Online Folio Solutions Series

Welcome to the first installment of the Online Folio Solutions Review Series.

Part 1 (Coroflot)

Part 2 (Carbon Made)

Part 3 (Fig Dig)

Part 4 (Behance).

Part 5 (Wordpress) Coming Soon.

Today a designer is almost unemployable without an online folio of their work. I have even heard of one or two employers who refuse to accept anything other than a cover letter and a URL to their folio (which includes their resume)!

One of the most common dilemmas among design graduates and even seasoned designers is how to host their online folio, where to host it and which online folio solution will give them the best exposure.

There are a plethora of solutions that you can use. In this series I will go through the Pros and Cons of the various solutions available. I will also provide an info on the general look and feel, features, ease of use, customization possibilities, help and other features worth a mention.

There are two main categories that Online Folios fall into – Free, Pay and a hybrid of both. Each one has its Pros and Cons that change dependent on what you want to get out of your online folio and how you want to represent yourself.

We all love to get something for nothing so first up for critique are the Free Folio solutions.

The five free options I am going to be looking at in this series are – Coroflot, Carbon Made, Fig Dig, Behance (behance.net) and Wordpress.

Coroflot

Coroflot is run by the Core77 group (Core77, Design Directory and Coroflot) and is home to more than 111,000 creative folios, meaning that Coroflot is now the largest free design folio host/directory on the net. The areas they cover are Architecture, Design Management, Exhibition Design, Fashion/Apparel, Industrial Design, Interior Design, Point of Purchase, 3-D Modeling, Art Direction, Environmental Graphics, Illustration, Interaction Design, Packaging, Print and Motion Graphics. I was recently informed by the editor of Core77, Alan Chochinov, that their most popular category is actually Illustration, which surprised me since their sites started off focusing solely on Industrial Design.

Coroflot also host a reasonable selection design jobs, which along with featured employers is how Coroflot fund their folio hosting and allow you host your folio for free. The jobs hosted on Coroflot are mostly for those wishing to work in the north American design scene, although there is a smattering of European jobs. If your looking for something in Australia or Asia, its pretty rare.

They also have a groups section, a good blog with plenty of employment tips (creative seeds), the Coroflot magazine and various other info such as designer salaries reports.

Look & Feel

Overall the look and feel of the Coroflot layout is very professional and neutral, which provides an excellent canvas on which to display your work as the design of the site doesn’t detract from any of the work.

Features and Ease of Use

Coroflot is pretty easy to use. Once you have your email confirmed, then you can get work up in under five minutes (I created a profile and uploaded one project of about 10 images and started networking in this time straight after signing up and without any real time spent trying to figure out what things did).

The main log on area provides you with the ability to add images and projects to your folio as well as create a profile of yourself. From the main log on area you can also network with other designers whose folios are on Coroflot, check out design jobs and groups, view statistics and change your account settings.

The statistics are pretty handy and provides you with a month by month break down of home views, profile views, image views, website clicks, comments received and how many search results your profile has appeared in.

Uploading work is generally quick and easy, with the ability to upload 7 files at a time, create a set in which these files are stored (eg: sketches, or bicycle project) and add details of the project all from the upload work link.

Customization

There isn’t really any way to customize your Coroflot folio beyond adding your own information and images, but this is offset by most of what I have previously mentioned.

Help

I found the help section pretty thin on the ground, but this is mainly because its not really needed as getting your folio up on coroflot is dead simple. The help section provides a one to three paragraph break down of each feature.

Extra Features Worth a Mention

Ability to network with other people who have their folios hosted on Coroflot
You can create a personal URL so you’re no longer just a number (eg: coroflot.com/johnsmith)
If your work is unique and/or awesome then you could get featured on the front page of Core77

Pros

1.Free
2.Unlimited file uploads – forgot to mention earlier, but it’s definitely excellent.
3.Simple to use
4.Large amount of folios – means that employers know that its where they can you people
5. If you’re in the US or looking to work there then this is the place to find a job.

Cons

1. Large amount of folios – unless your work is amazing or you update regularly you can easily get lost in Coroflot’s depths.
2. Limited to the set layout provided
3. No customization

If you’ve got an tips, comment or ideas for online folios that you would like to share, let everyone know in the comments section or send it through to design droplets using our contact page.

Next out of the blocks in the design droplets folio solutions series will be Carbon Made.

Part 2 – Carbonmade Review
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• Online Folio Solutions Part 2: Carbon Made Review

October 18, 2008