Carbonmade Portfolios - Good option?

Brygelsmack

Okay so... Didn't know where to put this thread really. But whatevs.

While most people on here want crits and feedback on their work, I'm not doing that, at least not now anyways. I think most of you have heard of the website 'Carbonmade'. They offer a free portfolio with a limited amount of pictures and projects, unless you pay up in which case you get like 500 pictures, the possibility to embed videos, more design options etc.

What I'm here to ask is simply if Carbonmade is a good option for when I eventually apply for a job? I currently have one there but I'm at the stage where I have more work to show but not enough room on their website. I'm just curious if you guys think it's a good idea to pay money for more space, or have my own website set up with a more personal URL (i.e www(dot)brygelsmack.com, or something with my real life name), and a website that I can change to my liking in terms of design?

So basically, is Carbonmade accessible enough? Is it easy to navigate? Are pictures big enough? All that stuff that's important when showing off your work. What do you think?

Reason I'm asking is because I don't want to spend money on Carbonmade if it turns that it sucks for actually showcasing my work.

So yeah, thanks in advance for any help!

Cheers,
/Brygelsmack


TL;DR - Is Carbonmade a good option when it comes to showcasing your work for an industry job?

Psyk0

Need space? Get an account here for free:
http://www.000webhost.com/features

IMO carbonmade is just as good and easy to setup.

Brygelsmack

dustinbrown wrote: »

My advise is to just try it and see if you like it.

Like I said I already have one, it's in the sig.

I'm asking if it's worth paying for or not. I mean, I don't like that I can't even enlarge pictures. They're pretty small so that would definitely be a nice feature. I do, however, like the simplistic look and that it's easy to read. So I'm not sure what's the best option for me.

maze

I ve been using carbonmade for a year and so now. It works pretty good. You wont regret it.
Its simple, and you can choose to put relative large images/videos, and if its not enough you can also add a link for higher res images you can host on dropbox or something...

also if video its not enough (size) simply add a link to vimeo.

Carbonmade simple as it is, looks better than a lot of "custom made" sites I ve seen. Definitely having a custom website its better..., but 3d art does not necessarily translate to kick ass webdesign... so either you know what you are doing, or you choose something simple yet efficient.

my 2c

Alphavader

I thought about this a long time too.
Besides Carbonmade i tried a few cms,
but all of them doesn't fit the style i want to have.
Carbonmade is a great way to get your folio fast and simple
online - often that's the goal, more then do it yourself and wrong
My advice, learn html, its simple and fast to learn
and you can put your own side online - with your own style..

Greetz

Stromberg90

I don't see anything wrong with using something like blogger or carbonmade, in the end it's all about the work you show of, I myself use blogger and find it works ok for now

aajohnny

I use it, I haven't had a problem with it, its great

Brygelsmack

maze wrote: »

you can also add a link for higher res images you can host on dropbox or something...

Are potential employers really clicking that? I don't know much about hiring processes, but if people linked their work all over the Internet I wouldn't really spend much time on their site. I thought employers wanted to see as much work as possible in as little time as possible.

Am I right?

Great portfolio imo:
http://www.simonfuchs.net/folio/

Big pictures, simple style, easy to navigate. The only problem is the tiny description of each project at the top of the page, it's hard to read.

If Carbonmade offered bigger pictures I'd probably go for it. But they don't... Basically, I just want to know what employers look at in your site, so I can make a decision based on that. For what I've read around Flash is not cool, stuff like that.

monster

@Brygelsmack, I've been involved with hiring many artists. Your current portfolio site layout is perfectly sufficient. (Consider adding a downloadable resume / CV.) If an employer wants to see higher res images of your work they'll ask for them. Or you can include a single link to a zip file with high res images.

sltrOlsson

I don't like carbonated since it's to many clicks to get to the gravy! I like when everything is served for me when I enter the site.

I got my site like this (not saying it's the best way, just my personal choice) and it's just a tumblr site with a custom theme I found. Most of the pictures are bigger when you click them, which I think is pretty nice to have. The best thing about having it on a blog like thumlr is that you have all the uploading stuff already there for you. Adding a post takes seconds, and there's no limit on how many photos you can have.

I really feel that text was a bit random-ish, It's to late. Sorry for that :P

maze

Are potential employers really clicking that?

From my experience looks like they are...

sure its a work around, but I am dealing with that while finishing to build a custom site. Dont overfocus on this things, sure its important to have big (kickass) images. Although I ll bet you can get hired with 500px squared images if your work is good enough... its not only bout the size, you can quickly know if there s potential from a single thumbnail.
If they like it, they ll keep digging, as long as its not over complicate to access the info they are looking for.

Ps: also, yes stay away from flash, people tend to use mobile devices a lot lately... and flash is not supported by apple which means..you know..

Also you can always crop an image to show specific detail if needed.

Brygelsmack

monster wrote: »

@Brygelsmack, I've been involved with hiring many artists. Your current portfolio site layout is perfectly sufficient. (Consider adding a downloadable resume / CV.) If an employer wants to see higher res images of your work they'll ask for them. Or you can include a single link to a zip file with high res images.

That's good to hear, thanks for a great answer. I like the idea of a zip file with higher res images. Hopefully though, Carbonmade will add it to their website eventually.

@ sltrOlsson: Okay, hm. I don't think Carbonmade is too bad though. It's pretty easy to organize the projects so people can click on stuff they're interested in. I do have a tumblr too, but I'm keeping that as more of a blog because I want it more laid back and personal.

@ maze: Ah well then, that's really good to know. Might add that as well as a zip. Maybe it's a good idea to do both in case an employer goes back and finds the downloaded zip file long after checking the site. ^^

I think I'll buy a larger account actually. I'm tired of having to remove work to replace it with new, even though that's good to some extent. But when I remove work I'm happy with to replace it with something slightly better, it's no longer a working situation. I just wish Carbonmade had more customization, like the possibility to add pages apart from 'About' which is what I have now. I want something called Downloads, and Links and stuff like that.

Maybe that's something I can do if I pay? Can anyone confirm?

JO420

Sites worked out well for me, paid its easy to use and it has plenty of space.

Blaisoid

if you want to have more than 35 images without paying try shownd.com
if you want to have unlimited images and more layout freedom then there's free sites like weebly or wix out there.