Website critique?

[Goph704]

Hey, I was looking for some input on my Website, I'm trying to gear it towards Grad school. Please tell me what you think, what works and what doesn't I'm a little worried because some of the pictures are a little blurry, but I would love some notes on overall construction and form. Please be brutal, I know it still has a long way to go.

Wix.com designportfolio created by adamlyork704 based on My Personal Portfolio New!

 

[chausman]

Hey, I was looking for some input on my Website, I'm trying to gear it towards Grad school. Please tell me what you think, what works and what doesn't I'm a little worried because some of the pictures are a little blurry, but I would love some notes on overall construction and form. Please be brutal, I know it still has a long way to go.

Wix.com designportfolio created by adamlyork704 based on My Personal Portfolio New!

Well, if you want brutal... ()

If I can't even get to your site to see a few things, it's a lot harder to make me want to go open it on my computer. And, a lot of people don't have flash enabled on their "real" computers now as well.

If I can find a real computer, I'll comment...

 

[josh88]

To build on what Chase said, I've been having problems with flash all night on my system so every time I click something flash crashes and I have to reload the page. The technical issues are on my end, but because of my issues I can't see any of the site. Just a thought in that it can potentially completely eliminate some people ever seeing things. Flash looks nice, but that's one reason I do like sites that are static and not dependent on something working correctly for access.

and now I'm reinstalling flash to solve my issues and look at it.

 

[josh88]

Ok, now that's fixed. I'd say if it's at all possible lose the blurry pictures. You are marketing yourself and your work and you really want clean clear pictures.

Starting on the Bio:

"I have created lighting and effects for various productions ranging from smaller space black boxes to 1,000 plus seat houses." this might be a personal thing, I'd lose "space" and say smaller black boxes, or maybe even small space black boxes. The way it's worded now just seems odd to me.

"Since then my design credits for straight plays include such organizations as Theatre Charlotte, CAST, the St. Thomas Players, the Greensboro Community Theater and the Temple Theater." I would lose "straight" every time you refer to plays. Also I don't know what CAST stands for, as someone looking to hire or accept you in a school I'm not inclined to look it up, if it stands for something maybe spell out what it is?


"I worked sales and technical technical what? for a Charlotte company specializing in LED technology and I have a small amount of installation and architectural experince typo. Currently my designs are created for drama productions that are not supported by the design and production department at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts, where I am employed by the campus perfomance facilites typo as an assistant technical director specializing in lighting."

The end of that gets a little choppy with short sentences and then you end with what is kind of a long run on.

moving to the portfolios: on the full portfolio page: Gospel and Christmas have typos


"Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" needs capitals on the title on it's page
: On the Christmas Carol page, I see the title as
A
Christm
as
Carol

: On the Man Of La Mancha page, the title has an I so it's "Man of Lamanchia"

: On the Much Ado page there is a floating " ( " bump it down so it joins the rest of Tracking mode)

on the Paperwork Page you have "copywrite law" it's copyright as well as "strenghts" just above that


That's what I saw.

 

[derekleffew]

The flash animations aren't doing you any favors.
I'd use something other than WiX.com if you can't remove all the references to it.
Other random thoughts:
Here, flip the photo. Why would you be looking away from the text? Why should I read it if even you won't look at it?
Use of the plural of the word portfolio seems awkward. One has only one portfolio of one's work; multiple people would have portfolios.
Here, I wouldn't include Word docs. No one is going to edit your resumes. PDFs are enough, and perhaps display the PDFs so I don't have to download to glance at them.
Paperwork. The WYSWIG (misspelled) is illegible. If that's the best Vectorworks plot you have, better to include none at all, especially since "These are designs done for unrealized or incompleted shows."
"Reproduction or reprinting of these without consent is in violation of copywrite [misspelled] law."
1)Trust me, no one is going to want to copy or steal these lame drawings.
2)Accusing or reminding a potential client, employer, or adjudicator that you suspect they might break the law is not an impression with which you want to leave the viewer.
What's with the redacting on the Instrument Schedule.pdf? Again, don't make me download to see it. No one is going to take the time.
You probably can't style the blog to match the tone and feel of the website, but can't you change the colors or fonts such that it's not such a jarring transition from the website to the blog?

Overall, does the typewriter font motif convey that you are a young, hip lighting designer, or do you think it says steampunk? Odd that a lighting designer would choose a gray background and font colors in black and white.

Did you state you obtained a Bachelor's degree? "Procenium, happend, elipsoidals, Convential" misspelled. All on the same page.
From Résumés and Portfolios - ControlBooth :

One grammar or spelling mistake and you're outta there. If you cannot spend
the time to proofread your resume [website] and have your friend and his/her friend
proofread your resume [website], then how attentive are you going to be with the
paperwork I'm going to give you?

 

[Goph704]

Thank you. I'll start working on all of this today, and Re-post as soon as it's in a more complete state.

 

[Grog12]

Building on what Derek said, your resume page is hard to read because of the dark background and the black font.

Put up a PDF resume and leave it at that. Its the safest way to ensure your resume looks the way you want it to.

If I were reviewing your website to hire you I'd question if your paperwork was even yours because of the redactions.

On your contact page...a fill in the form to get in touch with me ensures that no one is going to be bothered to contact you. I understand not wanting your phone number on it (though then why didn't you redact that on your paperwork, and why do you have a different phone number and your email showing on your resume?) but there's no reason not to give an email address.

 

[cpf]

My #1 complaint is that it's slooooooooooow.

 

[DrPinto]

My turn to tear it apart!

Homepage:
Kind of difficult to see the selections as the background becomes greener.

Bio:
[In 1997, He attended] The "h" in "he" shouldn't be capitalized.
[Also in 2010 was nominated for best lighting design] Might want to say "Was nominated in 2010 for best...
[perfomance facilites] Both words spelled incorrectly.
[as the ATD] I would spell out Assistant Technical Director
[Varilite warrenty Certified technican.] Warranty and technician spelled wrong. Certified capitalized.

Portfolio Page:
[© Adam L. York Limited/ Genisis lighting and effects. All rights reserved] It's spelled "genesis".

I'll read the rest later.
Thank us all for the free proofreading service!

 

[DrPinto]

I wouldn't put a link to your blog. That's just your informal thoughts. I don't think a potential employer should to go there. Keep it professional.

Also, do you really want to spell check all your posts? If you pick a random blog post, copy the whole thing into Word, and look at it, all the typos and spelling errors will pop up.

Also, I Googled your name and stumbled into your page on ProLightingSpace:

Adam L. York's Page - ProLightingSpace

I liked the slide show. If you had clearer pictures, the slide show might look good on the home page.