Design Portfolio Review – Young Guns 2 Episode 2

this is not the intro here we go we're gonna do the intro right are we ready [Music] Melinda do you know what we're doing today I do what are we gonna do today we are going over the young guns portfolios yes and if you guys know how the young guns is it's an ongoing series where we're trying to help coach some young people under 26 years old and they're from all over the world so we're super excited to introduce to you the very cast of season two of young guns and I can't think of any other gun that rather have next to me than the OC heat packings anybody else to have next to me then the girl from Orange County keep packing undercover officer brunette no I don't know okay so we're gonna be looking at the work there are seven young guns for this season and what we want to do is to determine one personality do you have a personality is a personal branding you say something about you what's your need you need to take on work and life because we want to know next do you have focus and this is really really important of you going deep or are you going wide because at the end of the day we only remember the people who have depth we've talked about this before so there it is again next up is what is it that you do are you being clear about what it is that you do are you a basket weaver are you a packaging master are you a branding expert what do you do and do you communicate that clearly and does the body work support that last but not least of course is the quality of the work and on that we have a couple of criteria do you nail the fundamentals of design do you get the principles of design correct are using the right spacing the colors to communicate what it is that you're doing and are your mock-ups beautiful do you present the work well do you have low accelerated images or things that just don't look good or poorly lit look amateurish and even though you're exploring the work are you showing us a to depth of exploration we want to see that you take an idea you hit it out of the park and you do everything that you can think of and more and that's it so we're gonna be grading on those four categories let me go over them again personality focus what do you do is it clear and lastly quality and we're gonna rank those from one to five and we'll do it secretly and we'll reveal to you the answer at the end of the show so as you're watching play along with us there will be a graphic a checklist or something probably somewhere on there and then you could just score yourself and see if your answers line up with ours okay let's jump into it first up it's Miss Annie yang she says I create witty design solutions for playful brands this is Annie as a creative designer currently based in New York City okay so we know a little bit about her there's a picture of her in New York City and notice her face - it hurts she has a funny expression okay do you know what a creative designers one of the same so a very designer designer yeah okay so I don't know what a creative designer is I wish had told me a little bit more so I have no idea if she's an editor she works on branding animations I have no idea because that's not a term I see a lot I'm a creative designer okay but she does say that I create witty design solutions for playful brands so she likes to have fun I'm actually really nervous that they're gonna say all my projects are a little bit sloppy and they're not really of super high quality in terms of layout and mock-ups so I don't they don't say that why don't you pick a project that jumps out so I think there's six projects here we can look at I like to look at the first one because it seems if that is her personal branding okay and also you were saying to us this is the most important thing for me to look at because it's the upper left corner don't let that be the latest thing be that the most important thing that's fun she's living up to it yeah she is so far mini playful okay I got a brand tells us about the process good mock-up good mock-ups clean design I think she has the fundamentals down yeah shows the process I'm good I think that had to be photographed right yeah that's fun that she actually photographed it and used the Legos cassette mm-hmm that shows the person so I know some things about Annie already she's a good designer she's not afraid of color she's not afraid of letting her personality out and she knows a thing or two about lighting and photography let's pick one more project this one did you pick the second one for any particular reason I did cuz went in looking at her previous projects the bag I almost feel like oh I probably see all what I'm gonna see right there so I don't feel drawn in to click on that business cards neither here nor there so I'm curious about why you say that when you see the bag you've seen all that you're gonna say based on that one thumbnail to help our audience understand like why a potential art director or client looks at that and might come up with a complete oh I don't know what type of brand this is no idea so it could be a clothing brand it could be a beauty brand I have no clue and so the fact that I don't have that context I don't know what kind of brand it is all I know is this shopping bag so that to me if I knew what type of brand it was if I had some kind of context then I most likely would can you man example what she could have done in this thumbnail that might communicate that to you yeah maybe photograph it in the space or the type of store that it would be index or have the products around it whatever kind of products that is being sold I I kind of have a sense of what it is already because of the title but okay I just want to take that thought to the conclusion which is if it's for a bath and beauty product I would love to see loofah sponge or a back scrubber or lotions and oils maybe even the ingredients that go into it like maybe there's lavender or whatever goes into beauty products so you want to create in a natural setting so if it's Allah it's for a line of adult toys you want to see products they're a bunch of condom wrappers maybe some some lubrication just so that you're telling this story yeah within one image so that people don't automatic resume not interesting because there's not a lot of personality coming through from that right but it's interesting because the line says feed your curiosity and there's something funny going on with you you see that mm-hmm the feed your curiosity there's a ligature between the you and the arm and then when you hover over it it was something Pleasure Chest so if it is what I think it might be like what if it's like a bunch of sex toys the Pleasure Chest do you think yeah is it safe for me to say that so let's say it were and it's the Pleasure Chest but I would then like to do is do something more like 50 shades of gray where everything is dark and mysterious and you can't see at all yeah so I'm really curious now so when we show less we become more curious and when we turn on all the lights it's like all there's no mystery there's no monster hiding in there so we click on my oh man ginger talked about doing is sexy addition see do not disturb adult entertainment I'm telling you I could smell these things a mile away whoa that's an interesting logo your your CH your pleasure your pleasure chess uh-huh it's like reading a license plate no well I think that's what it is you are you're so here's another point for everybody to take note that you should try to do as much as possible the storytelling within the visuals that you provide it's great that she's writing copy and I'm sure it makes a lot of sense as soon as I read it and I'm sure whoever's watching this video is gonna critique us or criticize us for not reading it so without critiquing it too much I like the comps this is very professional you look like you're a person who's been designing for some time and I gave you extra points if you're writing the copy too and I think it's quite clever how she's using the your and you are in a lot of the language so disturbed you're not just our Pleasure Chest so she's finding interesting ways and incorporating the you are the form itself that you are the lock up it's not fully resolved for me there's something that's funny about it and it reads a little odd it's just sometimes you have an idea and you want to be really clever and sometimes that just fights against you the whole time I don't I don't love the typeface that's just me no something ham the proportion doesn't feel right here's how I would suggest you do this for thumbnail because we're talking about it I would change it to be very dark like black on black like ebony on midnight kind of thing you know what I would do is maybe take something that like a ribbon and I would wrap it around the back and kind of remove parts of it like it's getting undressed mm-hmm and it's being unwrapped and so then I'm really like what is this thing so you're telling part of the story there's other things that you can do too which is to make you feel really taboo and the instant you put black bars over things like you're putting what is at that nipple campaign yeah censor made me do that so those are things that I would suggest that yeah okay let's check out Annie Yang's Instagram feed let's check it out all so now she's like a mix of her life kind of like what what she's a graphic designer in Illustrator it's clear what she's in here and she lives in New York City there's a lot of personal stuff in here how do you feel about the personal stuff we'll talk about that on another show should we require relating today yeah let's do it no I'm curious really what do you think about all this personal stuff as as an art director looking for a designer I wouldn't be into that how come I would if it was sporadic so I could at least see who this person is and see what they do but it's all her and none of the work so if she's wanting to use this as a way to get work then I would suggest putting away more work on here okay so the ratio of personal images to show me final work is way off it's 90% personal 10 percent work and maybe needs to be 90 percent work and 10% person yeah okay yeah it's it's almost like this is a travel blog like where she's going moments in our life but I think what we want to do is stress to young people who are trying to build a career and get known as an expert at something you're not trying to show you an expert at hanging out in costumes or throwing P symbols at the camera or taking selfies or doing goofy funny unless that's really what you want to be known for that's okay that's the case what it should be really about is establishing you as a professional fill the blank graphic designer illustrator those kinds of things I like to see more process more of your work and little if any of you and your boyfriend hanging out it's not that interesting to me personally it's just me okay I'm just debating on one last score I'm that personality focus what you do kind of quality I was feeling super nervous sorry listening to the boutique but also like on the edge of my seat because I was like oh my god please meet descriptions but I definitely agree with Chris and Melinda though about how I should be able to tell a story and process through purely images that was something I never really thought about because I myself was like oh I can just add text to explain the whole project but I forget there are people who don't want to read it and for those people I should be able to tell the story with just pictures and it's not it's not wrong it's just that might actually just be a better way to story Cal so next we're gonna be going over Monica's portfolio and the hands from Lithuania and she is a logo and brand identity designer with a passion for drawing and illustration okay let's jump in mm-hmm so to be consistent should we click on this oh yeah let's do that and most likely that's the most recent one - that's on behan nothing serious oh I see illustration I see a little typography this is nothing serious it doesn't care a message or deeper meaning it's only a series of blue and yellow those illustrations made to satisfy a 3m artistic urge to create a tribute to insomnia these are fun yeah very graphic like it yeah very stylish so she obviously knows how to draw I reckon my portfolio review will go fine I've had my work judged every semester for over 16 years right now so I don't want to stand I'm confident in the world that I do so the next thing I want to look at it's probably this because I'm seeing mostly illustration now yeah I'm gonna click on the logo types and marks whole volume one mm-hmm oh that's nice mark that foxy clothing brand this is TK monogram Wow marks Wow beautiful marks I have to say this it's not that often that I see a person who's good at design and illustration and it seems like what I could can do it all mm-hmm this girl I did all right let's keep going here thank you yeah Wow nice and beautiful illustration day let's pick one more okay I feel like this is gonna be tough to grade unlike the boys what I want to go to the first one because it seems very different from all the rest the oldest one is one so it looks like it's just the drawing which is very good it's gorgeous okay so as what looking at this it's nice to know that she can do that kind of drawing but if that's it seems weird for it to be there because I see stylized illustrations I see beautiful marks but then I see a drawing but does it doesn't have any context there's no story about it it's just a drawing so I would either want all drawings like I just want to know that's just what you do you just draw and you draw a very realistic things or you are an illustrator you have this particular style hmm or you're a mark designer maybe that's a bridge between the two so now we're looking at the martial arts identity design so it's using one of the marks showing the breakdown and use oh it's a new corner on some mock-ups capoeira hopefully I said that correctly Brazilian martial arts just because we moved through this pretty quickly I want to click on one these to which I which one not the right left let's qualify it's cuz I boom I'm right there he doesn't think you can smack me anytime you wish just not the face the money man ok this is an illustration for artificial reality wow she's good hello stranger yeah really good thing what this is my favorite here this guy on the couch I love the perspective I love framing the subject behind things so there's a lot of depth to him and I just like the expression and the other ones were really exaggerated this one isn't so exaggerated and I love the crazy pants he's wearing it's really great pattern do you think she's doing this for a client I would love to know more about the project in general so context ok so because their works on V hence there's not a lot of ability of press to understand her personality so let's look her out on Instagram Instagram Lynn likes to refer to it as I like her Marc to her mark yeah yeah yeah it's really nice it's memorable that's something that I would see and I remember it on Instagram it's hard to remember people and you've seen so many yeah unless you have like really cool glasses and a cap or something like that distinguish yourself from others she's a really good at drawing mm-hmm I would love to have some of these marks like on my t-shirt or on my business card and although some of them feel familiar to me because I think that bird would tie him okay although some of them feel familiar like like people explore these kinds of things and I've seen foxes drawn in many ways but it's still very difficult to do there's some hand lettering involved so it's a lot of illustrations and processed right okay fantastic beautiful okay I think we should score her right now okay regardless it was really interesting to see the process of how they were reviewing the projects and that will definitely be including more information she will give more context about the work in the future Anastasia Volland Anastasia of valance go Melanson go Anastasia Val I think oh I hope I said that correctly we shall see I think the piece that you like the most is for my branding I created it for a dhaba competition and it was only afterwards that I found out that I was ineligible because I was from Ukraine but I had so much fun doing it nonetheless it was it really gave me an opportunity to play around with fonts and colors in the way that client work doesn't always allow and I really put a lot of effort into it so I was quite proud of it when I finished so we have just the work so I don't know except by looking at it what she does you know what to read anyways I don't like to do you want her to read a little bit just to just identify okay so let's let's play going free anything there let's play a game you guess what she does based on these three pieces brand identity bingo let's see let's see what it is okay based on five beautiful typefaces and drawings Jenny alright four-mile follows function it's funny it's fun I love gifts never gifts in your partner well that gets my attention and I remember that why is that I'm like a child it's moving and it's colorful there's some psychology to this movement gets attention anything that moves is gonna draw your eye period this is pretty cool yeah it's very abstract so there's some shapes and then there's the word format and I like it mm-hmm I don't know what this is because it just a so it must be a poster for the end as part of their entry nice mock-up do these are nice hmm you know I like about this is that she has a simple system and she's able to find different expressions of it so when we're talking earlier about the depth of that work it could be that she just designed the logo lock up and that's all she did but I like that there's a whole color system as part of her brand identity and she's using typefaces and different configurations with products so since this is a further product design affair it makes sense now that there are bunch of products like a lamp whatever else we're seeing buildings things in that nature right oh my gosh she's done out dodges event badge bags pillows I love this this project is beautiful I always have liked how she pulled out the basic forms the building blocks if you will the triangle the circle and the square that looks a little squished to me for some reason does it looks question to you what's wrong is you can like this Center it's not a circle yeah something looks I'm going to happen so can we see the rest of it if it's consistent it doesn't look squish so maybe there is a little technical issue accidentally squashing something I'm not sure but this circle the yellow circles on top because you can't use shift in the new Photoshop update you know those do not that you can you hold down shift that stretches it it does the opposite so it's gonna be many years of retraining your brain yeah that might have happened yeah yeah let her off that problem but it's an overall - beautiful yeah project and the mock-ups everything the kiss get extra points for the kiss here's my one critique on this is that the Museum of Contemporary Art uses something very similar with square circles and triangles I believe from okay and I would just be mindful of that another project yes five birds look identity fun bold adventurous noticing a theme so you know the mountains and the trees right on a station my comment for you here is since you only have three projects to show us I feel like I want you to stretch creatively a little bit I feel like there's certain themes and creative tendencies that you like that feel prevalent in both projects mm-hmm this simple form making the 30 typefaces these colors I'd like to see a little bit more arrange and what you do so let's jump into this set the last project of three and let's see if there's some break away from that I know Lugano is why trading company and quit that's nice mmm-hmm okay so Alan believe become one current yeah oh yeah I try I won't be quitting my day job mm-hm nice mock-up I like that the colors are more vivid yeah versus the wouldn't kind of washed out d saturated pastel colors that you seem to be using before presentations beautiful it is but I am noticing it's almost like in designing the brand identities she has her process of how to get to an outcome so then a lot of them are looking the same which depending on how you look at it it could be good could be bad because then I know what to expect if I needed a brand identity and it as a art director if I'm looking for something specific then I know what I'm gonna get so I feel confident that what I would task her with I would hopefully get something like this back what's interesting is this is proof and what I'm saying of what I've said before this could be my own bias is that it takes three to identify a pattern no more than that and you've done three projects in both Melinda and I if I may be so bold to speak for you see your pattern thinking and working and that's great because it's very consistent so if we want more of what you've done it's a very easy decision for us inside let's hire her if we want somebody who's really good with patterns who likes to keep things bold and graphic and simple and minimal who understands how to use shapes and in certain kinds of colors in conjunction with each other and you're the person for us Anastasia that's very very clear let's take a look at her Instagram well not well snap it look there's only two posts okay a cat and some posters okay let's go and score Anastasia all right her personality focus what she does is it clear and the quality of our work well I'm happy that you know I would be seen as this person who can do bold minimalistic kind of design I know that I can do more than that even if it's not significantly different but there's more variety that I can offer that I can offer to my client and that's what I want to change about my portfolio going forward I want to make it in my style but a little bit more consistent all right Melinda why not she introduced our fourth young gazelle young guns are Maitri from India she says she's a visual designer notice I was looking the word out there no she's not consistent points oh all right I am definitely nervous because it is a different thing when someone is just looking at your portfolio and when someone is critiquing it she's got a bit more work than the previous portfolios wouldn't looked at hmm I am intrigued by this part then click on its beautiful graphic form and it's an animals and birds geometric logo see is more of illustrations my logo how do you separate an illustration from although I'm curious if these were logos I would they would use a lot less color if they'd work in black do you can black there'd have to be modifications like would you know in this one particular just I have to knock out but the haters would give it away I think most of these I can see him because I'm looking at the silhouette yeah but silhouette I don't know what to read so it'll be ok but how it is presented - it looks like it's just illustrations not that I guess one person's illustrations and other person's iconic condoms okay if like say there's my next to the parent yeah you probably have a harder time figure out what that cuz I wish there was context without that I don't know okay it's probably do you ask design oh just kidding okay Belgian chocolate yes I guess yay another cake what I would I would be attracted to that as an art director bonus points these are beautiful yeah these are really nice I like the color systems that she's got they're unusual color combinations and having the illustration and the graphics integrated together I think make it really smart mm-hmm there's a sense of luxury or a high high-end product because of that and there's really interesting patterns she's introducing - mm-hmm that is bringing those two worlds together what I don't love sorry to say is the logo type not love with the dog it feels completely different than the rest of the feel of the brand it says premium build in chocolate and typeface and the treatment to it does not feel that way what is my glamour feels like I've seen in like a poster like a concert poster that's the feeling I get from it but it doesn't feel premium yes there's a couple of problems that I'm having with it one is on a formal level in that using an outline typeface and then adding a drop shadow really it kind of messes around with the way I read it I'm seeing from the four or five foot range and that the shadow is more prominent than the letter forms themselves and it makes it really hard to read so that's the formal critique there mm-hmm now there's two things that you can do if you want to do something that's premium Belgian chocolate you can do something that feels premium by going with type or you can go against type meaning you can pick people three-dimensional masculine typeface but I think in this in this one example this one iteration I think it would have been much better served by choosing something that was going with type so you should probably pick a serif typeface you might even do a formal script or something else it just doesn't feel like those things are coming together otherwise I think everything else is sublime it's beautiful I love it just how could you do it to the do its French so maybe it means dough means soft and sweet so then it means often sweet yet this is hard and rigid yeah so yeah when you mention hand letter to definitely get something very handily yes I think a letter would be beautiful okay but I can see that as a high-end cosmetic product but just happens to be for chocolate if you were to change the typeface let's get one space yeah anything you want well it was interesting it was she had the animal logo so I kind of want to see her logos and marks mr. Koch oh that's nice mm-hmm that's an actual market and mr. Koko as a little whimsy to it uh-huh maybe the balance is a little bit off mr. Coco I think probably a little bit smaller yes I'm happy I'm really you liked on our line I don't know I have to see it probably doesn't need it do you why you need to use the underline to why you don't have a lot of people use underlines to anchor things to anchor and to separate there's nothing to separate no anchor nor necessary right nothing you need to be paying attention to is the thickness of the line so let's go to mr. Coco it feels a little thin a little dainty from how chunky and round this logo feels so it's very sharp so again and it needs to be resolved and I bet if she shrank mr. Coco so that it's between the s and the 8th about that size it'll feel really balanced because right now it's creating this kind of strange triangular shape but if you brought it in it would feel a little bit more complete like a circle mm-hmm maybe that's what she felt too but she didn't know how to result yeah so she put an underline is there some really good work in all this it's mixed it's a mixed bag and we in the logo so what should she do take out all the ones that are questionable yeah I see the first things you told me she's oh sorry to interrupt you but you had told me what a first or second call that we had and you said is there any work in your portfolio that does not speak to the quality that you put out consistently I said yeah so can the new said it wouldn't take it out why is it still there so that's the advice that I would give really ask yourself this question how many pieces do you need to show somebody to make them feel like you're good enough at doing that thing so in a case like this when you have so many logos it's me you've gone overboard just go back and cut take out a few so she says she's a visual designer in Illustrator shows a lot of work that's awesome a little process too right yeah showing different iterations of that yeah and some things that are not fully formed just ideas sketches practice fun yeah nice okay [Music] the key takeaway that I'll definitely follow is that I'll spend more time on brand researching and designing before finalizing anything okay next up we have unlike the other portfolios we have Rios ascending ourselves as a company so it's the creative kind let's get into it so I believe this is the first stand-alone website is it the other one was an Adobe portfolio which looks like a standalone website until it tells you this is an Adobe portfolio model it's like website design so this is what RIA does website design oh they let you a different categories website design identity design no more honestly I'm kind of nervous about typos I know that may sound like a weird anxiety to have but I'm Dyslexic like extremely dyslexic so I tend to have a really hard time hating my homework okay so I will pick whichever one catch the hard to start with this the e Lane Grenier natural ceramics and sculpture she did the web visit what's that designed for this person it is say it up there it did that's nice that it but it's very clear what she did on this project especially if they've worked on these projects with a team yeah to give credit and to show exactly what it is or say what it is that they've done it helps yeah because it gives us a lens into how to look at the work yeah so it's very clear so here's one thing I would suggest right off the bat I'm old take that into consideration young guns that your typeface your point size is very small it's I can read it but this make me work too hard to read it so I'm not gonna read it and using all caps makes it a little harder to read and making it a condensed all caps I face also harder to read the column within text is really wide relatively speaking it goes beyond that recommended however many words that are supposed to be out of mind or how many letters I should say okay the assignments so she's giving us a lot of information here tools that she so lots of good information here probably good for search engine optimization and just if somebody really is loved with this they're gonna sit here and look at it but now we're gonna get to the work the final product interesting so it's hard to tell if this is a good website or not yeah because for the most part she's just showing it inside a device and an image I'm not getting a whole lot there so what I see I like it just I'm not getting a lot of what it is that I need to say to figure out if this is a person I would want to hire so let's go back so did she say what it is I don't use I in logo design for Harmonia interactive sound healing I like the visuals of the process cuz with the previous one it just had the bullet points of the process there was no visuals it's nice to see the visuals and that might have helped that project overall because we don't know if it was a good website or not feels like it needs to be cleaned up like it's not done I think they did on purpose but it doesn't there's a little schmutz see things in there I think you're saying either go all the way right yeah yeah a little person and yes I can do wants to be hand-done yeah all right you're the first person who is really presenting yourself as a company and you're being very smart about it RIA and that you've included testimonials a very thorough process and a description of the entire process right so it's actually really nice for onboarding prospective clients putting my client had on I'm just kidding I get the sense of who you are how you do your work and your entire process so good job on that front I think there are some little design choices that we can do to kind of sharpen this out but overall good presentation pick one okay packaging packaging package little typo there packaging mm-hmm okay I hug you ESL people like myself a little bit more leeway but if you're a native speaker let's use the old spellcheck so this I feel like your categories could be changed we're not separated like they are I'm a little confused with that cuz this could go under an identity system okay already scoring are we done you can do anything you want are you you don't need anymore I don't think so okay I'm good all right yes I've written my answers I can't copy you now I don't want to influence it but you know I care much more about learning from this experience and winning it's kind of like how do you measure intelligence you know what I mean like sure some designers are better than others but at the same time like it depends on what you need a designer for in the first place so yeah those are my thoughts next up we have retrograde studio another standalone website from Megan Krieger and she's self-described as a world traveler and a work in progress let's take a look at our work I am a little bit nervous because I switched from a wordpress website to Squarespace website like in the middle of the portfolio review time so I'm hoping that everything worked out with my template I chose the template where the links for the case studies are the images themselves and I tested it with a few of my friends and they were able to figure out what to click but I'm really hoping that Chris mundo we'll figure out how to actually do the case studies so you can't this is one of those card sites you can't scroll okay so I'll pack it whoa okay a little roll of action package design yeah yeah but now you can scroll with its parallax I was going to decide oh maybe all the way down I tried something else maybe that's all guys one daughter yeah tell she has illustration let's look at this now okay does have more ok illustration I guess some of these young gals have multiple skill sets illustration and design okay we're gonna be able to loot their portfolio pretty quickly as I can see jackass mm-hmm okay that's great is this a contact form mommy okay Wow that's amigas work okay not a lot there let's look at her Instagram a lot of illustration plants this feels like a very curated collection of images yeah look like she's my tentacles yeah pretty much right as soon as she got on the future shoot me I'm just kidding I have no idea hey I like those drawing felt like she can draw yeah homegirl can draw nice and paint okay well that was quick okay here's my overall summary of Megan's work Megan not enough work on your site but that's to be expected since you are a young gun but so far I think it's the most shallow portfolio that we've seen there's only a couple of pieces and there's a lot of things that you can do to maximize the work you've already done to change angles show patterns try to extend the designs that you make okay she's originally from Nashville Tennessee it says right there I can read how do we get back to work I'm a little confused by this interface Oh No what oh I don't know oh yeah ugh on the name okay so do you think your your package design you could probably make more out of this spin it yeah I like the simplicity of your design it's probably missing a little something that the Genesee quad to kind of really make it pop maybe it's a gold foil or it's an interesting color or a unfinished raw edge to the label we need something else there otherwise it feels like it was photocopied and print it on this paper I know I'm missing something there come the whole story - there's a yeah and filled out the whole entire line at the context in the store on the shelf all of that so from the brand identity maybe showing the process so there's a lot that she could explore with this project yes so they didn't click on the images it's definitely a lesson and user interface and people need to know how to operate your website oh yeah no big deal just find one chance to have my portfolio reviewed by Kristin Linda you win some you lose some I will definitely show up for the package design challenge and now nobody knows what to expect so last but not least take us home Melinda a toast box a toast box from Tolson Tosun who lives in Toronto but is originally from Nigeria I'm a hundred percent nervous because I feel like again Chris has so much experience I know my work isn't going to be like my doing to him I accept think I okay this is another expectation I expect some hard truths and yeah I just I don't know I just I'm pretty nervous I'm pretty nervous because I really like look up to Chris so like I like I value his opinion so him giving input on my work is it's nerve-wracking okay but I'm excited still so it just says portfolio there could be something there what what you do I think she's still a student okay yeah just to let me know or do that too yeah yeah okay so take the first one you want me to you your fingers on the pad yes meaning you campaign jonhoward society me why rent an ex-con okay interesting this is like a PSA it's my act I would like to see those in context so showing it on Instagram because then right away I could know that it's an Instagram ad and you wouldn't even have to say it oh well not now I have to read you know and not very big yeah yeah so you're getting old too although many works are amazing just made me lazy not old you're still young Claire's Instagram ads looks like they're so all of them are okay this probably is one of those assignments in class where you take a brief and how to give an ex-con a second chance mm-hmm so she's experimenting with ad copy and the copy is okay I'm not sure the concept is fully there because it's relying a lot on the copy and the copies not convincing me just yet oh here's the context yeah I'd flip it put the context first put the context first I want to work for it and then put it in on an iPhone there's a weird yeah there's a weird edge framing thing so mock-ups for this one why are they viewing this one okay illegally and to to quickly understand what this project is about it would be nice to instead of naming it who the client is I don't know necessarily who that client is mm-hmm to then to put an outcome or aid ex-convicts and rehabilitation ad campaign or something so that I could quickly know what it is because I wouldn't know who that client is that just signs lookbook mini magazine essence mock-up yeah that's a nice mock-up I'm not a fan of just the images put on the website like that it needs to be for me in context mm-hmm that's a nice ad mm-hmm now it's probably too big for us to see so maybe put it in the mock-up and scaled it down nice photography it'd also be nice if and maybe this was in the paragraph at the top but to know if she didn't do the photography hmm look at your target yeah and if there were other people involved then who were they so I think if you took these pages from the lookbook and you put them in context like the pages were turning different angles a repetition laid out on a grid of some sort you can take them mm-hmm design and make it Wow right you can really push it and I think those are some of the presentation skills were gonna be focusing on this season of the young guns too logo compilation hmm there's a lot going on it would be nice to just have one logo on the screen at a time as I'm scrolling because looking at bloom next to the other colors that green is fighting with the lavender and the pink but wait too much for me I would agree with you in the local grid if the local grid were a simple icons I could see it working just fine but these are complicated combination Mars with work marks with symbols all kinds of stuff and it's a lot especially because they're not all presented in black white or grey that the colors and the scale each one has a different size like jelly or JV or I don't say that compared to say ceviche just the visual weight that they occupy on the screen is a lot now getting deeper if I were to expand upon these I think we have too many logos we need to spend more time finding a good solution for each one of these problems as I'm seeing here you have over 15 or 16 logos here which is a lot but I'm not sure any of them jump out amazing oh I'd like to hire you to help me design that thing this very well could come from the kind of climbs that you're working with pushing you in a specific direction but I would encourage you to find that more neutral Swiss modern aesthetic that is more broadly applicable to many many different brands and which will get paid a lot more money to make so we're talking about basic design principles using simple shapes using classic typefaces and not trying to be overly expressive with your mark if you believe psyche Aviv really a logo is just an identifier it's not the communication it's just the punctuation and some of these things yell at me like what look at me I'm so important and you can see that when it's put into the context of advertising look books it's hard to focus on the photography when you're looking at the logo and then now the logo is just too important and especially for some of these friends that are fast or beauty oriented just be very mindful this stuff doesn't age well okay let's check out her Instagram so she also has a separate Instagram for network so her in the last where the last one left you have separate instagrams for their business and their personal yeah what are your thoughts for that it's a lot to manage it is it is a lot especially if you're going to school to work with clients and I know why because people feel like they have to express themselves under in a personal way and show their lives their friends and family it's something that we want to talk about a little bit is when you're using social media there is a place some a time for you to be self expressive just express yourself right and there's a time for you to start to build an audience around the things that you want to be known for and if you can't dedicate equal amounts of time to your personal and your professional social feed I would strongly encourage you to think about your future employability or your ability to attract clients and therefore I would suggest just focus on the business account the thing that's gonna put bread on the table and bread in your pocket fantastic I'm just gonna be honest I wish I could be the best but I have stock the girls on this season of young guns I know I do not think I'm gonna be the best I've seen I've seen people's work that are gonna be on the show this season and we have the hard job of deliberating and to determine who is going to win episode 2 Sam like the matrix X like real-time sweetman's okay okay in summary you guys thanks for making it to the end of the episode the moment of truth is here I hope you guys had an opportunity to score everybody's work if you haven't but I suggest you do that right now hit pause rewind watch it score flip it smack it and then tell us it's the same as well we wrote down okay now I don't think we influence each other because I wasn't looking at your scores and I definitely know you weren't looking at mine because I was writing him the whole time and so then it was surprising to me that we scored both first and second place in that order in the same way and even who we thought kind of came in on the tail end mm-hmm did that surprise you all right don't say like that with your teeth all like it did I don't see myself agreeing with you at all I thought we would value different things well so here's the interesting you think when we came up with our criteria together as to how we're gonna look at the work it must have been for this moment in time when when two worlds collide so you guys if you're able to have some kind of objective criteria to describe work or goals there's a good chance that you're gonna arrive there even if you work independently from one another interesting so without further ado for that further I do coming up as our first runner-up Monica from Lithuania I don't know where the Sweeney is but I imagine it to be cold there because it's cold here and we're in sunny Southern California so good job why didn't you pick her as your first runner-up I picked her first the logo that she has does show some personality to me so her own personal a little bit she's using that Howell the owl the style of illustration to me also speaks to a personality to the quality of the work is really good the presentation all the logos were stellar they're so good the process that she shows especially on her Instagram of the thinking behind everything the presentation of the marks what can she do to improve so here we're looking at her Behance portfolio what condition do to improve today what can she do take off that first project of the drying that Cal the skull the box or the Cal whatever that is you take that out what else can she I would also if you're saying that you're a logo and brand identity designer I would put more brand identity projects on there too so there's one that's built out there's a lot of logos and marks but there's no other besides that one that's on there of an identity project there's no one I suspect that she doesn't really honestly believe that she's a brand designer but I think she put that in there because a lot of people are searching for that when they're really looking for somebody who creates great marks and you do that really well so your icons are top-notch I love the way that you draw them they're really balanced and beautiful you presented and you presented them to us in black and white which I know then it works and you created some identity design and you haven't done a ton of branding but that's okay what's really unique about your portfolio too is your illustration I'd like to see those two worlds come together a little bit more to find that bridge so that people can hire you for one job and not two different jobs okay the three examples that you've included for illustration are excellent top-notch those are beautiful I encourage you to do that but maybe use those as illustrations to tell a message maybe there's an editorial layout or a cover of a magazine that you can do this for maybe they can become a backdrop or pattern for some really interesting packaging so you have those skills your challenge should you choose accept this Monica is to try to bring those things together because it'll make it better than the designer and I'll make you better than Ella straighter because they live together be that hybrid okay fantastic good job I don't love the thumbnails for the logo types Mark's 1 & 2 I think those should be design much simpler maybe just more symmetrical and and just to be a little quieter so I can dive into the work okay that's it for you and so now you guys are all probably wondering and dying to know who did we pick for the winner of season 2 episode 2 who's the winner chicken dinner Annie Wow Annie let's review your work let's take a look at why did we pick Annie she's branded that was one personality I can see her personality even in that photo that she's using and it lines up with the copy so immediately I get who she is so personality is a big thing and then when we go down to the work it was beautiful quality her mock-ups her presentation her own identity knew how hard it is to do your own identity system it's probably hardest thing to do and it seems that you had a lot of fun doing it and it's dripping with who you are your ethos your sensibility and all that stuff I like it and I also like that you're not afraid to use hand-drawn typefaces for things that are little wacky a little off-center and I think that makes it really memorable I think moving forward I would like for you to try to introduce this into like more corporate brands I I know that you're billed as a witty designer working on playful brands but what if there were other brands in what's the level of sophistication you can bring to this playfulness I want to see what the edges are to kind of push into that okay yeah what else focusing or her focus so it's pretty clear what she does the brand identity and especially once we actually dug into the projects and looked through all of them we could see that yeah and super beautiful comics mock-up is packaging lighting whatever you did whether they're borrowed stolen original I don't care they just look good and you want to make things look good because the person who's looking at you whether there are clients or an art director they want their projects to look as good they want that same TLC that you put into it and that's why your mock-ups matter now you'll be surprised as we looked at many portfolios that have bunch of pieces it doesn't really take that much to convince us but the opposite is true if you litter your site with a lot of stuff that isn't top-notch 100% what you believe is the best work you do you're gonna send the wrong signal and you don't want to do that please don't do that now what you don't know about Annie is you haven't seen her audition tape and she is full of personality like in every which way it's like we cannot let this girl go because we got to have her on her show and I'd even see her work this is the first time I've seen her work oh wow yeah so this is one of those things where her on-camera personality is mirrored with her work and I love that because that means she knows who she is and she's not going to run away from it mm-hmm maybe it's because she's the New York can be you know you got to be tough to be in New York you got to be street smart you got to know who you are otherwise people are gonna walk all over you mm-hmm they say you grow up faster in the city I'm just so shocked I think if the Cameron wasn't in front of me I'd be like my jaw would just have dropped entire three minutes but now it's great I think this also gave me a boost of confidence which I lack a lot of I'm really critical on my own work so this kind of you know makes me this this made me realize that I'm not as bad as I thought I was or at least the quality of work that I produce is considered good they're pretty good so I'm proud of myself good job it's crazy hearing from someone that they know they can see Who I am from my portfolio because honestly I struggle so much with my identity in terms of like being a designer like I don't know where I really fit in because I feel like I can I can work on many different kinds of projects and still do pretty good work but I don't know I guess maybe I've just been in denial for like forever and I never wanted to really brand myself as one thing because I didn't want to restrict myself and I think that might be something that a lot of designers struggle with so it's nice to hear that you know other people see that in me and it kind of makes me feel a bit more now comforted just to know that people can see that yeah I'm honored I really am honored to to have won this portfolio challenge and I really hope that I don't let Chris or Melinda down because they really gave me a lot of really good advice during the review and I would love to apply all that knowledge that I gained from them to make my portfolio even better than and what it is now I think that's it that's it for this episode guys thank you so much for watching and thank you for making it to them I hope you're going to continue to support us and these young women known as young guns too by watching commenting liking subscribing and doing a kickflip or something like that see you guys next time on episode 3 yeah thank you very much Linda thank you [Music]

Channel: The Futur

Views: 99,882

Rating: 4.9389 out of 5

Keywords: the futur, futur brand, disrupt design education, chris do, business of design, how to, how to portfolio, how to make the best portfolio, design challenge, young designer portfolio review, logo review, chris do reviews portfolio, what to include in your portfolio, how to make a good portfolio, what should i have in my portfolio?, female designers, graphic design portfolio, portfolio designer review, portfolio review, portfolio, melinda livsey, young guns, graphic design

Id: UJo7a_9IGBM

Length: 58min 37sec (3517 seconds)

Published: Mon Apr 29 2019