Portfolio

Brief

I think this brief is relatively straight forward, and I think I should be able to complete what is required in the time given. I already have a decent idea of what is required on a portfolio from my own, personal research at home, and considering the amount of work I've done since my time at college, I shouldn't have a problem finishing my basic website portfolio.

Researching Example Portfolios

Bruno Simon

Link: Bruno Simon

I think this portfolio is a great example of a website that showcases the work of an individual. Not only does the drivable car make it unique, but it also makes it memorable. The simple URL, just being his name, also helps users remember where to find it, since having a long and confusing name makes it very difficult for anyone to remember what to search for. The only poor aspect I feel with regard to the website is the lag it initially gets upon loading. It's only short and doesn't have a large impact, but it still might have an impact on the employer's perspective.

Looking a little further into the portfolio, I thought that the UI was super polished and contrasted greatly with the rest of the game. It's informative, but doesn't include an obscene amount of text to overwhelm you. Not only this, but there is a vast amount of areas for you to drive/teleport to, so you can look at his career, find links to other websites and have a play around. His bowling and race track areas are a great way to popularise his website and give people a reason to keep coming back, especially since he has leaderboards for competitiveness (when they work). Lastly, I think having a link to his original interactive website is a great idea. I was wondering if it was still available to be visited, which it is, which is a great way to also show off his previous work.

I think the technical skill he shows is off the charts compared to other portfolios. Not only is it an awesome website, but he literally proves his work by making you play it, while also informing you about what he does. He doesn't include a whole lot of text for a breakdown of sorts, but this is mostly to keep it more gameified and avoid boring the user by showing instead of explaining. I think that's difficult to do through regular websites since they heavily rely on text to have some sort of flow, but here, less text is clearly better.

Now, he has an area in his portfolio where you can scroll through his projects, where he shows some of his work that he's been commissioned to do. Due to his extensive knowledge, he can create many different types of interactive websites for many different requirements, ranging from his three.js journey to Citrix/Redbull collaboration.

Kojima Productions

Link: Kojima Productions

I thought for another portfolio, I'd go back to an auteur that we were researching at the start of the year for another project. In the end, I chose Hideo Kojima because he was our favourite at the time, and I still think he is. Unfortunately, I can't exactly find a portfolio of his, but I thought his company's website would be good enough, since it's still his, just not only about his life and career. On this website, not a lot of portfolio stuff was present, but there were some things I could take as a reference for my portfolio. For example, they had a page with some information on their animation projects surrounding Death Stranding. Although there isn't a lot on here, it still gives me some ideas as to what I could include, and other pages give me other ideas. Another section of the website is the products (games) that they've released. Although they're quite vague and have little text information on them, this is technically what I was talking about earlier. I think it's still important to have some context, especially when you're someone like me who doesn't have a fully released game with trailers and loads of images, but it's a good example nonetheless.

Additionally, on the page about the company, Hideo Kojima, the founder of the studio, has a quick inspirational(?) message. Now, it is quite long, but I think it's good since it shows his thought process and how he sees what he's created. Below this is a timeline of specific dates and information across the years, depicting how they've grown and developed over time. I think this is quite important either way, but just like in Bruno Simon's work, it doesn't have to be too lengthy, just something to display what you've been doing over the years. A bit of context and maybe an image or two further help the user understand, but isn't completely necessary.

Overall, Kojima Productions isn't the best example for a portfolio, because it isn't really one; however, it has given me some ideas as to how I should lay things out, and it's a bit more relevant to my situation compared to Bruno Simon. Combining ideas from both should help me initially get a regular website put together, but later on, I can maybe start looking into interactive ones.

After this lesson, I found that it's incredibly important to make all your information readable and not too overwhelming to the user. This is because I know I would've gotten quite bored if I had to read a bunch of text, but Bruno Simon gives just enough information, which is perfect for employers who may need to skim through multiple applicants' portfolios. I also learnt that making something memorable is not only useful for remembering how to access the website, but also keeps you at the back of an employer's mind. Kojima Productions has also given me some better pointers as to what I might want to include when I show off my projects.

So far, I already have an idea for my portfolio, since I have begun creating a website at home, and for now, I'm just looking to get a basic website created so I have something to show possible near-future employers and universities. Not only that, but it would be good to keep a worded website if someone doesn't want to use an interactive one (if I get around to making one, one day), and as something to show what I previously made.

Website Creation

For my portfolio, I need a website since it's pretty much the best way for employers and other people alike to read about me. Luckily, I have created Minecraft servers where I bought a .com address, so I at least have a unique URL already. After this, I will have to find a website hosting provider to create my website through. WordPress is pretty much the backbone behind websites, but using other providers to host it off of is also good. I decided to go with Hostinger, since it was one of the cheapest with a decent amount offered to me.

After spending hours upon hours setting everything up to my liking, surfing through a bunch of settings menus, I finally got the website working correctly, and mostly to my liking. Since I was doing a lot of experimenting, at one point, I had a previous website creation overlapping another, but I eventually found the issue and resolved it. It turned out to be the cache not being cleared. Now I know that, I found out that I need to do some stuff regarding it every time I update the website. I also have some other issues regarding page sizing and how it looks on other devices, but hopefully, once I get a bit more time, I can begin putting all of the needed information onto it.

More Researched Portfolios

Chris Ingerson

Link: Chris Ingerson

Trent Polack

Link: Trent Polack

David Shaver

Link: David Shaver

Jay van Hutten

Link: Jay van Hutten

My Portfolio Creation

After doing lots of intensive research on other portfolio examples, I decided it was time to begin putting together my portfolio section on my website. I've already made a short home page, so this will pretty much complete the website for now. This is also the main section that I will need for my university interviews, which are not that far away.

Below is a link to my website portfolio. Once I got around the difficulties of creating a decent website, I actually found it to be quite fun. However, I'm looking forward to writing up a page on each project a lot less, since that's going to take a fair amount of work, but I'm not starting that for a bit yet.

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