When I was about to release this new version of my portfolio, I accidentally stumbled into the folder of the first version of The Fifth Order – that was 2006. I quickly realized that it’s been 6 years since I’ve launched my official portfolio, and almost 8 years since I started doing digital art. Where does the time go? I would like to take this opportunity to reflect on my work these past years, and the evolution of my portfolio, The Fifth Order.

This was the very first layout I had for The Fifth Order. It was all done in flash, which I used to love using. It featured lots of flashy effects and one of the best tracks ever by Alston Cabral, aka Audiocrunch. I love Alston’s music, and to me, he still stands to be the best musician in Depthcore. I must say, it put a smile on my face to open up that flash file and browse through the website again…I’ve grown quite a bit!

Version 2 of my portfolio, if I remember correctly, was inspired by Eric Sin. Eric is friend, and fellow senior Depthcore member, and an amazingly talented artist. In his prime days of 2006-2007, he created loads and loads of fresh illustrations. I still think back at those days and wonder how he created so much – Eric submitted new artwork to Depthcore chapters, almost every other day! Anyway, going back to my website – I quite like it. It’s got the obvious “2d-tech” feel to it, because 3D abstracts were still big at the time. I’d say, it was a more refined version of the previous portfolio layout – stripping away all the nonfunctional animations and effects. The colors are pretty bold too I must say…I don’t think I could see myself using those colors in my portfolio anymore.

Looking back at this, I believe this is my favorite portfolio version to date (until this new version, of course.) I love the colors, the layout and the attitude. At that time, I was inspired and hungry to design – I didn’t care about much, I just wanted to create. I remember opening up Photoshop every day and made sure that I created new illustrations. This version of The Fifth Order reminds me of my mentality and aesthetics at the time, and it’s honestly quite nice. I felt like I was untouchable. Everything I created (I think) I poured my heart and soul into and was satisfied with it. I was starting to gain some recognition for my work, and it just felt great – I believe this version of my portfolio reflects that.

Ok now this layout is just weak. I recall that it was a awkward time in my art and my career. I think I created this version of The Fifth Order just because I was bored with the previous one. It wasn’t better looking, there wasn’t any improvements…in fact looking at it now, it looks like I took a step back! It sucks, but again, it does reflect my mentality at the time. I was sort of at a stand-still and just wasn’t developing the way that I would like to. Let’s not dwell on bad things…on to the next!

And here we have recent version of my portfolio. I believe this is the longest running layout that I’ve had – 2-3 years maybe? I think the reason it took me so long to finally move out of this was because I didn’t have much to complain about. It was functional, I was able to display my work in a effective way, and it was to the point. I believe this layout thought me to ax all the nonsense and just try to present my work to the audience. I no longer felt the need to do anything too fancy. HOWEVER – that may be because I had no capability or knowledge to create something better. It’s no secret that I am not a coder – I strictly illustrate and design. Version 5 of The Fifth Order was designed and coded by myself, and thus it had a lot of messy and nonfunctional codes. Codes aside – it was just old, on the inside. I realized that it was time for an upgrade. I am marking 2012 as a great year for myself, and I plan that the new portfolio (the one you see now) will guide me towards achieving that. Thus I set out to do a overdue upgrade.

And here we are – the latest version of my portfolio. In the past 5 versions, I’ve went from crazy fancy nonfunctional sites, to semi-stuck up functional ones…and I aimed to finally take what I’ve learned and create the in-between – the layout that is both functional yet eye-pleasing, but not tacky?

6 years of my life have passed since the release of my first portfolio and almost 8 years since I’ve started creating digital art. Just hours ago, it felt like it was yesterday, but in reality it’s been a long time…A lot of questions come up because of this realization – have I grown as an artist? Have my work become more sophisticated? What is to become of Jeff Huang in the near future? I’ve had some doubts recently about my career as a freelance art director & illustrator – but looking back at what I did in 2006, I realize that I have taken quite a big step forward. It took 6 years to develop  my identity and presence as an illustrator, and I can honestly say that I’ve poured my heart and soul into this. I love what I do, and I’d have it no other way. I hope to continue to strive to be better in every which way, because when I was asked in the 2nd grade what I wanted to be when I grow up, I answered firmly “I want to be an artist!”

Jeff Huang — Art Director & Illustrator - Illustration & Design

I’ve worked with Ikon for the past year and it’s been fun. What they do is that they sell private licenses of these stock illustrations to editorials, etc. It’s pretty much a stock images website, but for illustrations and is privately owned. You can check Ikon Images out here by going to their website.

Here is a preview of 2 finished stock illustrations out of 27 that I made in this batch. In these 2 specific illustrations, I am tackling the theme “Harmony.”

I found harmony to be an interesting subject to tackle. Nowadays, a lot of stock images are swirly backgrounds on a gradient background – that’s not to say that they aren’t nice, but I want to stray away from the norm. There are enough swirly abstract gradient stock images. I do feel that these 2 pieces are quite unique and powerful…I’d love to see these on a poster or a cover on a magazine. What do you think?

I personally like them and feel that they came out quite nice – it’s something new for me. I’ve never created illustrations that look like these, so it’s a breath of fresh air. I don’t think this is a new direction for me, but it felt great to experiment and create without having to worry about anything. Lately I’ve been a bit too anal about my illustrations and find it hard to create just for the hell of it. I think that’s why I was able to create 27 of these stock illustrations in 2 weeks…I didn’t worry about what anyone else thought and just went crazy! It felt really good.

There were many other themes as well, and I’ll keep you all posted when they are released! I hope you all enjoy these stock illustrations. Let me know your thoughts!

Jeff Huang — Art Director & Illustrator - Illustration & Design