Shawn Johnston

Re-design of Personal Portfolio Site

By Shawn Johnston

   on Aug 26, 2010
8 Reviews4 Votes2 Favorites645 Views

Concept Reviews

  • Luke Marohn

    Luke Marohn

    Rank: 1 Elite

    5069

    • Design: 5
    • Purpose: 4
    • Originality: 5
    • Engagement: 5
    2 Votes
    This review has been awarded.
    Amazing..

    Posted on Aug 27, 2010 at 12:10 AM

    Dude, this is fantastic, I'm honestly almost speechless and Hopefully one day I will be this good.

    There isnt much for me to say, but the things i have to say are important.

    Your logo/name are just a bit too big. They really OVERPOWER everything, Usually my rule of thumb is to keep the logo no more than half the size of my container (width)

    Also, your navigation gets lost, I'm really completely unsure what You should do for a background, But i think you can handle.. ;)

    :o Definately added to Faves.

    • Shawn Johnston
      Shawn Johnston commented:
      Posted: on Aug 27, 2010 at 12:36 AM

      Thanks Luke, I've been thinking the same thing myself for awhile but kept shoving it aside in my mind. Perhaps rejigging the logo smaller with the sheet wider would balance it more. This would let me get the content on the sign a bit bigger, make the web designer portion stand out some more. Thanks!

    • Shawn Johnston
      Shawn Johnston commented:
      Posted: on Aug 27, 2010 at 12:37 AM

      Right and the nav, that's good point as well. I have another version where the nav is in the header container and I wasn't sure. I've got some good improvement ideas already from just you two. Helps a lot :)

    • Shawn Johnston
      Shawn Johnston commented:
      Posted: on Aug 27, 2010 at 5:42 PM

      Hey Luke, I made several edits to the design and reposted. If you've got a sec, let me know what you think. Thanks in advance

  • Josh Leo

    Josh Leo

    Rank: 2 Titan

    269

    • Design: 5
    • Purpose: 3
    • Originality: 4
    • Engagement: 4
    1 Vote
    This review has been awarded.
    the prominence of your specialty

    Posted on Aug 26, 2010 at 11:19 PM

    I like the style of this a lot. I always like to give reviews in a way that communicates how my brain progresses through the content when I first see it. So here goes:

    ah, cupcake...this site has that kind of edgy/nature feel... maybe they make all natural-cupcakes...looking at name, oh - 14 years of experience!...experience in what exactly? (looking for job title or something like that...websites built...ah web-designer!

    So what it comes down to for me is two things:

    1. making it clear that the featured content is not what you do but something you made (you made the site, not the cupcakes). maybe just get a wider shot on the site rather than just he main image on their site

    2. making the title of "web designer" stand out more. I totally see where you are coming from with the blocks of font-full text but in that, things get lost.

    love the colors, the logo works as well. Cheers!

    • Shawn Johnston
      Shawn Johnston commented:
      Posted: on Aug 27, 2010 at 12:34 AM

      Thanks Josh, see where you're coming from. I was going to see how this looked once the slider was moving through other images. Thinking perhaps a "recent work" and "more work" tabs or buttons would help make this clearer.

    • Shawn Johnston
      Shawn Johnston commented:
      Posted: on Aug 27, 2010 at 5:42 PM

      Hey Josh, I made several edits to the design and reposted. If you've got a sec, let me know what you think. Thanks in advance

  • Hallie Steube

    Hallie Steube

    Rank: 6 Apprentice

    104

    • Design: 5
    • Purpose: 3
    • Originality: 5
    • Engagement: 3
    0 Votes
    One Thought

    Posted on Aug 27, 2010 at 12:00 PM

    First of all, I love it! I love your style and the colors, etc.

    It definitely took me a little while to figure out exactly what the purpose of the site was....

    I think currently my eyes struggle to decide where to look first between the big box of text and the cupcake... I think there are two main things you want to get across: 1) who you are and 2) what you've done, what previous clients have said about your work.

    Maybe focus on those two columns and then support each of those with the two boxes... so basically moving the big text box below the Who Am I text and moving the Cupcake and other work below What They Say? Also, drawing more attention to the titles Who Am I and What They Say...

    It looks great though! Good luck

  • Abdul-Hadi Hawari

    Abdul-Hadi Hawari

    Rank: 4 Master

    867

    • Design: 4
    • Purpose: 4
    • Originality: 4
    • Engagement: 4
    0 Votes
    Very nice design and fast response

    Posted on Aug 27, 2010 at 9:39 PM

    Hey, I see that you change your design a bit and it's now much more better..

    I love your background and your header too..

    but I only have two points

    1. the font in "Who Am I ?" an at the end in the footer is so tiny and I think it will be readable if you increase it's size a bit..
    2. I am with the man who talks about the "14 YEARS EXPERIENCE" I think you could change the order of the words in the sentence to make more clearly .

    after all very nice design and concept.

    • Abdul-Hadi Hawari
      Posted: on Aug 27, 2010 at 9:53 PM

      one last thought ...

      about the right board in the header I think it's better if you make every line in a different color ..

  • Bonnie Mellott

    Bonnie Mellott

    Rank: 4 Master

    56

    • Design: 5
    • Purpose: 5
    • Originality: 4
    • Engagement: 5
    0 Votes
    BEAUTIFUL, just make nav pop out more

    Posted on Aug 29, 2010 at 7:55 AM

    1. Super Inspiring! I love to see a portfolio site that is professional and has personality at the same time. it's a rare thing to find! I love seeing stuff like this as I work on my own portfolio site. You definitely met your objective!

    2. Beautiful use of textures!

    3. As others have said, the navigation does get a little bit lost. If you want to stay with Google fonts for your navigation, you might want to go with Molengo even though it isn't as fun as the handwriting font you are currently using. It would be a lot more legible.

    4. Under the "who am I?" blurb next to your picture, you might want to make sure the "contact me" at the bottom looks more "clickable". At least underline it. Maybe even make it a button. YOu could even use the same "let's chat" verbiage from the nav bar.

  • Joey Adkins

    Joey Adkins

    Rank: 10 Newbie

    35

    • Design: 5
    • Purpose: 5
    • Originality: 5
    • Engagement: 5
    0 Votes
    Recent work image.

    Posted on Aug 30, 2010 at 2:55 PM

    This is a phenomenal design.

    With that said, The only thing that jumps out at me is the recent work image. I like the background, but the mobile my site image is too clean. I would say maybe try overlaying it onto the bg so it looks like the whole image is a grunge paper texture. I hope this helps.

    Other that that one thing, It looks great.

  • Birger Eelen

    Birger Eelen

    Rank: 2 Titan

    562

    • Design: 5
    • Purpose: 4
    • Originality: 5
    • Engagement: 4
    0 Votes
    Make the navigation stand out more

    Posted on Aug 31, 2010 at 8:38 AM

    Wow, what a design. I completely agree with the previous reviews, this is great!

    I like how you used the textures and colours; although yellow and blue are difficult to use together (at least, that's my experience).

    My 'problem' is the balance of the individuel elements isn't correct. My first impression was that the header was an advertisement block, while it's more of a tagline. Your navigation isn't clear enough; at first glance I thought this was a one-page-layout.

    As a final and small remark, I think it would look great if the trees at the bottom would show to the left and the right of the footer. The header has this yellow grunge-style texture show to the left and right, it would make more sense the footer would have a similar design.

  • Peter Georgiev

    Peter Georgiev

    Rank: 4 Master

    635

    • Design: 5
    • Purpose: 4
    • Originality: 4
    • Engagement: 4
    0 Votes
    Draft

    Posted on Sep 01, 2010 at 1:34 PM

    Real quality. I admit I really like the grungy style. Nice combination of colours. You really have skills ;]