Need feedback on portfolio

[Anonymous]

No, it’s called having a sense of humor. Lighten up Cuz!

[Akin Adekile]

^_^

[landplanner]

Chances are you are also known as nrshcmid or some other psuedonym like that and tend to hangout in Cyburbian land. Change your username here so it is not confused with mine. No copyright declaration, but come up with your own, and here is a fresh idea, inject some humor or irony into whatever you use as your moniker.

[Tonie C.]

I’m not sure if someone mentioned this yet, but I would take your Facebook user name off. 

I checked out your website and you might either want to leave it off or do a cleaned up version for professional purposes.  I would edit out the darker stuff like the hanging corpses and bloodied eye.  You might want to scrub out all of the violent, religious, and political images; those things tend to make people uncomfortable. 

The pdf version looks great.  I agree with someone’s comment about removing the black boxes, they are overwhelming.  If you really want to include a photo I would get a more professional one taken.  46 pages might be too long. 

I like your graphics.  One of the main complaints I see in portfolio reviews is that no one includes hand rendering.  Yours has a nice mixture and you can obviously draw!  You also show a lot more personality and warmth than some I’ve seen; I have a good sense of who to expect walking into an interview.     

I hope I don’t sound negative.  Overall I really like it, I’m just nitpicking because, well… you asked. 

 

[ida]

You’re basically telling the employer, “if you hire me, I will put in 60% effort. The other 40% I will use to pursue my other career. And while I’m working in your office doing landscape design, I will think about how I can improve the portrait painting I am doing for another client.”

Good luck

[Akin Adekile]

Thanks. I really appreciate the feedback. It’s really helpful. I tried to include my  least offensive artwork in the portfolio itself. I forgot that I had some of the more unsettling stuff on the website. I’ll see what can be done. Again, thanks!

[Patrick Ptomey]

Like others have mentioned, your work work looks nice and abundant. One of my biggest criticisms is your choice of font. I counted five different fonts, not including all the other fonts embedded in your images. Keep your font selection consistent and minimal and don’t alternate between serif and sans-serif fonts. I’m sure you’re a big fan of your cover font, but it’s a very bold and attention demanding font and does not speak to the rest of your portfolio. I personally don’t care for that font, but you really like it, I would continue it throughout your portfolio to keep it ‘tied together’. Also, I would flip the positions of your project titles (ie. Water Park) and project groups (ie. Recreational Design). I say this because we read from top left to bottom right and your portfolio currently emphasizes the project group – sometimes repetitively – rather than the project title, which I think helps to brand your project. 

Secondly, choose a more simplified north arrow.

Thirdly, your portfolio feels pretty long. That can change depending on your level. Put some serious consideration into the number of projects you include. I would think five or six would be appropriate, and selecting four pieces of your artwork should be sufficient.

Lastly, on your contents page, remove the black background from your contact info and either enlarge your photo to full page or make it smaller if you decide to keep it. Also remove your name/title/etc because it’s right on the cover. (Or at least make it the same size/text as the rest of your contact info)

[Akin Adekile]

Thanks for the lengthy feedback. It’s helpful. As for the length. I made it somewhat lengthly because it’s hard for me to pick and choose which works are better than others. My hope was that it wasnt too long for a reader to get bored. So I aimed for variety.

[Jeff Graham, Associate ASLA]

As a recent grad who’s working on a portfolio, my gratitude to all for this educational conversation. Thanks Akinyinka for posting your portfolio for perusal. Good luck to you.

[Akin Adekile]

I’ve updated the portfolio with most of the suggestions mentioned in this thread. Please, let me know if you think this is getting there…http://issuu.com/akinadekile/docs/issuu1

[Patrick Ptomey]

Your portfolio reads so much better! **claps hands**
Continuing the font throughout did wonders.

(Change the height of your project title’s so that they read larger than the category title. They almost seem irrelevant. Are they relevant?)

[landplanner]

Craig:

Maybe in another paralell universe, we will share a brew together someday, We seem

to think alike and I love your humor.

[Andrew Furmanski]

Getting there indeed! It looks great, I would still maybe work with the titles and perhaps the alignment of some images from page to page. But that is nitpicking, it looks wonderful

[Kimberly Voisin]

I had a look at your portfolio.  You have a lot of interesting work but I think that you are likely showing too much.   I would try to focus on 8-10 projects rather then showing all of your work.  Also, it is 40+ pages and I am noticing from the download that the file size is rather large.  I recommend trying to keep the file size below 5 mb which seems to be the maximum size that most companies allow you to upload to their websites.  For interviews it is fine to bring an extensive body of work but for job applications I believe that it is important to focus on a few key areas.  That being said the portfolio layout and design is clean and well done.

[Andres F. Pineda]

Akinyinka, really great art work you have going on here, along with the projects.

Have you thought of where you are going to apply yet and do you know what kind of work they do? This can be a good way to narrow down on the amount of items that you add to your portfolio.

I would personally suggest adding at most 5-6 of your best projects, leaving the rest of the work as a topic of discussion when you go into the interview.

Keep in mind that recruiters, PMs or principals have limited time viewing these portfolios and it’s not just your portfolio; but at times it can be hundreds of applicants, so I would suggest taking the approach of a TV ad, concise, beautiful and impactful that leaves room for more.
Couple of things that came to mind as I was viewing the portfolio (I’m going to nitpick a bit, but in no way am trying to be negative) By the way I am looking at the issuu.com portfolio.

Title:

Before I opened your portfolio I got a sense that what I was going to see was primarily art due to the large ART text and then in small letters landscape architecture portfolio. You are quite talented in your sketching skills, but remember where you are applying- A Landscape Architecture Firm or an Art Studio. As a suggestion I would remove the word art and simply leave Landscape Architecture Portfolio.

Picture and Info:

I would recommend and I know other people had previously commented on it and I agree 100% in removing the picture. “Don’t give them a reason to dismiss you without even looking at your work.” I would remove the title A.Adekile’s ART, it was already presented at the beginning and it is not adding any additional information by showing up again, instead it is making the space too convoluted and heavy.

North Arrow size:

I would suggest making it smaller as it starts competing with the text.

North Arrow placement:
Try to find a location where you are able to place it for most of you drawings, ether the bottom left or bottom right and keep its consistency throughout the portfolio, not halfway or in the middle. I counted at least 10 different variations where the north arrow appeared.

Image Titles:

Just like you title your images “Master Plan” you should also title other images “Site Analysis” and “Functional Diagram” [I am referring this particular example to you Water Park project, but the suggestion should be applied to all others.]

Image summary:
I don’t think it is necessary to say “Image above” “Perspective Above” etc. Simple titles such as “Water Feature” suffices, it gives the reader less to read and the information needed. [Ref: Water Park project]

Marbella Beach Res. along with others:

I am not sure what program you are using to compose the portfolio so this could ether be tedious or simple (InDesign). On page #7 all the images are difference sizes. Try to keep a consistency throughout, alignment is very important and white space is not always bad, as can add a positive feel to your overall presentation and showcase your work better. (A good example of organization that you did can be seen in pg. 9, all the images are the same size and they are aligned, or on pg. 27 where not all the images are the same size but the information given lends the images to be different sizes)

Pg:12 Text, Najlas Residence:
Depending on how you are going to print and the thickness of your portfolio it can become problematic. Try to keep your text as far away from the spine of the book as some information can get lost by the fold. The text is the most important part as it explains your image, so send it to the left, bottom or top. Part of the image can get lost in the fold, but this does not create much impact on the overall view.

Text description: Pg 16

The image is larger than the one on pg. 18, and that fine as far as the image, but the text box width should remain the same (Consistency through)

Pg: 13

Image size consistency, I would go with either all squares or all rectangles or squares, rect., square, rec.

Pg: 23

– Why is program in between Site His. And Proj. Over. – This position does not happen anywhere else in your portfolio and can be seen as a mistake. Send it to the top or bottom. (Remember white space is not bad)

Pg: 31

– I am not sure if it is my preview but “notes” looks like it’s having some sort of overlapping effect and nothing can be read.

Last 4 pages

I would change the order of these pages. Once again comes to question, what and where you are applying?

If it is a Landscape Architecture firm the Traditional Media and Digital Paintings does not really do much as the content has nothing to do with Landscape Architecture, in the other hand if you are applying to let’s say Pixar; this content speaks directly to them. For Photo-manipulations I would remove the Photoshoot rendering and go with another digital rendering like the “Photoshop rendering”. This Photoshop rendering speaks directly towards the field and service of Landscape Architecture.

3D Dimensional is good, as architectural visualization is a growing field and most firms are acquiring these services ether in-house or outsourcing. If you have anything that illustrates Landscape features the better.

Font:

Personally I don’t find the Title font quite appealing and its does not do much for me; instead it gives me grudge look and feel of your portfolio. I think the font contradicts the type of work you are showcasing as everything is so brivant and colorful.

Let’s go back to PG: 5 under Water Park, the description and font for “Recreational Design” is way unproportionate to the look and feel of the overall page. This size of font makes “Recreational Design” feel as if it is the important piece of the page, while in fact your sketches and summaries are important parts. I would make it smaller, legible but more subtle. I also would lower it to the bottom of the page leaving some additional white space.

Over all, I think your work and sketches are quite illustrative and beautiful. You have great work, a couple tweaks here and there and you’re done. Add more white space on certain areas (Think as if your portfolio is an art gallery, white walls and that amazing painting in the middle, that nothing else distracting your eyes from it.)
One thing though that I would definitely push you to pursue is, concentrate on what your applying for and try to be specific towards that firms services. If the firm does residential, then most likely they are not going to be interested in your urban planning projects as much as you’re residential and vise-versa.
Your portfolio is like cover letter, it is specific to the place of application.

Hope it helps.

[Author]

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