INTERACTIVE PORTFOLIOS

Creating a digital portfolio has numerous advantages over its traditional counterpart. Not only is it far more portable, it can be lightweight in file size aswel as weight. Displaying work on-screen shows skills such as interface design and user navigation can be in the way the designer intended, not as a printed image. The primary advantage of having a digital portfolio opens your target audience to the internet as a whole, whereas a traditional portfolio limits to your audience to people who are viewing it in interview or exhibition. Interactivity can optimise the viewing of your work and allow the user to enjoy their experience whilst discovering your content. The use of buttons, rollover effects, tweens and fades allow users to almost play with your portfolio while uncovering your work.

Easily kept up-to-date, online content can be quickly changed and manipulated to show your newest piece of work and give your audience something to come back for. Pages such as contact and bio are key features of an online portfolio, this allows potential clients to gain information about who you are and what you do, along with giving them the option to contact you for further questions or possible commission work.

Overall the advantages of having a digital portfolio far surpass the disadvantages (file corruption, copyright issues and hosting fee to name a few) and is by far worth the time and effort it takes to create one.

ILLUSTRATOR: LUKE WHITTAKER

Illustrator, Animator and Game Developer Luke Whittaker's work is something I recently discovered whilst watching his animation Join Hands for Justice, although the animation is displaying a serious issue and covering a controversial subject, the style is very simple, but this does not deter the message that is being conveyed. Whittakers illustration style is alike, often using strong colours and bold outlines, his unique illustrative style covers a range of subjects that seem to mostly focus on culture, environment and music.

WOMENS IMPACT ON DESIGN

A new brief at college challenging gender stereotyping made me think about womens impact on the design industry. Although the statistics can't be sure, approximately 15% of web based design is said to be female. Immediately this figure seems much lower than I expected; however this figure is surely rising as the use of technology is advancing.

 

Deborah Sussman: Graphic Design

Art director and environmental graphic designer Deborah Sussman has been creating legendary work for public spaces for decades. Deborah and her firm, Sussman/Prejza, have done interior and exterior wayfinding and signage systems for Apple, Hasbro, the city of Los Angeles, and numerous others. She may be most famous for her comprehensive graphics program for the 1984 Summer Olympics. She has a keen eye for both client and community needs, creating work that is imaginative, spare, and crystal clear.