Building My First Portfolio: My Experience with FolioLink
INTRO
A website that I believe doesn’t get enough credit is Pinterest. Unfortunately, most people see it as a glorified scrapbook for millennial women or soccer moms. In fact, an article from Mic.com has an article discussing its potentially harmful ways. Author Laura Donovan feels Pinterest is designed to make you feel poor or fat, due to all the caloric recipes and expensive shoes to pin.
Fair enough, but what’s good about Pinterest is they really try to make the content tailored to what you like. So, if you don’t want to see certain things, then all you have to do is not search for it.
It also helps that it has a calming interface, limited interaction with other users, and of course, the endless creativity of what a Pinterest board can be. These all combine to create an experience encouraging you to browse ideas to your heart’s desire. I could spend hours on there (and there have been times I have spent hours on there). What I found myself doing on Pinterest is curating a board of recipes I’ll never make or a board of artsy posters I have no room for. Or perhaps my favorite, come up with a board of outfits I don’t have the confidence to wear. But, what if you wanted to take the skills you’ve honed for Pinterest and apply them to something more useful?
A website I recently discovered that builds upon the creativity of Pinterest is FolioLink, a portfolio creation website. Once you combine Pinterest’s curation aspect with the usefulness of WordPress, it creates an experience that offers users the functionality of a portfolio. FolioLink has potential to be a great website for creatives, but has some elements that could have used more development.
HOMEPAGE
Unlike Pinterest, FolioLink has a homepage that is informative and to the point. Everything you need to know when getting started is mentioned on this homepage.
When you first encounter the homepage, it’s made quite clear what the site is all about: being a website for creatives, with a specific focus on photographers and artists.
To my surprise, the “tours” don’t provide a walkthrough or tutorial of the overall website, but rather sample portfolios that were created using one of the three templates. The terms “template” and “site” interchangeable, as each of the three templates is also a site option.
The homepage goes on to explain what the three types of templates look like and how they function. They are as follows: photography, art, and creative. The first two are straightforward, but “creative” is vague. Yes, not everyone is a “creative”, but I think the developers could have provided a solid definition on what they think a creative is.
My definition of “creative” is anyone who shies away from STEM/research and focuses on presenting artistic projects. (Whether it’s being a musician, artist, photographer, etc.)
But then again, as creativity is all about perception and interpretation, maybe the developers purposefully didn’t include a concrete definition.
The way FolioLink seems to treat creatives is that as long as you have something artistic you believe others need to see, then the rest is fair game. Just as long as you follow their guidelines and make it look presentable.
MAIN EDITING PAGES
To fully understand how FolioLink functions, I had to sign up for an account. Because I’m a broke college student, I got a 30 day free trial. However, it was refreshing to see that no credit card was required.
After getting the free trial, the template I was given was “Creative Site”. Because I didn’t receive either of the other two template options, I know that the free trial doesn’t give you a template choice. I imagine that the developers of this website want users to be satisfied with the free trial, so that they purchase a full version. (In order to experiment with all the available features.) What I found out later is that these features include: an unlimited amount of included portfolios, customized designs, and unlimited ecommerce sales (with no commissions).
There are three versions of FolioLink: Turnkey, Premium, and Pro. Turnkey is the default version which costs $15 dollars for the first six months and after that, $19 dollars a month. Premium (apparently the most popular plan), costs $21 dollars for the first six months and then $29 dollars a month. Finally, Pro costs $39 dollars a month for six months and $59 dollars a month any time after that.
The editing sections for the Creative Site are: Logos & Sound, Front Page, Portfolios (can upload multiple photos at a time), Promo Pages, Info Pages, Blog, and Supporting Files. For the different portfolios, you get the option to put in descriptions and or captions. I saw this same option for individual photos within the portfolios.
The “Front Page” menu, like a lot of the features on this website, was straightforward. When you are on this menu, it tells you, “To make changes to your website’s front page click ‘Edit Front Page’ on the left.”
I chose a front-page image that would capture my style and be welcoming for users. (More than on that later when I break down the content.)
The “Promo Pages” was an area that proved to be confusing. I don’t have a business to promote or any products to sell. Thankfully, this menu seemed to be optional. When I did the full site preview, it just didn’t show up on the sidebar.
Luckily, the “Info Pages” was not confusing. The menu states, “Add info pages like your bio, client list, etc on right panel.” Upon a second read of that statement however, I noticed that it looked unfinished. Adding the bio and client list is useful information for sure. I see why they added “etc.”, but to me that comes across as something added at the last minute.
A smart editing tool I noticed was that you can review the menu hints if you happen to forget how to do something. This is perfect for users who need to see things multiple times to get a better understanding of a concept.
You are also able to preview your site from any of the subsections. I believe that sometimes it helps to see what the final product WOULD look like while you are still editing.
The editing system is fairly user friendly overall, although the interfaces look a little dated. Think Craigslist. And like I mentioned before, some aspects were confusing or even underdeveloped.
CONTENT
Unfortunately, I was not offered my first choice of the photography template. However, I decided to truly tap into a creative mindset and just upload pictures anyway. I went on to divide the portfolios into what was in the pictures: shots from museums, different neighborhoods in the Chicagoland area, cityscapes, and food/beverages. I believe this provides a nice variety but could still capture my artistic style.
In order, here are the various portfolios I have, starting with “Museums”. As the title suggests, this portfolio features photos from various museums and exhibitions.
As of right now, I have five photos in this portfolio, including the three seen below. The quality of the photos are clear and crisp, and they were preformatted in a visually appealing manner. Two of the three photos are from the MCA, and of course, there’s Sue from the Field Museum. A consistent theme in all four portfolios is that almost all of the pictures were taken somewhere in the Chicago area.
The “Neighborhood Charm” portfolio has (to reiterate the caption), anything and everything that’s outside of the Loop.
I will admit that for “Cityscapes”, it was hard to come up with an interesting caption. I do think that the theme helps show readers that this portfolio is all about photos from the Loop/ Loop adjacent areas. I think the display could be a little more dynamic, but I guess skylines are already dynamic themselves.
My intention for “Food and Beverage” was to showcase what is known as food porn. (Which is food that looks tasty.) However, I realized I didn’t have that many good quality pictures, so only have these two for now. However, I think they get the job done.
Finally, I was given the option to provide a picture and short bio about myself. As you can see below, I went through with this option:
FINISHED PRODUCT
The overall look of Folio Link’s interface is professional, streamlined, and clean. It prevents mindless browsing (which Pinterest is good at trapping users into). For a certain audience, FolioLink is useful in a real world context.
I would say that if you are a photographer or artist, FolioLink would be a good choice for making a professional portfolio, but keep in mind you would only get one of three available site options.
If you are the creative type, I would say this is a still a good choice for building your portfolio. But, it wouldn’t be my first choice, as the lack of development in some areas can restrict what it truly means to be creative.