#Where Should I Expand as a Self-Taught Designer?
quasi junco
Hi, sorry this is a lot to look at so just wanted to confirm... is your question "is my portfolio holding me back or my software knowledge for finding jobs"?
sonic sail
Hey thanks for asking! Yeah I wonder if my portfolio is holding me back. But also wondering where I should focus first in terms of becoming a more well rounded designer. Sorry for not clarifying that sooner!
quasi junco
ok let me actually do some work at work for a bit and I'll come back to this, but my initial take is that your work is a reflection of your software knowledge. I wouldn't necessarily separate them in your mind, as your software knowledge would help you execute better work and I doubt anyone would hire purely for software knowledge if the executed work was lacking... so later I'll look at purely your portfolio
quasi junco
Okay, I'm back, I'll try to organize my thoughts here.
My first impression is that you have good execution, but the projects themselves look surface-level because of how you have them displayed (and some are actually just really tiny projects like the postcard... I'd probably just remove that altogether). If I actually sit and try to understand every individual image I can see they are different assets for different uses. If instead, I skim (which is what most time-tight managers will do) it all bleeds together because the "branding" and style of the assets lend themselves are so similar to each other. I'd consider breaking apart the groupings of assets and mocking them up so I can more clearly see in what context each graphic belongs in.
Take this screenshot for example: it's the same main key art of the character over and over, so it just seems like a repetitive copy/paste and replace some text. It makes the project feel a lot smaller and I'm not necessarily separating in my head each piece, I just sort of see one big set of "hey I did graphics" and I move on mentally
I think it's hard for people outside of the e-sports scene to also understand what these graphics are at a glance. I play games, I know what esports are, and I know what streaming is, so I can guess where everything belongs. Everyone else? Probably not. If you're looking for roles outside of this space at all, I would consider this hurting your chances.
So another piece of advice I'd say is to pace this a bit better and help explain through mocks and titles and grouping. Put all the stream assets in one section with a title. Put the social media in a separate section mocked up as social media posts for the platforms you made them for. Etc. I know you have one section just called "marketing" but with all the different sizes and content there it's just a lot to look at all at once
For what you want to focus on next:
Other than the format and display of your work, I would consider what other work do you actually want to do? Do you want to keep doing esport overlays and packages? Do you want to explore outside of games? I think it's completely up to you. Currently, I would trust you to take an already established brand and make marketing/social assets for it. Past that, I'm not sure because I don't really see evidence of you creating a brand system or a logo from scratch
If creating a brand system/logo from scratch is something you want to do more of, then I'd show that and start there
@sonic sail let me know if that makes sense. Again I think you clearly have an understanding of the programs to execute, but so far it seems you haven't done more of the background strategy or systems work, and maybe the roles you're applying to are worried about that gap.