My best portfolio piece, believe it or not, I still think is my current site layouts.
http://paperdoll.orange-crux.net.

Yes, both of them. Not to say that I haven't learned more, or I don't think I need a site revamp, but I like the color schemes, I like the playful nature of the art side versus the more serious, more grungy focus of the web side. I think it reveals a lot about what makes me tick, what makes me happy, and what I need in my life.

I think it shows my strength with different digital mediums, from the development side - html and css versus xhtml with javascript, to the design side - pixel art design versus photo manipulations. It shows my ability to create out of the box designs, as they are both VERY different, and yet, both me.

The splash page is...not so great, but it could be worse. I think, if I'm going to change some pieces to make it better for my portfolio it would be redesigning the chick at the top of the art page so she's ENTIRELY my pixel work, rather than a base body from someone else, but clothes, hair, etc. by me. I think I'd also like to get rid of some pages, and reorganize some others on my art page.

Plus, hell, I haven't updated in a year. That might help.

So I realized that Thing-a-Day has a gallery... Which means I don't have to clean out my server space. Except, I kind've did it already.

That being said, Thing 2: Default Photoshop Web Size

Leave comments/thoughts/replies below, or over on TaD.

I opted only to look at entry level web design jobs, even though I'm not entirely sure that's what I want to do with my life. But, I figure, it's a good starting place. Based on a bunch of websites of research, I came up with the following general requirements: Photoshop, Dreamweaver, HTML, and CSS. They were listed as requirements almost everywhere. A few other places also wanted Final Cut Pro or video editing software, some other Adobe products (like Illustrator or Fireworks), and a lot of people wanted someone with cross-platform experience - ie, they want someone who can work both in Mac and PC.

Then, of course, there were the non-technical requirements like a bachelor's degree or equivalent experience, learning/working quickly, working under little supervision, etc. Which, to be honest, is almost as important to me as knowing the software. Personally, I could learn all the technology in the world, but if I don't care about attention to detail the design things that I could create would be a disaster. Knowing your work environment - groups or alone, etc. has a significant impact on the kind of designs you develop too.

I took all these search options, including the one about little supervision to see what other jobs I could find. Not surprisingly, even when I took "web designer" out of the search options, I still found a LOT of front-end design jobs. But I also found a few graphic design jobs, a few web DEVELOPER jobs (the back end, instead of the front) and even a couple marketing jobs focused on the "web" aspect of their companies.

There were a lot of New York jobs, and some California jobs, but there were also a lot of "virtual campus" jobs that were based all over the place. Big surprise, working digitally from anywhere?