Carbonmade: The Online Portfolio App you Should be Using

Several months back, I was called in for a job interview in New York City, but the night before the interview, I was asked to be able to show an online portfolio the very next day at 10am. The position wasn't design oriented, but I do have plenty of design experience, and my resume stated accordingly.

Needless to say, I was a little bit worried about pulling something together, considering my hosting contract with GoDaddy had just expired and I was unable to throw anything online in that short amount of time and have it still look professional, and devoid of any other brands other than the brand name that is "me".

I had remembered that a few months before that, I had recommended a certain app by the name of Carbonmade to my girlfriend, in case she ever needed to put a portfolio online; little did I know that I would be using it to save my own ass in the near future.

In short, for artists needing a portfolio, Carbonmade is an absolute life saver. After a fabulously short registration page, a self-designated Carbonmade URL, and a few quick clicks on the admin page, I had my portfolio customized to the look and feel I wanted. Fortunately, there's only a few customizable options. I say "fortunately" because when an app has a plethora of options for customization, it causes unnecessary stress on the user and lowers the ease of use.

Here's the walkthrough:

Does the app fulfill its intended purpose?	10
How clean and simplistic is the UI?	10
Is the app forward thinking and innovative?	9
How re-usable is the app?	9
Overall	9.5

This app saved the day for me, but because a lot of my design work was web-based, I had to take screen shots and upload them. What would have been better was if they offered an iframe to display your web page in. However, they have since began offering video, and Flash hosting services, and for anyone whose work is primarily in Flash, this is a god-send.

But to end my story, I banged out my portfolio, and the next day had a job offer...thanks Carbonmade! If you're in a jam, and need to get out of it fast and free, Carbonmade is made of win.