Blog #3: Looking at Designer's Websites

This blog post is about designers and how they show their work on their websites. I also have a website I show some of my design work. I will be looking at one designer local to the Milwaukee area, and another designer who focuses on toy design, the industry I want to go into. 

The first designer I will look at is Zach Gracia, I found the website through google images for “toy design website”, which is what I like to do sometimes to get a rough idea of precedent. Zach Gracia appears to be a recent graduate but has been working alongside his degree program. His resume features a cartoon character self portrait which enforces a creative and fun personality. The education section is highlighted and separated from the rest of the resume and work experiences are the main focus on the right side. He has worked at Disney consumer products and has risen up through positions there. His cover letter is short and probably his weakest portion. It says he wanted to play basketball, but then his parents bought him a sketchbook. It offers little on his life and work style. His portfolio itself is really good showing off a variety of work with callouts as well as finished products. He does more traditional illustration work in addition to his toy design work. However, he doesn’t get too far into details, and does not really offer his projects as a “story” with problem statements and a full process development. There is a level of confidence shown with his restraint. (Best resume page, lettering could be more clear). I think that his resume layout is a fairly good standard to set myself too, but his craftsmanship is pretty high standard to set myself to. Websites like his show how much more I’d like to improve my own technical skills.

The next designer I will look at is a local designer, who also happens to be a recent MIAD graduate Connor Kriah. Connor is also a toy designer. His website has a lot less information than Zach, but he has more information on supplemental websites, such as his linkedin profile. The work he shows on his website are his personal toys/figurines. He has a very specific and consistent style to his figurines. Animals that are wildly proportioned and eccentric, with big eyes and little bodies. His photos of them are really well composed. The figurines themselves are all solid colors, and appear to be molded. He also includes a sketch of one of his figurines that highly resembles a finished figure. While these figures are nice and well presented, I would like to see some more of his other design work that involves his design process. His linkedin says he is currently employed so maybe its not updated because he doesn’t need it to be. I knew Conner my freshman year and he’s a really interesting person. I’m glad to see he is still making crazy characters. I wonder if he is still making new characters to sell in the future.

What information do you think is most important for a designers website? If you are a designer, what insights do you have? 

Let me know in the comments!

Until next time,
-Jason W.