.
Hi Martin, I was pretty much convinced I wanted a monotone site and personal logo, so although many others called for some colour, I think there’s enough in the contextual imagery.
Abbas, good suggestion with the ‘back to top’ link. There’s actually one in the footer navigation, but my intention is for visitors to click the ‘next portfolio entry’ link once they reach the bottom, rather than scroll up to the sidebar (or go ‘back to top’).
I gave fixing the sidebar position a shot, so it stayed with you as you scroll, but a couple of the bottom case study links were being cut-off when viewed on laptop screens, which was no good.
Thanks to you, Martin, and Carlos for having a look. Enjoy the weekend, guys.
Hello David, I think that your new portfolio site is really effective, how you have chosen to show the completed logo with the process material, implementations and client comments. Keep up the good work :)
I love seeing the sketches and the extra photos of the logos ‘in action’. It’ll probably please potential clients too, give them an idea of what the design process entails. And I don’t have a problem with scrolling – scrolling’s why God gave us fingers! Although I suppose they’re useful for a few other things too, like clicking and dragging manoeuvres… ;)
Great work David, your portfolio is a great reflection of who you are and what you have achieved, congrats. Also noticed a change in ‘title’ to brand identity designer, nice.
For your portfolio website I might have an suggestion to change the urls of the clients one level up to url/portfolio/clientname imo this will look a bit better in terms of categorization. You also might want to consider adding some sort of arrow or dot on the portfolio links on the leftside, that way you can easily reflect yourself within the timeline while browsing the portfolio.
Maby a bit cheesy, but adding your signature in the footer really turns the portfolio page into an experience.
Good luck, keep it up! Best, Sander
Hey David, portfolio site looks great. It’s a lot like your original concept, and though I made suggestions in the original post as well, I’m glad you didn’t try to make everyone happy and stayed true to your style. As I’ve said before, I love the big images and in-process scans. One thing I think is a good idea, but didn’t notice was the “next portfolio entry” link at the bottom of the page. I didn’t notice it until I read your reply to Abbas here. Maybe it can be a little more prominent.
Good stuff.
Awesome David! Thank you for posting. I love seeing your logo designs in context.
Great work!
Stunning David. Truly Inspirational. Also very User Friendly. Keep it Up. S+
Hi David!
I´m graphic designer from Argentina and I LOVE YOUR WORK!
Your new Portfolio it´s great.
I´m working on doing my logo designs better every day and I´d like you to share with me some logo tips. So here you have my e-mail…
Thank you for your time!
Great portfolio David, I like it a lot.
I like the initial logos in mono as I once heard, probably from you, that a logo must look good while not in colour also. I think that any of your prospective cients will be impressed and it is so clean and easy to navigate while showing them great designs.
Keep up this great stuff.
Best wishes
Graeme
I like it David! Love the real world examples, great Photoshop work by the way, very clean :)
Great, well done, no doubt.
Thanks for the suggestions, Sander. The “active link” addition is one I’ll definitely try.
Andy, it’s good to know you didn’t notice the “next portfolio entry” at the foot of each case study. I’ve since changed the text to orange, with the aim of making it more obvious. Hopefully that helps attract attention instead of having visitors return to the menu at the top.
Bárbara, here are some logo design tips for you. I hope they help.
Kate, couldn’t agree more about the scrolling. We’re all so used to it.
Thanks for visiting, everyone. Good of you all to take the time.
Looks great! wish my sketch book was as neat as yours. My thoughts and sketches always end up all over the place
Stunning as always, David. I love seeing your actual sketch work – that’s what I find helps me understand your processes best.
I’m half way through your book at the minute by the way – I have rolled through the first 100 pages inside the first 24 hours, which says it all really. I’ll blog a review once I’ve finished it. :-)
Hi David
I’ve been following your blogs for some time now and while I’ve never actually added my ‘tuppence worth’ I’ve found your work to be very inspiring. Thanks for that! But I can’t keep quiet forever! I just wanted to say that I love the portfolio. Its great to see everything larger than life for a change and prevents all that ‘screen zooming’ when you want to get a closer look. The sketching and mind maps give an ‘inside view’ of your creative process – quite a private thing – and there’s a lot to learn from this also. So, thanks for taking the trouble in getting this up and running. Good thing you held onto the .co.uk eh? :)
You’re not alone there, Jesse. I purposely excluded the sketches on paper scraps/bus tickets, etc.
Mark M., that’s great — looking forward to learning what you think of the book.
Mark T., I thought the .co.uk might come in handy once again. Thanks for leaving your first comment, and I’m glad you enjoy the larger images. Hoping all’s well in London.
Looking good!
Really like seeing your sketchwork/process. Showing the websites on the good old MacBook Pro is always a good call if I do say so myself! Out of interest if you did a logo for a client and they asked if you would look at their site, would you do this although you specialise in logo design?
wow… very elegant !! I always amazed to them who having high creativity …. ( imagine….what their brain have to make something artistic.. !? )
David I like the clean look of your new portfolio site its simple and effective. Showing the logos in context is very clever and something I have been contemplating doing myself for some time (unfortunately client work keeps getting in the way). Nice to see a few extra projects that have not been published on your .com site before. Keep up the good work.
smooth :)
Lookin’ good, man! Lots of good ideas for presentations. I’ve been revamping my web portfolio for a while now and have hit a few walls, so this helps. I always enjoy seeing your work!
David, your site, as well as your portfolio work, is amazing. The simplicity of it is refreshing (Airey, just like your name :)
Hi David,
I’m in the process of re-designing my portfolio (for the last 8 months!) so it’s great to take a look at your new site. I think your design is perfect for putting the focus on the work you do. It’s clean and simple and I appreciate the large images and your sketches. My one niggle about the site though is that it’s left aligned while your blog is center aligned. I find going from one site to the next a bit unpleasant (I know that sounds odd) but the continuity is broken for me. Did you do it on purpose to make it clear that they are two different sites?
Hi Mike, it’s certainly possible that I help with websites, but for the coding, I’d prefer to pass this onto a specialist. It’s better for my sanity, and for the client’s website.
Karen, you make a great point about the left alignment of the portfolio, and the central alignment of my blog. I tried shifting my blog to the left, but the right-hand sidebar looked a bit out of place, so I’ve reverted to the centre for now.
What I want to see is my blog looking similar to my portfolio (using two columns, left-aligned), but I don’t have time just now to change the CSS (it’d probably take me an age) so I’m going to look for outside help.
Thanks for the other kind words, everyone!
Really great David, as all your jobs!
Karen, I took your advice on board and was able to redesign my blog so it’s almost identical to the portfolio. Because of which, I’ll continue using the .com portfolio link, and keep the .co.uk purely for Google.co.uk search results (rather than promote it as my main body of work). I’m happier now.
Hi David,
With the seamless transition from one site to the other I think it’s perfect now and more importantly…you’re happier with it too. Congrats on another beautiful job and thank you for all the inspiration you’ve given me in my design work too!
Nice new portfolio and blog. I like this version alot, it’s really clean and easier to read.
Glad you think so, Adam. Thanks for saying.
The styling of your new portfolio is awesome!
Very impressed with it! :D
I absolutely love seeing logos ‘in action’ and so the photos are fab.
Hi Amanda, I hope business has been good for you lately. I liked the portfolio design so much that I carried it across to my blog. Now I’m doubly happy.
Hi David! I was curious to know what face you used in your (David Airey) wordmark. I have come across it a few times in the last few days and noticed you were using it as well. Hopefully you can help.
Thank you,
N
Hi, N. It’s called Knockout, by H&FJ.
Thanks David