PORTFOLIOS “A portfolio represents how a designer visually and verbally approaches a problem, and how this relates to the intended audience. Anything that helps me to understand that process is great.� -Steve Liska
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Creating Your Post-Undergraduate Portfolio Introduction
Branding Yourself
Creating your portfolio is an extensive design project in itself, and should be treated as one. A memorable portfolio cannot be completed in a day. In fact, your portfolio is the on-going project you will continuously revisit throughout your entire design career. Understand that your portfolio is your marketing tool, talent showcase, and an experience in and of itself. By understanding this, you become aware that in creating your portfolio you are creating a brand from your name, with the products being your designs and skills and the portfolio being the sales material. Through this understanding, we can tackle the creation of both an online, web-based portfolio and printed portfolio, through a client-based perspective, where you are the client, and you need to create marketing material designed to attract customers, captivate and inspire them, and compel them to contact you because they have confidence in your services and in the mutually beneficial relationship they expect they will have with you.
Before you begin to tackle your design portfolio, it is important to begin with understanding what you uniquely can offer to a company, studio, or agency so that you can use this distillation of your unique strengths to brand yourself to accurately express these qualities to potential employers.
A great portfolio will serve its designer by telling your story, expressing your personality, showcasing your skills in both their breadth and depth, and displaying your process and final products. Since you are the client, the process of research will consist of more of an exploration of your strengths, who you are, and what you want to do in the creative fields, because you know more about what you have to offer than anyone else. You will need help in critiquing your design for revision. Asking for other designers and professors to review your portfolio is a fantastic way to get creative feedback, especially as the professors are incredibly attuned to noticing the details of the typography, layout, flow, color system, piece selection, photographic quality, body copy, organization, and content structure in terms of quality and range, and can critique the presentation of the portfolio.
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Creating your brand requires answering two specific questions: 1. What unique aspects of your skills, service, and personality can you offer to a potential employer that they cannot find elsewhere? 2. How can you represent these unique qualities in graphical and methodological terms?
The answers to these two questions will be the basis of how you create your brand and these qualities should be represented throughout all of the marketing materials you create, especially in your portfolio.
Writing out the Creative Brief Once you have finished crafting your brand statement, you can begin to create your portfolio by completing a creative brief for yourself. It is important to write out a creative brief to clearly understand the design problem and direct your attention to how you can solve this problem. To have a more complete understanding of your portfolio, and how it uniquely addresses your marketing and branding strategy, write a project summary, establish an audience profile — what constitutes your typical client or hiring manager — describe how you plan to set the tone and perception of your portfolio, determine your communication strategy, and create the target message that you want to share with your audience. From this brief, decide whether you want to tackle your printed and PDF portfolio first or if you’d rather start by designing your web portfolio, or if you want to take them on simultaneously.
A Quick Preview of Whats to Come Physical vs. Website Portfolios Printed portfolios have their advantages in being able to give someone a physical object that they can touch and see in the real world. The true power in a physical portfolio comes after the layout design, in choosing the paper type and weight, the design, material, and dimensionality of the cover, the binding, and designing the physical user interaction.
Portfolio websites are advantageous because they allow you to display interactive web designs, video and media work. They are accessible from all parts of the globe, expressing your designs to clients, art directors, and hiring managers instantly. In the decade of 2010 –2020, both are virtually required for landing many design / photography jobs.
PHYSICAL PORTFOLIOS
WEBSITE PORTFOLIOS
The Purpose of a Physical Portfolio ........................ 3
The Purpose of a Website Portfolio ......................... 19
Beginning Your Physical Portfolio ........................... 4
Types of Online Portfolios ............................................. 20
Grid, Layout, & Dimensions ......................................... 5
Formatting your Best Designs for the Web ....... 21
A Cohesive Personal Experience ............................... 6
Grid, Layout, and Navigation Planning ................ 22
Cover Pages and Binding ................................................ 7
Crafting your Logo, Tagline, and Branding ....... 24
Packaging and Casing ....................................................... 8
Creating a Cohesive Theme ......................................... 26
Content Organization ....................................................... 9
Welcome Screens & the Home Page ....................... 28
Presenting a Redesign ...................................................... 11
Designing Your Portfolio Pages .................................. 29
Showcasing your Photography ................................... 13
Personalizing Your About Page .................................. 31
Dealing with Three-Dimensional Designs ......... 14
Providing an Unforgettable Experience ............... 32
Motion Graphics and Interactivity ........................... 15
Downloadable Resume and PDF Portfolio .......... 33
Presenting Websites in Print Portfolios ................ 16
Making yourself Easy to Contact .............................. 34
Ending Your Portfolio ........................................................ 17
Building Traffic and Getting Noticed ..................... 35
A Note on Leave-Behinds ................................................ 18
Blogging and Social Media Presence ...................... 37
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The Purpose of Your Physical Portfolio The purpose for having a physical portfolio is not necessarily to have a case or book that displays your skillful designs, but a presentation and storytelling tool. Of course, a large part of your physical portfolio, especially if it presents a smaller quantity of designs that were all large and challenging projects with plenty of process displayed alongside it, would be then to display your skillful designs. There are plenty of skilled designers out there, however being talented is not what gets you hired. The client and hiring manager are interested in you and your relationship to them. Of course, they care about your portfolio, and having a poorlydesigned, generic, or even nonexistent portfolio will cost you that job opportunity, as the employer can assume that you are not willing to put time into this job. Most interviewers ask you to come in because they have seen some of the work you sent and were interested, or had you recommended from the design community, and now they want to know what kind of designer and person you are. The printed portfolio can take on many dimensions, layouts, binding styles, and surfaces. With your creative brief, begin brainstorming ways to express your brand message to the target audience.
Start with Sketches Once your brainstorming starts producing compelling ideas — or when you hit a brainstorming roadblock — you can start sketching out some of your ideas, experimenting with dimensions, the grid, cover design, and begin to select the pieces in your collection you would like to showcase as your best designs. By sketching out ideas, creating a storyboard of the portfolio, you begin to play with your overall portfolio organization, the order of the pieces you choose, and themes of the layout, such as rules, type size, positioning.
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Choosing Your Best Designs Limit the selections to your Best Designs When selecting pieces for your portfolio, limit your selections to only designs that you are proud of, expressing the range of skills and projects related to the specialties and variety intended for your client or hiring manager. Limit these selections to six to ten designs that display your breadth and depth in design skills and thinking. If you include too many designs, the quantity will detract from the quality of the ones you are most proud of, and will mean you are more likely to include poor designs that you are not proud of or did not complete to the same quality and level of skill as the best designs, so be selective and scrutinize your work. Understand that most hiring managers will spend 10 seconds to 1 minute flipping through your portfolio, so only show them the best designs that will engage them to spend more time to delve into your work.
“Don’t put anything in your portfolio that you’re not proud of.” -Tim McNeil
Start Strong, Finish Strong The order of your pieces is extremely important, and you should choose your two best pieces and display them first and last, making a powerful first impression and a lasting final impression. In between the first and last pieces comes your creative ordering of your selected pieces, where your ordering will take the viewer on a journey through your design work, telling your story with and unique abilities with unified brand colors, styles, type, and formats. Showing your range in design among different mediums and also your range within one medium ( i.e. posters, business cards, envelopes, books are all in the print-on-paper medium ) is one organizing constraint.
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Grid, Layout, and Dimensions Prototyping Dimensions and Layouts “Explore all kinds of different portfolios. There is a wide range of possibilities to be inspired by in creating your own uniquely.” -Susan Verba
With your selected pieces in the correct order, begin experimenting with page dimensions and layouts. You can select appropriate dimensions and layouts by getting multiple pages of different sizes from a copy shop, printing and cutting your designs to size, and moving them around over the various page sizes, and seeing how your design is presented on the page. Print out dummy text that is approximately the type size, style, and treatment of what your body copy will be once you have these pages ready, and arrange that on the pages too, along with selected sketches and other forms of process that led to your final designs. Physically prototyping the dimensions and layouts is important because the viewer will be physically interacting with your portfolio, and feeling the size and weight of the page and where the elements are located gives you an intuitive vision of how your final design will look and what sensations and cognitive thoughts it will inspire in the viewer. Once you have several quick mock-ups arranged, ask other designers and your professors to give you feedback on the piece selection, piece order, spread layout, and page composition. Ask several non-designers to give you their feedback too, as your clients will look at your portfolio, and it is in your best interest to ensure that both designers and non-designers can easily navigate and understand your story.
Drafting your Grid Begin drafting your grid from the layout mock-ups that were successful. Your grid will unify your portfolio by giving it a consistent structure that is flexible to adapt to each spreads’ layout needs and guides the eye in understanding the page.
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A Cohesive Personal Experience Styles, Themes, and Color Schemes Once you have addressed the layout, dimensions, and grid of your design, it is time to experiment with the graphical style of your printed portfolio. Experiment with creating a few main avenues of type styles, expression of hierarchy, color schemes, use of rules and bleeds, and even alternative ways of navigating through your portfolio, such as opening fold-out three and four page spreads. Once you have created a set of cohesive, personal and expressive themes, it is time to prototype them by creatively applying your styles to layouts that have been refined by your new grid. Maintain cohesion throughout the portfolio by applying styles in a consistent way among the different types of pages and the content within those pages. This theme’s open graphical expression of your design values and skills gives the viewer a stimulating experience, helps organize your portfolio, and cues them into your personality and how you relate to the design world. Do not forget that your design pieces and process are the reason people are looking at your portfolio. Simplify your styling so that it complements your work, rather than competes with it. The purpose of your portfolio is to showcase your services and skills through a navigational and intriguing format, allowing you to tell your professional design story visually and be direct about your process and product.
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Cover Pages and Binding We Judge a Portfolio by its Cover While you are thinking about style, its time to think about your cover and how you will be packaging this portfolio. If you plan on doing a portfolio book, experimenting with cover designs and materials will inform your design decisions, and considering different bindings is an important part of this process. Submit your materials for relatively cheap printing on websites such as Lulu.com and Blurb.com, or custom-bind the portfolio at home.
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Packaging and Casing The Creativity is in the Case The packaging of your portfolio is an important step in its presentation. Two different approaches are the book bound portfolio or the box of designs mounted to matte board, or other materials. Craft is essential in all aspects of portfolio design, but will be exceptionally important on the casing. The casing is the client’s first impression of your work and your design standards, and you will not get hired if your casing is sloppy, cumbersome, or ill-suited to your type of design.
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Content Organization “Having reviewed and presented many portfolios myself, I found that the most compelling presentations are ones where designers are unafraid to share their process—even if it means including work that is incomplete or unpolished.” -Cavan Huang
Organizing Content on each Page The pages of your portfolio will have plenty of information on them, and you’re responsible for the organization of the copy and graphics, as well as their content. Each of your projects, whether displayed on a single page, across a spread, or across multiple spreads if the scope of the project is big enough that you need multiple pages to display the project, should include at least the basics below of defining the project briefly, displaying process, and presenting the final design. These information sections, with a few others, are shown in this example from a UC Davis alumni’s portfolio at right. 1. Define the project and the design problem Include the project’s title, client, the design problem that you solved through this project, and any necessary background information 2. Display brainstorming and sketches Show your brainstorming, mind maps, word lists, and sketches. These process pieces inform the audience about your thinking. 3. Show prototype designs Display your prototype submissions, depicting that you understand the process of working with a client, and that your finalized proposal nearly always requires revisions. 4. Finalized design Present your finalized design on the page where it can be clearly understood to be the finalized design, and the one chosen by the clients. (5.) (Optional) Alternative final submissions Exhibit your alternative final submissions (if there are any), showing that you proposed several options for the client to choose from, all of which of strong design.
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Example from 2011 Design Alumni
Display of final design in a prominent location
Description of client, problem, and solution
Clean Technology Club 1
Problem: Create a logo for the Clean Technology Club that reflects the purpose of the club, which is to educate the community about clean technology.
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Finalized Design
I entered this logo as part of a design competition created by the Clean Technology Club, which is run by students of the Graduate School of Management at UC Davis. After my design was chosen by a panel of judges, I continued to work with the Clean Tech Club to make additional changes to my entry. Together all the elements of the logo; the sun, the leaf and globe communicate clean technology, sustainability and community.
Clean Technology Club at the University of California, Davis
Clean Technology Club at the University of California, Davis
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Alternative Logo Ideas
Great display of process with sketches and development! Brainstorming through mind maps. 3
Original Logo Submission
Display of final variations! Excellent. Shows you have a well thought-out variety to choose from
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Presenting a Redesign Organizing content of a project Redesign Organizing the layout of a graphic redesign, whether that is a redesign of logo, promotional material for a recurring event, redesign of a website, redesigning an infographic, or redesigning a client’s brand, all include the basic organizational content for each page. However, there are a few elements that are specific to organizing your project when displaying a redesign. These organizational elements are depicted in this example from a UC Davis alumni’s portfolio at right. 1.
Define the project and the reason for the redesign Specify what is ineffective with the original design and why the redesign is necessary, and how your redesign addressed the issues to solve the design problem.
2. Display the original graphic Show people the original graphic that you redesigned. Position the original graphic nearby the final redesign so the two are easily comparable, stimulating the viewers to compare original and redesign for themselves. 3.
McNulty Identity The offshore construction company required a fresh identity to modernise their image. Visuals were architecturally inspired and these were selected as the strongest proposals.
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Organize prototype designs in their progression Introduce your prototype submissions in a systematic order from first prototype to most similar to final redesign.
4. Finalized design Present your finalized design in a location where it can be clearly understood to be the finalized design, and easily comparable to the original chart.
Example from 2011 Design Alumni
Showing original in comparison with the redesign organized for quick comparison and to hold your attention.
Description of problem and designer’s solution.
Blood Alcohol Content
Original Chart
Problem: Clarify and simplify the text and BAC chart to increase legibility and understanding.
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The BAC informational sheet is mailed out to everyone after they renew their license. The originally design is confusing and difficult to approach. The redesign successfully opens up the space by reducing and editing the text and reorganizing the chart. By separating the information for females and males the stair step parttern is reduced and determining your BAC becomes a much more manageable task.
First Draft
Get a DUI - Lose Your License! Blood Alcohol Content (BAC)
It is illegal to drive with a Blood Alcohol Content (BAC) of .08% or more (.04% for commercial vehicle drives and .01% if under 21). Other factors, such as fatigue, medications or food may affect your ability to legally operate a vehicle. The table below gives an estimate of blood alcohol levels based on the number of drinks consumed, gender and body weight.
Draft redesigns and progression is well ordered.
Table for Male (M) and Female (F) Number Body Weight (Pounds) of Drinks 100 120 140 160
Remember: Even one drink is likely to affect your ability to drive safely!
Subtract .01% for every 40 minutes of drinking 1 drink = 1.5 oz of 40% alcohol (80 proof liquor), 12 oz of 5% beer, or 5 oz of 12% wine
F
.00
.00
.00
.00
.00
.04
.04
.03
.03
.03
.02
.12
.10
.09
.07
.07
.06
.05
.05
3
.18
.15
.13
.11
.10
.09
.08
.07
4
.24
.20
.17
.15
.13
.12
.11
.10
.30
.25
.00
.21
.00
.19
.00
.17
.00
.15
.00
.14
.00
.12
.00
.00
1
.07
.06
.05
.04
.04
.03
.03
.03
2
.13
.11
.09
.08
.07
.07
.06
.06
3
Unsafe to Drive Above Legal Limit
240
.00
.05
0
Driving Skills Impaired
220
.00
.06
5
Safe to Drive
200
.00
1 2
M
Driving Condition
180
0
.20
.17
.14
.12
.11
.10
.09
Final Redesign
.08
4
.26
.22
.19
.17
.15
.13
.12
.11
5
.33
.28
.24
.21
.18
.17
.15
.14
4
DL 606 (REV.7/2010)
Blood Alcohol Content (BAC) 1 drink = 1.5 oz of 40% alcohol (1 shot), 12 oz of 5% beer (1 pint), or 5 oz of 12% wine (1 glass).
DUI Prevention
Second Draft
It is illegal to drive with a Blood Alcohol Content (BAC) of .08% or more (.04% for commercial vehicle drivers and .01% if under 21). Other factors, such as fatigue, medications or food may affect your ability to legally operate a vehicle.
Blood Alcohol Content (BAC)
DL 606 (REV.7/2010)
Table for Male (M) and Female (F) Number Body Weight (Pounds) of Drinks 100 120 140 160
Get a DUI - Lose Your License! It is illegal to drive with a Blood Alcohol Content (BAC) of .08% or more (.04% for commercial vehicle drives and .01% if under 21). Other factors, such as fatigue, medications or food may affect your ability to legally operate a vehicle. The table below gives an estimate of blood alcohol levels based on the number of drinks consumed, gender and body weight.
0 1
M
.05
.00 .04
.00 .04
220
240
.00
.00
.00
.00
.03
.03
.03
.02
.12
.10
.09
.07
.07
.06
.05
.05
3
.18
.15
.13
.11
.10
.09
.08
.07
5
F
.06
.00
200
2
4
Remember: Even one drink is likely to affect your ability to drive safely!
.00
180
.24 .30
.20 .25
.17 .21
.15 .19
.13 .17
.12 .15
.11 .14
.10 .12
0
.00
.00
.00
.00
.00
.00
.00
.00
1
.07
.06
.05
.04
.04
.03
.03
.03
2 3
.13 .20
.11 .17
.09 .14
.08 .12
.07 .11
.07 .10
.06 .09
The table on the right gives an estimate of blood alcohol levels based on the number of drinks consumed, gender and body weight. Remember, even one drink is likely to affect your ability to drive safely!
Number of Drinks
Male
3
Page layout needs work and doesn’t correspond with other portfolio pages content flow. Eye moves according to arrow at right.
Female
1
.06 .08
4
.26
.22
.19
.17
.15
.13
.12
.11
5
.33
.28
.24
.21
.18
.17
.15
.14
Body Weight (Pounds) 100 120 140 160 180 200 220 240
0 1 2 3 4 5
.00
.00
.00
.00
.00
.00
.00
.00
.06
.05
.04
.04
.03
.03
.03
.02
.12
.10
.09
.07
.07
.06
.05
.05
.18
.15
.13
.11
.10
.09
.08
.07
.24
.20
.17
.15
.13
.12
.11
.10
.30
.25
.21
.19
.17
.15
.14
.12
0 1 2 3 4 5
.00
.00
.00
.00
.00
.00
.00
.00
.07
.06
.05
.04
.04
.03
.03
.03
.13
.11
.09
.08
.07
.07
.06
.06
.20
.17
.14
.12
.11
.10
.09
.08
.26
.22
.19
.17
.15
.13
.12
.11
.33
.28
.24
.21
.18
.17
.15
.14
.00 Safe to Drive .02 – .07 Driving Skills Impaired .08 – .33 Unsafe to Drive = Above Legal Limit
Driving Condition Subtract .01% for every 40 minutes of drinking 1 drink = 1.5 oz of 40% alcohol (80 proof liquor), 12 oz of 5% beer, or 5 oz of 12% wine
Safe to Drive
Driving Skills Impaired
Unsafe to Drive Above Legal Limit
DL 606 (REV.7/2010)
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Showcasing your Photography Refine your Photographic Images Unless the only pieces you are presenting in your portfolio are symbols, logotypes, illustrations, web designs, and typographic treatments, you will likely be presenting photographic images. Photos are a fantastic way to add context to your designs, to vary your visual storytelling, and to display your photographic skill . Select your most professional, well-composed, and inspiring photos that express your range, skills, and are coherent with your brand. After selecting your photos — which should be displayed large, with a minimum of 300 DPI — and placing them on the page, edit these photos to complement your portfolio’s theme and visual strategy. Make sure to transform the color mode to CMYK for accurate color matching when printing. Adjust the levels, brightness, contrast, color balance, saturation, and resize or crop the image so that it matches your similar photographs in your portfolio and your visual theme.
Full Bleeds and the Paper Canvas
Wistful Photography
Title: Inner Beauty Client: Myself Medium: Film Photography – B&W I have always been passionate about interior spaces, mainly, restaurants. Capturing these rare moments in black and white brings back a nostalgic feeling of eras past.
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The power your portfolio has when depicting beautiful, professional photographs comes not only from editing the photographs to bring out the vibrancy of the colors and the dynamism with the right amount of contrast, but with how they are handled on the page. Your portfolio page becomes the paper canvas for your photographs, and bleeding the edges of the photo frees the viewer from the “frame” of the margin, granting a personal experience of your photo. Experiment with cropping photos or joining them side-by-side or in a grid-system, and find other ways of using photos on the paper canvas to create dynamic compositions depicting your designs.
Dealing with Three-Dimensional Designs Angles and Backgrounds of your Designs
Presenting The Dieline Skin
The challenge in photographing your three-dimensional design comes with showcasing the salient characteristics of the design object — which should be the focus of the photos — as well as in choosing a background that supports, rather than detracts from your design. In product photos, professionals use a light-tent to distribute light equally around the design and provide a soft, warm-white background. Use a light-tent when taking pictures of your three-dimensional designs. If you are photographing fullscale signage, a sculpture, or other large-scale three-dimensional piece, incorporate natural background scenery to match the scale. For both instances, always color correct your photos.
Part of showing the process of creating the three-dimensional graphic design may involve creating an exterior skin that wraps around or bends to become the three-dimensional design. Present your skins as one of the final stages of your process, and depending on the project it may be accompanied by a scale. This confirms to the audience that you have the ability to think and plan in two-dimensions and translate those plans to successful three-dimensional designs.
Description of problem and designer’s solution.
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Goldfish Colors
Detailed sketches and developed ideas with supportive reasoning! 3
Images at different angles showcase the dimensionality of the product! Well done!
When taking photos of small 3D objects, use a light-tent. Color correct your photos too!
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Problem: Redesign the goldfish colors snack package to reduce waste and incorporate sustainable materials. For this class project I redesigned the individual snack packs and the box that holds a set of nine. The box is constructed without any use of adhesive and features biodegradable cellophane window. The individual snack packs would also be made out of a similar material. This design is influenced by biomimcry. The box itself uses a playful wave element that continues onto each panel, the clear window gives the illusion of fish in an aquarium. The easily recognized goldfish shape used for the individual packets reduces waste and further emphasizes the biomimcry of the design.
snack packs
0
Zero Grams Trans Fat
Same Great
Cheddar Taste
eese
9
l Ch
4
9-1.1OZ (31g) POUCHES NETWT 9.9OZ (281g)
ea
2
TO PULL OP EN
Brainstorming, sketches, and experimentation. Excellent!
B a ke d w i
th
R
DO NOT PURCHASE IF PACKAGE IS OPEN OR TORN
Nutrition Facts Serving Size 1 Pouch Servings Per Container 9 Amount Per Serving
Calories 140
Calories from Fat 45
*percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet. Your daily values may be higher or lower depending on your calorie needs: Calories: 2,000 2,500 Total Fat Less than 65g 80g Sat Fat Less than 20g 25g Cholesterol Less than 300mg 300mg Sodium Less than 2,400mg 2,400mg Total Carbohydrate 300mg 375mg Dietary Fiber 25g 30g
% Daily Value*
PROOF OF PURCHASE 9CT - 1.1OZ GOLDFISH COLORS Satisfaction guaranteed. For questions or comments, please call 1-888-737-7374. -Thank you
Total Fat 5g Saturated Fat 1g Trans Fat 0g Polyunsaturated Fat 1.5g Monounsaturated Fat 2.5g Cholesterol 5mg Sodium 260mg Total Carbohydrate 20g Dietary Fiber Less than 1g Sugars Less than 1g Protein 4g Vitamin A 0% Calcium 4%
8% 5%
2% 11% 7% 4%
MADE WITH SMILES AND UNBLEACHED ENRICHED WHEAT FLOUR [FLOUR, NIACIN, REDUCED IRON, THIAMIN MONITRATE (VITAMIN B1), RIBOFLAVIN (VITAMIN B2), FOLIC ACID], VEGETABLE OILS (CANOLA, SUNFLOWER AND/OR SOYBEAN) CHEDDAR CHESSE [(PASTEURIZED CULTERED MILK, SALT, ENZYMES), ANNATTO], CONTAINS 2 PERCENT OR LESS OF: SALT, YEAST, SUGAR, YEAST EXTRACT, BLUE 2, RED 40, SPICES, RED 3, LEAVENING (BAKING SODA, MONOCALCIUM PHOSPHATE, AMMONIUM BICARBONATE), ANNATTO (COLOR), ONION POWDER, BLUE 1. PEPPERIDGE FARM, INC., NORWALK,CT 06856 PRODUCT OF USA 91014009172R
9172-0-0
• Vitamin C 0% • Iron 2%
Visit our website at www.pfgoldfish.com
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snack packs
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Motion Graphics and Interactivity in your Physical Portfolio Motion-based and interactive design are unique mediums to present in a print portfolio. This UC Davis alumni’s portfolio spread uses sequential panels to depict change and motion in her motion graphic designs.
Still Frames Depicting Motion Motion-based designs can be exposed in a print portfolio by using the same principle that the film strip does, or before that the comic strip. Present a series of frames taken from your video-based design arranged in a sequential order, and the viewer interprets the changes between the frames, notices the similarities and observes the differences between the frames, and mentally completes the motion.
Great use of sequential panels to depict movement
Description of problem and designer’s solution.
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“All the Kids” The New Humans Problem: Create a vibrant music video that effectively portrays the band’s vision and incorporates typography, video footage, and abstract shapes. This video was made for The New Humans, a dance/rock/electronic band based in Sacramento. What originally started as one minute final project was one of three selected by the band to be produced as a full length music video. The song “All the Kids” is all about having fun, dancing, and just enjoying the club scene.
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15
Inclusion of process and sketches! And in color!
Still frames serve a larger purpose in a print portfolio by showing the designer’s mastery over composition, by balancing the figure and ground into a dynamic visual experience in the still frames between the motion.
Comparison between sketches and final video. Excellent! 4
3
Strong choice of large still shots 5
Presenting Websites in your Physical Portfolio Although websites are not intended to be viewed on print media, be ready to have pictures of your websites and talk about them if they are a part of your design skills and experience that you want to portray to your client.
Using Panels to Display Web Pages One of the easiest ways to display web pages includes using multiple panels of browsers to showcase the home page and other related pages. Through this, the user can experience the branding, information design, and user interface of the website in well-designed images, that showcase different unique pages and the navigation system and usability features. boomeranG publishinG website
......................................................................... boomerang were looking to update their website with a with a simple clean design where their creative projects take the centre stage. www.boomerangpublishing.nl
jacobien spekreijse website + logo
......................................................................... Jacobien spekreijse is a fashion designer specialising in knit, she required a website & logo that reflected her style and personality. www.jacobienspekreijse.com
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Ending Your Portfolio Including your Contact Information Finishing your portfolio with your contact information provides the right resources for the audience at the end of your portfolio, especially if you have sent your portfolio via mail rather than taking it in for an interview. Leaving your contact information is how you give them the opportunity to call you in, if you did, in fact, send them your portfolio via mail. Be sure to include all relevant forms of professional contact, including your website, blog, phone number, and email. When catering to a niche area like motion graphics, include your vimeo or youtube channel. If you did take in the portfolio for an in-person interview, bring a creative and professional business card that is cohesive with your brand materials, or you can get creative with a leave-behind.
Contact
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Arianna Azevedo 408.607.0421 arianna.azevedo@gmail.com http://cargocollective.com/ariazevedo
A Note on Leave-Behinds What is a Leave-Behind? Leave-behinds are items within the design community that remind the client or hiring manager who you are and quickly show your work again. Leave-behind designs originated as deal-closers, because if an aspiring designer would leave some unique item behind that has their name and beautiful design on it and it stays on the hiring manager’s desk, he / she will eventually recognize it and will likely call you, especially if your design concept is great and your craft is excellent. Leave-behinds have become such a popular competitive piece that they have oversaturated the market. Many competitors that are pursuing the same job are using leave-behinds to remind the employer to call them. However, if everyone uses leave-behinds they do not become special anymore, and the product becomes expected. The art directors that are looking to hire people have their desks littered with leave-behinds. The solution: if you are going to create a leave-behind, be smart in your concept and execution. Make something that really expresses your brand, that strikes the client or hiring manager as not just a mini portfolio, or that has its own utility.
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