Comments on my Portfolio + How to get lots more work!

[TNDesign]

Hi!

I've been designing sites for a while but only took it seriously last year during my gap year to pay for travelling etc. Advertised for first 6 months and have relied on recommendations ever since. Have just started a run of 13 weeks of adverts in the Friday Ad a few weeks back and have only had 1 response so far. I've got a few other recommendation jobs lined up. But basically I've got 4 months-ish off for the summer from uni and want to get a lot of work to pay back student loans etc. I charge £24 p.h. currently but am now moving toward charging flat rates for my sites.

So firstly please take a look at my portfolio on TN Design | Welcomeand make any comments (constructive please!) which can aid me. The top are the newest, I'm very happy with the top few and am at the moment trying to push out better looking/more professional sites. This is because I'm looking for bigger/better companies (more interesting/bigger jobs and bigger pay I guess but that's not the main reason!). I want to get a good portfolio as after uni I want to enter into marketing/advertising and I guess the more impressive the companies the better!

So any advice on what to do to get bigger/better jobs/companies. I live in the South-East near London but most my jobs are local, I want to get jobs in London - I've a friend there who has had a couple of pretty simple jobs where he has been paid loads (far too much for his ability and finished product to be honest!),

By the way the wording for my paper advert is:

TN DESIGN: Designing affordable, high quality websites for a broad range of customers for over 4 years. From small static sites to full e-commerce. Based in Oxted, Surrey with customers nationwide. Contact for portfolio and further information: *my business email* / 07817 280504.

Any suggestions about changing that maybe...

Any help is much appreciated!
Many Thanks
Tom
TNDesign

[Toxitalk]

Originally Posted by TNDesign

Hi!

I've been designing sites for a while but only took it seriously last year during my gap year to pay for travelling etc. Advertised for first 6 months and have relied on recommendations ever since. Have just started a run of 13 weeks of adverts in the Friday Ad a few weeks back and have only had 1 response so far. I've got a few other recommendation jobs lined up. But basically I've got 4 months-ish off for the summer from uni and want to get a lot of work to pay back student loans etc. I charge £24 p.h. currently but am now moving toward charging flat rates for my sites.

So firstly please take a look at my portfolio on TN Design | Welcomeand make any comments (constructive please!) which can aid me. The top are the newest, I'm very happy with the top few and am at the moment trying to push out better looking/more professional sites. This is because I'm looking for bigger/better companies (more interesting/bigger jobs and bigger pay I guess but that's not the main reason!). I want to get a good portfolio as after uni I want to enter into marketing/advertising and I guess the more impressive the companies the better!

So any advice on what to do to get bigger/better jobs/companies. I live in the South-East near London but most my jobs are local, I want to get jobs in London - I've a friend there who has had a couple of pretty simple jobs where he has been paid loads (far too much for his ability and finished product to be honest!),

By the way the wording for my paper advert is:

TN DESIGN: Designing affordable, high quality websites for a broad range of customers for over 4 years. From small static sites to full e-commerce. Based in Oxted, Surrey with customers nationwide. Contact for portfolio and further information: *my business email* / 07817 280504.

Any suggestions about changing that maybe...

Any help is much appreciated!
Many Thanks
Tom
TNDesign

They are ok. I think you may run into some issues later as there seems to be lack of css layout and accessibilty, but with anything if your getting paid for it, its good enough.

[lailapages]

I think your site has an individual style. I am also a freelancer and think that you are doing the right things to market yourself although your location is not necessary in your ad. You are stating that you work all over the country so there is no need to mention your location as it will put more people off than will contact you.
If you want the bigger work then you have to put your money where your mouth is. I try and give out honest advice on forums like these to help other people. I do not aim for world wide web domination as I only work by myself with the help of a few freelancers who can do the tricks that I can't.
I find that google adwords is good, but it is not for the faint hearted. This allows me to get better paid work although it is quite high risk high reward.

Send me a pm if you want more advice on getting your services known - I am not claiming to be an expert but I do have to turn down work occasionally due to workload.

[Richard_A]

I don't like the portfolio site much. Some of the work is OK.

I think you need to bring more flair and creativity to your designs. For inspiration, this site might be useful:

» screenfluent | the web's most favorite collection for zeitgeist of screen design | by thomas marban

I'm actually looking for a full time junior designer at the moment. We're based in Luton and Holborn with clients all over the country. If you might be interested in going full time, let me know. We'd certainly help you to develop very rapidly and you'd have a stream of clients to get stuck into. Our primary requirement is creative flair and technical requirements are extremely low (our designers design, our developers do the building). Your portolio has hints of creative flair, but not enough for us as is, so we'd probably ask you to produce a free ranging, out of the box design to really show us what you are capable of. As I said, let me know if you want to discuss this further.

[Rephrase]

I think they are ok... I liked the intensive driving school and the draper's one but the others look... very simple, which is something that could be really good or really bad. A simple website could mean a clean and easy to read and obtain information website, or it could mean a very boring website. I guess it depends on the niche.

Well, if you are getting paid, as toxitalk said, it's good enough.

[hellosmithy]

I think your work shows potential, but you need to do something about the portfolio site itself, especially your landing page. The graphics pointing to the different sections look pixelated and are compressed badly.
Also personally I'd broaden the site out a bit, allowing you to make more of the images in the portfolio section. You want to be really showing these off, and currently I think they're lost a bit inside that big bold frame around the whole site.

One last piece of advice, a quick look at you source code shows it's a table based layout made in dreamweaver. If you want to up your game a bit learn the basics of CSS, and if you're comfortable, start using a text based editor to code up your sites. It really doesn't take too long to master the basics and you'll find it faster and cleaner in the long run.

Good luck,

Ben