Your Portfolio Repels Jobs
polycounter lvl 18
Hey guys, I wrote another article on being a smarter artist when it comes to building a killer portfolio. Let me know what you think!
---
Your Portfolio Repels Jobs
I look at game artists' portfolios on a regular basis. These websites are usually designed so poorly that I close my browser out of disgust. They're even bad enough to turn away potential employers, regardless of the quality of the artwork. Tragic!
Most artists make mistakes like these, but fortunately, they're very simple to understand and correct. I've come up with a quick and easy way to help artists think about how to improve their chances of employment by building a better website.
The core truth here is this:
Usability is just as important as content.
A portfolio website should be a simple, effective, uncluttered experience from start to finish that leaves a lasting impression on the visitor. An incredible number of websites fail to do this. And it's always for silly, completely avoidable reasons.
Your website should be focused on one purpose, be easy to use, and offer a clear line of action. Here are three simple questions to ask yourself:
1) What's my website's focus?
Your website exists to get you a job. Its only purpose is to showcase your art and present your contact information for potential employers. You should make your art and contact information so fantastically easy to see that someone find it accidentally. If someone wants to talk to you about a job, don't be hard to find.
Include your name and contact information at the top of every page of your site.
For example, any visitor should understand clearly that you are an environment artist and you intend to get a job as an environment artist. Anything else is confusing. Silly MS Paint drawings, photos from trips you've taken or a blog about your daily life have nothing to do with that, and should be removed. These things are not added value. A portfolio is not a personality test! That's what an interview is for.
The second common mistake is making a website that's difficult to navigate. So ask yourself this:
2) Is my website easy to use?
You might be thinking "but I'm an artist, not a web designer!" This is a poor but common excuse for making a bad website. On the other side of the coin, many artists that are web designers make their website so flamboyantly artsy that it's practically impossible to use.
The first thing a visitor should see on your website is your art. First impressions are formed in an instant. Attention spans can be shut off in an instant. Your top priority should be to make that first instant be compelling enough to keep the viewer looking and to give them what they're looking for. Don't tease... satisfy.
After all, did I go to your website to look at a splash page, or art? The faster I can see your content, the better.
Forget splash pages and news pages or any other starting page that isn't putting art directly in my face.
Your portfolio's highest purpose is to show off your art quickly, easily, and with the minimum of hassle. A good portfolio should be so easy to navigate that someone could view your work accidentally.
Anything that doesn't support that basic goal breaks your focus and should be removed or relocated. Make another website for your personal stuff if you have to, but keep your portfolio clean and relevant. More isn't better.
If it doesn't help show your art faster or sell you as an artist, it shouldn't be there.
Here's a quick list of aggravating features that are common in portfolio websites:
[*] No image branding - Every image on the entire website should have your name, email address and website URL on it. People save images off of portfolios and forget where they got them. If one of your pieces of art finds its way to a studio, how will they find you? Make each image stand on its own, removed from context.
[*] Vague thumbnails - A thumbnail exists to offer a relevant preview of a larger image. Yet I see thumbnails of random parts of a model that give me no indication of what I'm about to see. If I'm looking for medieval characters, how does a grainy thumbnail of the bottom of his foot help me find it?
[*] Multiple layers - It's as if bad portfolios follow a common navigation pattern:
Splash page -> News page -> Portfolio page -> 3D Art -> Characters -> Man with Axe thumbnail -> Man with Axe enlarged.
Do you expect me not to hate clicking through seven pages just to see your art? Flatten your site. Put the art in my face and show me the quickest, simplest possible way of navigating. One page full of art is better than any of the multiple layers shown above.
[*] Multiple popups - A splash page shouldn't even exist, much less stay open when you click on it to enter the website. Neither should a thumbnail opening an image in a new window that I have to manually close. I've been to websites that open as many as FIVE WINDOWS. That's inconvenient, wasteful, and downright hostile toward the visitor. Be a courteous host.
[*] Poor navigation - Every page should offer buttons to go to the next image, to the previous image, and to return to the main page. They don't pop up new windows unless it's for an enlarged image, which should be extremely easy to close to return to the thumbnails. It's convenient, it's considerate, and it's easy to implement. It also encourages them to keep looking forward at more art instead of accidentally closing your site altogether. Keep guiding them along a path.
[*] Small images - Small images convey nothing. Keep it large enough to be easily seen and understood. Also keep in mind that the average screen resolution is usually around 1024x768, so make it reasonable from that standpoint. Also, remove as much dead space as possible. Nothing irritates me more than loading an enormous image that you only used ten percent of.
[*] Bad lighting - Why would I hire you if your work is so badly lit for me that I can't even see it?
[*] Obscure web plugins - Don't make someone download a plugin to view your website. This will ruffle some feathers but I find Flash websites to be obnoxious and unnecessary, and most aren't worth the time to navigate. There are a lot of people that don't even have Flash. Do you want to risk losing a great job opportunity over that? Just keep it as simple as possible, but no simpler.
Hiring managers look through dozens of portfolios every day. All the portfolios they see blend together. It's just a job. You are either on the "Portfolios To Review" list, or you're not. A poorly designed website makes this poor hiring manager's job a little more annoying. Accordingly, he is less likely to invest the time into looking at your entire portfolio. And he certainly won't read your blog. Is he hiring a Metallica fan or a level designer?
Imagine that your target visitor is a tired, indifferent hiring manager whose only desire is to find the shortest path possible to looking at your art. Nothing else matters. So design your website for him. Give him what he wants. Remove what he doesn't care about. The clearer your message, the better.
For example: "I am Phineas Fogbottom, environment artist. This is my art. Email me at mastapimp420@yahoo.com"
That's all he needs to know. Keep it simple.
3) Do I provide a clear line of action?
This is also important. Sadly, good art doesn't sell itself. It's one thing to present art, and it's quite another to funnel them toward offering you a job. First you serve up the art, and then you show them that they should offer you a job, and here's how to contact you. The easier this is, the better.
Here are two huge mistakes people often make along these lines:
[*] No stated desired position - The desired position usually isn't obvious. Most artists feel the need to put all their 2D art, 3D art, animation, illustration, paintings and even poetry on their website. That makes it impossible to divine what kind of position you're looking for! Be specific. Companies do not set out to hire generalists, they hire specialists. (Whether or not they ultimately USE them as specialists is another matter entirely.)
If they're hiring a character artist, seeing you say "I do everything!" isn't going to make them think of you for the job. It's easy: Be the guy they're looking for by being specific. If they're looking for a character artist, the more ways you can match the pattern they're looking for, the better. A good place to start is by saying "Hey, I'm a character artist."
[*] No contact information - If I like your work, how am I supposed to contact you? Keep it visible at all times and don't make them hunt for it. If you're concerned about spambots farming your favorite email address to add to spam lists, make a new email address solely for job solicitations and just deal with the spam.
That's all there is to it, really. It's simple enough if you think about it, but that's the problem: Most people don't. If you start thinking about it, you're already ahead of the game!
---
Your Portfolio Repels Jobs
I look at game artists' portfolios on a regular basis. These websites are usually designed so poorly that I close my browser out of disgust. They're even bad enough to turn away potential employers, regardless of the quality of the artwork. Tragic!
Most artists make mistakes like these, but fortunately, they're very simple to understand and correct. I've come up with a quick and easy way to help artists think about how to improve their chances of employment by building a better website.
The core truth here is this:
Usability is just as important as content.
A portfolio website should be a simple, effective, uncluttered experience from start to finish that leaves a lasting impression on the visitor. An incredible number of websites fail to do this. And it's always for silly, completely avoidable reasons.
Your website should be focused on one purpose, be easy to use, and offer a clear line of action. Here are three simple questions to ask yourself:
1) What's my website's focus?
Your website exists to get you a job. Its only purpose is to showcase your art and present your contact information for potential employers. You should make your art and contact information so fantastically easy to see that someone find it accidentally. If someone wants to talk to you about a job, don't be hard to find.
Include your name and contact information at the top of every page of your site.
For example, any visitor should understand clearly that you are an environment artist and you intend to get a job as an environment artist. Anything else is confusing. Silly MS Paint drawings, photos from trips you've taken or a blog about your daily life have nothing to do with that, and should be removed. These things are not added value. A portfolio is not a personality test! That's what an interview is for.
The second common mistake is making a website that's difficult to navigate. So ask yourself this:
2) Is my website easy to use?
You might be thinking "but I'm an artist, not a web designer!" This is a poor but common excuse for making a bad website. On the other side of the coin, many artists that are web designers make their website so flamboyantly artsy that it's practically impossible to use.
The first thing a visitor should see on your website is your art. First impressions are formed in an instant. Attention spans can be shut off in an instant. Your top priority should be to make that first instant be compelling enough to keep the viewer looking and to give them what they're looking for. Don't tease... satisfy.
After all, did I go to your website to look at a splash page, or art? The faster I can see your content, the better.
Forget splash pages and news pages or any other starting page that isn't putting art directly in my face.
Your portfolio's highest purpose is to show off your art quickly, easily, and with the minimum of hassle. A good portfolio should be so easy to navigate that someone could view your work accidentally.
Anything that doesn't support that basic goal breaks your focus and should be removed or relocated. Make another website for your personal stuff if you have to, but keep your portfolio clean and relevant. More isn't better.
If it doesn't help show your art faster or sell you as an artist, it shouldn't be there.
Here's a quick list of aggravating features that are common in portfolio websites:
[*] No image branding - Every image on the entire website should have your name, email address and website URL on it. People save images off of portfolios and forget where they got them. If one of your pieces of art finds its way to a studio, how will they find you? Make each image stand on its own, removed from context.
[*] Vague thumbnails - A thumbnail exists to offer a relevant preview of a larger image. Yet I see thumbnails of random parts of a model that give me no indication of what I'm about to see. If I'm looking for medieval characters, how does a grainy thumbnail of the bottom of his foot help me find it?
[*] Multiple layers - It's as if bad portfolios follow a common navigation pattern:
Splash page -> News page -> Portfolio page -> 3D Art -> Characters -> Man with Axe thumbnail -> Man with Axe enlarged.
Do you expect me not to hate clicking through seven pages just to see your art? Flatten your site. Put the art in my face and show me the quickest, simplest possible way of navigating. One page full of art is better than any of the multiple layers shown above.
[*] Multiple popups - A splash page shouldn't even exist, much less stay open when you click on it to enter the website. Neither should a thumbnail opening an image in a new window that I have to manually close. I've been to websites that open as many as FIVE WINDOWS. That's inconvenient, wasteful, and downright hostile toward the visitor. Be a courteous host.
[*] Poor navigation - Every page should offer buttons to go to the next image, to the previous image, and to return to the main page. They don't pop up new windows unless it's for an enlarged image, which should be extremely easy to close to return to the thumbnails. It's convenient, it's considerate, and it's easy to implement. It also encourages them to keep looking forward at more art instead of accidentally closing your site altogether. Keep guiding them along a path.
[*] Small images - Small images convey nothing. Keep it large enough to be easily seen and understood. Also keep in mind that the average screen resolution is usually around 1024x768, so make it reasonable from that standpoint. Also, remove as much dead space as possible. Nothing irritates me more than loading an enormous image that you only used ten percent of.
[*] Bad lighting - Why would I hire you if your work is so badly lit for me that I can't even see it?
[*] Obscure web plugins - Don't make someone download a plugin to view your website. This will ruffle some feathers but I find Flash websites to be obnoxious and unnecessary, and most aren't worth the time to navigate. There are a lot of people that don't even have Flash. Do you want to risk losing a great job opportunity over that? Just keep it as simple as possible, but no simpler.
Hiring managers look through dozens of portfolios every day. All the portfolios they see blend together. It's just a job. You are either on the "Portfolios To Review" list, or you're not. A poorly designed website makes this poor hiring manager's job a little more annoying. Accordingly, he is less likely to invest the time into looking at your entire portfolio. And he certainly won't read your blog. Is he hiring a Metallica fan or a level designer?
Imagine that your target visitor is a tired, indifferent hiring manager whose only desire is to find the shortest path possible to looking at your art. Nothing else matters. So design your website for him. Give him what he wants. Remove what he doesn't care about. The clearer your message, the better.
For example: "I am Phineas Fogbottom, environment artist. This is my art. Email me at mastapimp420@yahoo.com"
That's all he needs to know. Keep it simple.
3) Do I provide a clear line of action?
This is also important. Sadly, good art doesn't sell itself. It's one thing to present art, and it's quite another to funnel them toward offering you a job. First you serve up the art, and then you show them that they should offer you a job, and here's how to contact you. The easier this is, the better.
Here are two huge mistakes people often make along these lines:
[*] No stated desired position - The desired position usually isn't obvious. Most artists feel the need to put all their 2D art, 3D art, animation, illustration, paintings and even poetry on their website. That makes it impossible to divine what kind of position you're looking for! Be specific. Companies do not set out to hire generalists, they hire specialists. (Whether or not they ultimately USE them as specialists is another matter entirely.)
If they're hiring a character artist, seeing you say "I do everything!" isn't going to make them think of you for the job. It's easy: Be the guy they're looking for by being specific. If they're looking for a character artist, the more ways you can match the pattern they're looking for, the better. A good place to start is by saying "Hey, I'm a character artist."
[*] No contact information - If I like your work, how am I supposed to contact you? Keep it visible at all times and don't make them hunt for it. If you're concerned about spambots farming your favorite email address to add to spam lists, make a new email address solely for job solicitations and just deal with the spam.
That's all there is to it, really. It's simple enough if you think about it, but that's the problem: Most people don't. If you start thinking about it, you're already ahead of the game!
Replies
I'm also rather impressed at how you made the bullet points appear in the green column on the left of the forum
K.I.S.S. (Keep It Simple Stupid) whatever you do and life is always easier, for yourself and others. It's not something people tend to think about when putting a portfolio together. Normally they start out with something really complicated and they need to remember the position they are filling is not for convoluted web design, its for an art job. Show art, not convoluted web design. You give some great ideas/feedback most of us never get to hear. I never thought about someone trying to track me down from an image someone else saved off my site.
Normally the only kind of feedback we get is from an empty inbox or blank answering machine, so this kind of stuff is gold. Thanks a bunch! I have some rework to do
Another note to remember, which parallels the "flattening" that Jon mentions, is that most HR people decide whether to close the window, or stay for further viewing, in the first seven seconds of viewing. That's why having the fewest clicks possible is a good practice to have.
If you are actively applying for jobs, aim for a one click experience. Typing in your URL, or clicking on the link you provided in your email, should take them directly to your page of art, and one click on a thumbnail should have them viewing the full blown image.
how important is having a unique addres/paid hosting for portfolios? is having some sort of free hosting just scream 'don't hire me' ?
Oh, and it's going to be entirely done with CSS and fully XHTML 1.1 compatible!
Sectaurs, I'd suggest getting your own hosting, and getting a very simple URL. One that's easy to type, easy to remember, and can be communicated orally without misunderstanding the spelling.
I also really wonder about some of those site designs I've seen.
Scooby, I agree. It is common sense stuff, but it's so common and so obvious that no one thinks about it.
i have to say, at the end of the day mate, whats gonna get your name out there is your portfolio, not your presentation. imo its better to spend your time getting better and let your work speak for itself rather than wasting so much time on the presentation. it just doesnt really matter.
that aside, tho, its good writing shine.
now lets see some fucking models!!
To be honest if you've spent ages working on your models, textures, drawings and whatever, you'd be stupid to do them the disservice of making a crappy site to put them in.
like, geocities popup banners with some horrible midi blasting our of your speakers.. most pages are 'okay', some less some better, it doesnt really matter. just get your work done, get it good, and shut the hell up.
which is exactly what i should do!
That's not to say that I don't agree with all of Jon's points. I do and thanks for taking the time to write this up Jon. The image branding stuff is a great tip. I actually have on many occasions closed a site and been entirely put off by poor presention or bad or overly complex navigation before I've even got to the body of work. Simpler is quite obviously better. A page with some awesome work on it speaks way more volume to me than some wanky overdone flash shit. You're in danger of looking like you're attempting to dress mutton as lamb in that case.
The biggest priority and importance is your body of work. Period. From there you can do things that help or hinder your work, and spending a little bit of time on presentation can go a long way towards making your stuff approachable. You don't have to follow all these rules, and it's still possible to get a job, Arsh's MSpaint frontpage, and my URL are good examples, but if you are just starting out, you should do as much as possible to help your chances.
I like the bolded headers, designed for skimming...well written and organized info dude. I'm gunna send alot';ve people here to this thread.
-R
If you're 3d is so great, then your ability to create a simple 2d layout and navigation shouldn't be far behind. I wouldn't strive to follow every point made exactly, but they're good guidelines. Everything else depends on the company wanting to hire, and your attitude.
say you have created a majority of the characters for one or more videogames, as an artist you might want to show the diversity of your work and may have a hard time deciding which work to put in and which not. assuming the work is consistent in standard, it's hard to go by the old "best piece" rule.
would you consider it helpful to separate stuff by category (modelling, texture flats, animation movies) or rather by project and year?
also, is there a standard for resume's listed somewhere? i might be looking to leave my country and invade the british islands like my ancestors tried to do
i know how different resume's are over here and in the US but where can you find tips on what to include and what to better leave out in general to find a job in the english speaking world?
where is arshlevon?
i have to say, at the end of the day mate, whats gonna get your name out there is your portfolio, not your presentation. imo its better to spend your time getting better and let your work speak for itself rather than wasting so much time on the presentation. it just doesnt really matter.
that aside, tho, its good writing shine.
now lets see some fucking models!!
[/ QUOTE ]
the main reason i dont think a website matters is i dont give employers my website..if i did i am sure it would be a whole other story.. if they stumble upon it and offer employment (wich seems to be happening a lot lately) then yippy!! thats great, i prefer to present everything in a zip.. no web adresses, no color scheme,no worries whatsoever.. the more varibles you start putting into the equasion the more likely you are to mess something up.. there are a ton of things to consider (as you can see) when it comes to presenting something on the internet. i would rather spend my time polishing my 3d skills than learn dreamweaver or flash and webdesign. if you are using a site as means to sell yourself then by all means take the time to present it in a concise manner.. thats one reason i have a page with just all the artwork on it and nothing else.. no bars no banners no text.. i send this to people who want to see my work.. no employers but friends and family..and people seem to like that a lot. so i am sure if you just slapped some contact info on a page with no filler and just art it would also be something nice to present.. but i am probably the last person that should be giving info on the topic.. i dont look at portfolios for a living... BUT!! (this is good,and bad) we use to always get together at work and laugh really hard at the bad ones.. when we would scout conferences and stuff we would always come back with a million DVDs and there were some real gems in there.. the most horrible crap in the universe.. and everybody would love to watch those..
If you worked on a project or piece with someone, SPECIFY what your involvement was. If you only modeled the character, let everyone know thats ALL you did.
I just had an instance where we were going to hire an amazing background painter whom turned out to be the GUI artist and not the BG painter artist at all. If only he had SPECIFIED what his involvement was on the art piece was it would have saved him and us alot of time and awkwardness.
I'm not saying all enviro artists do this, or that character artists never do, it's just a trend I've noticed.
Did anyone mention music on a site? Please don't put music on your site that plays without the user purposely activating it. I was supposed to look at some LD's site today and it was instant annoying music. I closed the browser as fast as I heard it.
If you're 3d is so great, then your ability to create a simple 2d layout and navigation shouldn't be far behind.
[/ QUOTE ]
I don't think it's a matter of not being able to design it, at least for me. I simply don't have a lot of knowledge in HTML (and certainly no knowledge at XHTML/FLASH/PHP). It's not like I can drop $400 on Dreamweaver or some similar app.
I use 1st Page 2000 mainly, since it's free.
But like poop and others have said, the work is most important. My site could be painfully simple, but as long as the work is good, then it's okay.
i think a better rule of thumb would be dont put ANYTHING that you DIDN'T do in your portfolio..
[/ QUOTE ]
I think that is why it is important to have shot breakdowns. Honestly, some people can't help that thier best work was among a highly integrated team (like a particle guy at ILM). I'm guessing that might be the exception to the rule.
On the flip side, I heard a story about a guy who applied at Blue Sky with animation that he claimed to have done that was a clip from Alien Resurrection. I guess he didn't realize that Blue Sky did the effects for that movie, and to make matters worse, his tape was reviewed by the guy who originally animated it. Sweet justice.
I have one question for all. I'm not arguing against your point about flash, but I would like to see a show of hands, how many people don't have flash on a computer that has the internet? From the past few years the only computer I've encountered without flash is my own when I had to reformat.
Also, Flash comes with a bunch of things that many web designers seem to forget about, like integrated Back button support, or image saving... there are just so many pitfalls that people overlook, which don't even exist if you didn't use Flash in the first place.
Basically, I'm not against use of Flash in a webpage if it's used with justification and skill. Anything that doesn't absolutely need to be Flash, shouldn't be. IMHO.
I toyed with the idea of making a showcase on my site with flash as a banner. Thank god I dropped it. heh, though its still intergrated into the php script of my site to disable it.
Its useless...
Also, Flash just makes sense if you can really handle it like the guys from http://www.rock-star.co.uk.
Great site, but they are focusing on animations...
NO FLASH, can't agree more.
-B-
Two things that stand out right away are the lack of readily available contact info (requires two clicks, and its location is not immediately apparent) - which I noticed halfway through and couldn't resolve fitting it in gracefully on every page - and the semi-wacky navigation bar which features a link just for the artc201 class (this was a requirement by the teacher, although i fought against it on grounds of usability). Anyway, I'm sure there's more that I missed, but that's what I noticed right away. Please do critique it, even if I have no plans for companies to see it for at least a year or two...
1) Why not start on the 2D or 3D art page by default? Whichever one is most important to you, make that the starting page, and have a navbar guiding you wherever else.
2) 'About' should ideally go last... but in this case, with that silly 'artc201' link you can't do anything about, that should prboably go last, with 'About' behind it.
3) On the '2d art' and '3d art' pages, why not go ahead and load your first and best image as soon as you load the page, and have the 'click on the thumbnail to the left' message at the top of that page, below the navbar?
4) Having images load for all the text on your site, while ensuring a consistent look, seems like overkill. It takes longer to load and makes your already very streamlined and simple site seem like it takes forever to load, since text is usually the first thing to pop up before images.
5) Next\previous buttons at the bottom of each piece of art couldn't hurt.
Overall, definitely not bad! I see nothing on the page that irritates me.
http://www.webpagesthatsuck.com/
It gives tons of details good for any site designer, and pretty much everything Jon said is covered there. Great info about getting your content right to your users.
And be ugly to boot. Oh the irony.
read mention of the art blogs - i honestly hate those things. They are so annonymous and bland i get turned off from them every time i see one. Its your art, take pride in it and make your own domain
Frankly, I don't think they're going to hire you based on your portfolio alone......unless it's drop dead talented work that can't be duplicated by other people.
Frankly, I don't think they're going to hire you based on your portfolio alone...
[/ QUOTE ]
Right, that's what an interview is for. This is just a guide on how to make the most of your portfolio to make the best possible impression.
On top of that... most companies don't even hire the best. They hire the best they can get. It's not an ideal world and companies go with their best possible option. No barrier to entry is too high and mediocre people are frequently hired without a second thought. It's not a matter of being the best... it's a matter of being perceived as the best.
If you can be perceived as the best, then you've probably already won. But if you don't want to be a soulless piece of crap that deserves a boot in the face, you'd best be busting your ass to BE the best, too!!!
It's two sides of the same coin. It's about integrity. You need to work the perceptual \ political side of things, AND you need to genuinely be committed to being the best you possibly can, or die trying. If you're only going to try to SEEM to be the best but won't put in the time to make yourself better, I wish you humiliating failure.
And if nepotism were in play, why even read my guide?
Otherwise, great article:)
_FreD_
I seen a few peeps trying CSS for their res. page I tried messing with it but like most new things you can't just do a little. You have to jump in both feet. Sick of learning new things for little effect.
So res.gif dumb?