Creative Portfolio Research

1. Rafael Varona (Illustrator, Animator, Art Director)

(https://www.rafaelvarona.com/)

Through looking around the portfolio, it overall has a simple appearance. The home screen showcases a variety of their works from their illustrations up to their animations, which is great as it gives a quick insight into what style they have, rather than making a showcase of every single work you have created, as that would most likely go on for too long for the client (or anyone else) viewing the portfolio. 

A brief description of the person is on top of the portfolio view which is good because it gives a brief insight into who the person is, like who they are and their job titles, along with their place of education and what they worked on specifically. 

The portfolio contents are sorted into a gallery view and when clicked on, shows up the image in a higher quality and the person gives it a small caption to describe who they produced the work for and what they did for that client (e.g. in image; he created the image for Disney on which asked to animate/draw something related to Pluto's 90th Birthday). This is good as it doesn't give an in-depth detail about the process of the piece but rather something simple so any clients looking through their portfolio doesn't get overwhelmed by the amount of description. 

His about page is again brief but it does go into only a tiny bit more detail compared to the bio before his portfolio on the front page. He details his name, professions and his place of education, it's the same bulk of information just with added extras underneath, which lists his previous clients and contact info for anyone who's interested in his work or if they have any question based around that. 

This is probably useful as it's basically a simple CV if the client looks at it. Also by adding the client's here, it could bring more of an professional look to the person and might bring in more clients as it includes well known companies such as Adobe and Disney. He also doesn’t use any self-portraits but presents his work more than himself. 

I think overall the portfolio website is organized and it's presented in an easy and simple way, along with it's unique areas on the website; e.g. the icons for his social media seem to be drawn rather than the usual vector graphics, commonly used on other people's sites. Using their logo on the site adds more of an professional look to it as both seeing the contents on the site and looking at the logo, you can tell that this person has had experience.

2. Julian Langham (Freelance videographer and editor)

(https://julianlangham.co.uk/)

Through looking around the portfolio, it overall has a simple layout but has tons of information on both the person and his work. Overall, my opinion is that I think it's too much information put onto one website though I also think it's useful to a client viewing their portfolio as that amount of information might bring more in-sight into what they can do if the client chooses them to do whatever they have decided him to produce. 

I do like how within the descriptions of his work (e.g. the Let's Keep Dancing videos where he both filmed and edited for social media promotion, commissioned by Bishopsgate Institute), he include a brief summary of what client commissioned him to film and edit these videos, along with filming locations and for some, cast and crew for who else worked on it. I think the portfolio page is well organised and I like the touch on how his work is organised into categories related to what the work is revolved around (e.g the Let's Keep Dancing videos are catergorised as; Artists, Business, Charities, Docs/Films, Events, LGBT+, Music, Other and Products) which again would be easy for a client to look through at specific categories they might be interested in for this person to make. 

His 'about' page consists of long paragraphs describing both his life and careers, this is overall useful to have as it’s very detailed which would be incredibly helpful for clients to read through. Though again like other pages on their portfolio, I feel like it can be shortened down due to the amount of information given. Unlike the other portfolios I’ve looked at, they actually use a self-portrait to present themselves to people and clients viewing the portfolio. He also mentions his background and his life before becoming a freelancer, starting with the places he studied at to other workplace (as he mentions, jobs like the Air Force to a job at the BBC).

3. Jasper Van Gestel (Illustrator, Animator, Tattoo Artist)

(https://www.jaspervangestel.com/)

Through looking around the portfolio, it overall has a very simple appearance. The home screen is merged with the portfolio page, which makes it easy to access and quicker to see the work they have produced. The layout is in gallery view so it's ordered from their most recent being at the top of the page. 

When looking through each of their work individually, it goes into brief detail about the work which usually includes about the client and what sort of work they were asked to produce (e.g. a mural located and made for Gierle, Belgium to spread the message of tolerance). I think this is great as you don’t have to more or less read about it other than it is better described in the picture they have provided of the work. It also seems to work well with their drawing style as it’s simple and easy to view, and having a layout that links to that probably gives it more of a personalised look to the portfolio. 

I also like how the bio is simple and again like most of the portfolio, doesn’t go into much detail but it’s enough information for the client to know about them, areas such as their name, occupation and other client they have worked for previously (with the difference, compared to other portfolios is that rather than writing them down, the person has put the logos of the clients instead). Rather than using a usual self-portrait of the person, they use a picture of their workspace, this makes the both the artist and portfolio look and feel different to other portfolios. I think again like the first portfolio I looked at, it includes a logo to the portfolio on which I think adds to it having a more professional look to it.