so far...

I've finished my resume, perfected and looked it over with my professors. Changing up my deadlines have showed up, however not in a way where it ultimately effects me to getting my portfolio done, but getting the small details out of the way, such as my contact, landing page, and resume. I know I will not be using this portfolio work in the future as a profession, but I know I will have to create a personal portfolio website for real estate so this would be a great time to get feedback on what effects they liked on my website and what they haven't responded well to. Overall, I have two degrees and I find it difficult to highlight my best works, because I want to show work from both those degrees, or hints of the last degree. This week, I will have my portfolio done, and tweak the rest of the website and present it next class, for feedback. Then go back, fix things, and then turn it in for the final.
Overall, I believe I am on track in finishing my portfolio.

Sincerely,

Jacklyn R. E. DeMarco

contact page

Lastly, I will have a short about me describing back background and my biggest achievements while working in the fashion industry as a student. I do not think that I should describe my future too much because I am going to be honest of not continuing into the fashion industry, nor would I ever want to do freelance work because even thinking about it is painful. I believe that when you think about doing something with your life, and it gives you a sense of pain, it is most likely that you should not be doing it. However, I am at my last couple quarters of graduating, and a bachelors degree, a science degree none the less, is one of the more valuable degrees one will achieve in their academic lifetime. I have not worked on the about me page, however will focus on that last as I do not deem that to be the most important tab of my personal portfolio website.

[preview unedited]
[will be done by week 10]

resume page

I truly want this page to be as simple as can be, as I am not hugely going to promote this entire website to begin with because I am going to venture off into the real estate industry. So I may just leave a strip of marble background (because I've come to notice whenever I upload even a large photo, Wix distorts the pixels) and leave a button hyperlink that will then open a page to my refined resume.

[preview]
[week 10]

portfolio page

The portfolio tab will clearly be my main focus, however being a fashion marketer, there are many heavy set rules on publishing, especially when we do photoshoots with other designers and brand names. Thus, making it a little hard to post inspired photos of Alexanger Wang or Helmut Lang... however small businesses that I have done ad campaigns with have had to sign contractual agreements that I am allowed to "promoted" their brand for school usage only, but not on social media platforms such as Facebook or Instagram. What I truly want to focus here is my aesthetic to be able to do almost any type of photoshoot for styling. From minimalist high fashion to sportswear. I also want to show that I am able to create pieces for shoots with my design background, as I have worked with 7 Salon for their personal portfolio and editorials. I believe I will highlight three of my strongest projects to display on the portfolio tab.

[preview]
[will be done by week 9]

home page

For the first page of my website will of course be the home page. I have yet to decide which logo to put on their, my first name, or what background image to entice the audience into looking further through my portfolio... However thus is being worked under construction. I do like the simplicity and not a whole lot of fireworks when opening a page, however slight details of animation such as on the text or hyperlinks would be subtle enough to catch viewers attention.

[will be done by week 8]

style concept

In this post, these are the types of photos that highlight my strengths as a marketing and design professional. I plan on creating a minimal type of atmosphere, which an old world artisan feel by the marble background type faces of Garamond, Times New Roman, and Trojan Pro. I will finalize and focus on one of these types when creating my portfolio website. Colors I have chosen are much darker, reflecting on my type of design and market aesthetic, however with bits of subdued color in order to keep my audience looking, rather than just having my portfolio black and white. Lastly, I have created a type of ideology to work by, "Creative Pathways Better Solutions". I live to create projects to solve and make for a better tomorrow. To conclude, concept is subject to change through the process of creation.

analyzation : Apparatus v. Paprika

Actual and Potential In Apparatus, it showed a good potential of growth within the brand because it showed a constant feed of what events the brand is attending or working at, and it showed their competencies to stay true to their brand and grow within the genre of what their brand offers to the public for interior design. In Paprika, it also had a constant feed of what the brand had been working on, however there were no dates, and honestly, it took me awhile to figure out what they even were, I could only assume that they were a typography company, however, based on some photos, it made me take a look back on, oh do they do photography as well or what exactly do they focus on.

Direct & Indirect I actually found that Apparatus had everything as far as being direct, in order of what the audience was potentially looking for, and cohesive in their design aspect. Also, the photos do not spazz out when you hover over them. With minimalism, it is sort of a zen-like state by which moves slowly and creates a calming feeling. They directly influence that and clearly define what their product or services is, what they do, where they work, and how the product is brought to you by artisan craftsmanship. Whereas Paprika is designed “minimal” in a sense of a grid-like layout however when you hover over photos, it spazzes, it all moves very quickly, and I’m going to assume that all the photos are people they’ve worked with and those were the designs they produced for the clients, but it’s not directly doing so. It is just assuming, which can either be a target audience thing or lack of design.

Strengths and Weaknesses What I absolutely loved about Apparatus was that they didn’t only sell interior furniture, but had brand extensions into hand bags, etc. They truly have created pieces that even though you may not like it in your home, because buying a large piece of furniture is a commitment, you can have something of their brand that’s a lot smaller, however carries the same aesthetic and craftsmanship as their lamps, or chairs, etc. They also invoke on the more artisan one of a kind aspect of the brand that keeps it unique and drives business. Though it may not be mass market business, they give information on all the components of their brand, definitely detailing how important and valuable a piece of them is. The other brand, Paprika, sure they are very diverse in what I assume typography, and I agree that you should be because you can’t just work with one genre of companies to make a nice living, you need to be diverse. However, having that same artist create logos and typography for you, you know in the back of your head that someone also has something custom from this person, and shown on the website, so do maybe hundreds other companies do as well, thus creating it somewhat less valuable.

Positioning and Market Share Both companies, Paprika and Apparatus share both strengths in positioning themselves in their said market. Paprika is heavily working with a large mass of companies, from designer personal portfolio logos, to putting logos on whatever it is that you need. They are heavily skilled in their position and can actually fit the needs of whatever the client wants. Its flexible was may be what Apparatus cannot fulfill. Whereas Apparatus focuses solely on one type of genre for their design. They promote at trade shows and participate wherever they can to get eyes looked upon them, which is also a strength and a weakness. However, focuses on mass market is clearly not the point.