VOLUME 5 • ISSUE 5 • MONTH 2011 name of article

ThePerfectPortfolio

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When I first began my education at Robert Mor-ris University, I was given a

ginormous sized art satchel. In-side I found literally everything

I would need to supply me with what was necessary to complete my

assignments in the first several quarters of my art and design classes. Everything from pencils, charcoal, markers, paper, an exacto knife (which at the time I imme-diately thought, “what am I ever going to need this for?”), etc, was in there. What was also in there was this huge, flat, and

black leather case that housed black paper covered in poly-glass

sheet protectors. I didn’t have a clue what this was for but I kept

it in there just in case I needed it someday, and need it I did. At the end

of my sophomore year I had my first in-school portfolio review – it was crap.

I printed my photos out on regular paper, it was unorganized, I put too much glue on a few of my pieces and it shown through onto my artwork. Not to mention, re-member that exacto knife that I was nev-er going to need, let’s just say I should have practiced using it a few more times before showing off my skills with it (or lack there of) at my review. Can you say: “Jacked up and uneven edges” be-cause my evaluator certainly could. But what does make a per-fect portfolio? Certainly not that hideous monstrosity I first pre-sented when I had not a clue as

to what I was doing. It also seems that these days just to have the perfect physi-cal portfolio isn’t enough. You must have a digital representation of your work as well it seems. There are three main types

of portfolios to be had for a designer an e-portfolio, the classic portfo-lio, and a PDF portfolio. According

to Anthony Q. Artis author of the novel: The Shut Up and Shoot Doc-

umentary Guide: A Down & Dirty DV Production, there are other alternatives to these as a way of showcasing your way to the world but these are the main three for employment seeking professionals.

The E-Portfolio An online portfolio is in all likeli-hood the most popular type used today. As a graphic designer, some future em-ployers will almost always assume you have a website built by yourself showcas-ing all of your work. If your concentra-tion is web design, an online portfolio is the perfect and necessary choice for you, as it serves as an example of your artistic capabilities. In addition, with web-sites such as, www.wix.com and www.apple.com/ilife/iweb/ popping up where one can build their own website for free and with ease there is nothing stopping a designer of any focus from having their own work displayed on the internet. Plus employers are okay with graphic design-ers using sites such as these to promote themselves. Jeff Hartvigsen, the multime-dia producer for Crain’s Chicago Busi-ness, has said that he used iweb to create his first e-portfolio and advised others to “use the tools you have.” “Unless you are pushing yourself as a web designer I see no absolute need for you to create the website yourself from the ground up.” Some benefits of designers hav-ing an e-portfolio are: because it’s just a link it’s very easy to send out, it provides employers a look into your personality, and allows for an interactive presenta-tion of your work. Now don’t get too ahead of yourselves, there are a couple

VOLUME 5 • ISSUE 5 • MONTH 2011 name of article

of drawbacks like: you have to worry about it looking or behaving differently from computer to computer (especially with Adobe Flash) and will have to pay for a domain name and monthly/annual web hosting. In keeping with Hartvigsen, he did caution designers about using Flash to build an e-portfolio, “With Flash you’re restricting the amount of people who can view your site.” “With every-thing going mobile and so many people having iphones these days, you don’t want an employer to try and look up your site and it can’t come up because it’s in Flash.”The Classic Portfolio “Quality over Quantity,” Antho-ny Artis states. The classic portfolio is an actual book of assorted sizes with printed examples of your work. It still serves a purpose in today’s “digital world.” There are several ways to present such a port-folio, from creating your own custom and bound book to placing prints in a pre-made book with sleeves. As stated by Artis, a designer can go to the website www.lulu.com and have a book showcas-ing their works made for around fifteen dollars. He further said that artists should have more than one of these to pass around from interview to interview/em-ployer to employer. “Think about it,” he announced, “You come in there for your interview, assuming it goes great, you give the boss something he can remember

you for and when it’s time to make the final decision be-tween you and the joe-shmo who didn’t give him anything it makes you look better.” I agree. The plus side to having a printed portfolio or a book of your published designs is: it displays your work in its real and final visual aspect, can be taken to a meeting and presented without a computer and it’s good for exhibiting print design. Plus, as we men-tioned before, if you have a book you can leave it with the employer as a gift and give him something further to think about in regards to who he should hire for the desired position. The down side to having a printed portfolio – the pre-made with sleeves version – is that you must be there to present it and cannot leave it with the employer. You have to be there to explain your decision-making process and can not make any mistakes in your sales pitch. “It’s not just about the portfolio, it’s about how you sell yourself,” Artis ad-vises. The employers are not going to hire you if you cannot go into detail about why you created your work and how you came to the final product.The PDF Portfolio An excellent plus or alterna-tive to both options discussed above is creating a PDF portfolio. It is becoming increasingly attractive. Using Acrobat, multi-page PDFs can be constructed from layouts created in a design soft-ware program (such as Illustrator or Photoshop). The outcome is a booklet style piece that shows samples of your work as well as descriptions about proj-ects and related information. The PDF portfolio has its own advantages as well like: it is easy to email, can be printed with unchanging re-sults, relatively quick and free to create – big plus for those of us on a budget, you have con-trol over the layout without hav-ing to worry about web and browser problems, and the PDF itself serves as an example of your layout talents. A nod to the previous section, if you were to go to the site www.pexagontech.com you

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can design your own flash drive, place your portfolio in it and give it to your interviewer. The same benefits would ensue for giving him or her a book of your work. In addition, this gift of yours is more portable, can be used at a later date for their own devices (after you’re hired let us say) and showcases your skills in product design. The one disadvantage to this type of display is that it may be less effective than showing your work via a website. The need for web designers are coming up in this industry of ours. The more talent you have in Dreamweaver, Flash, CSS coding, etc is better for you. However, this does give you a fine alternative until your talents reach that high, during a time when your funds are low and you can’t pay that monthly web hosting bill, or when your potential boss’s internet crashes but he still needs to see your work before he can employ you.In the End . . . These days it seems the one thing all professionals are looking for is experience. Yet, regardless of a student’s lack of experience in the graphic design industry the right tools and presentations can get your career going. Susan Stuart, a profes-sor of graphic design at Robert Morris University as well as the President/Art Director at Stuart Design, LLC, advices fu-ture professionals more towards a printed booklet (as we men-tioned above) to showcase their work as opposed to a book with sleeves. “There are three things I advise every designer to do,” she states, “One is to have an online portfolio, two have a booklet, three do a leave behind. That is, leave them something with your work in it. I interview many designers for different jobs and a lot of times when they leave and take their designs with them I’ll forget what it was they showed me. If I have their booklet, web address, or a pdf version of their portfolio with me I have something to look at when I’m making my final deci-sion.” Artis had some advice for job seeking designers as well, “The first thing I do after I interview a person is look them up online, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and see what they’re like. If you have drunk and inappropriate photos up on your social accounts, take them down because employers do look you up. Start a fan page or group under your brand. It makes you look professional and gets your name out there to your friends who could mention you to their friends and possibly get you hired. It’s all about networking. Get your foot in the door.”

If you have drunk and inappropriate photos up on your social accounts, take them down . . .