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Your design portfolio represents all your hard work at school. It should represent you and your work in the best possible way. Unsure on how to proceed? Here are some some samples and websites that might inspire you to aspire.
- Your work is supposed to take center stage—if you design a busy, overly themed website. The site design and not your portfolio work will be getting the most attention. Remember to document your work well. See "Documenting Work" under Competitions.
- Beware of strong themes. Many students first intuition is too make a portfolio website that is strongly themed (i.e. bird house with robin eggs navigation). What this often results in is a theme that distracts from your work and makes you look immature.
- Flash-based sites may be cool and flashy, but they can be harder to update. No matter how you build a portfolio site, you should be able to add new work easily, otherwise you are trying to get work based off of very old projects. Flash-designed sites often fall into this issue because students build the portfolio in a class and then forget how they built it a few months later when they need to add a project.
- Check out design and marketing company websites. The more professional (and similar) your own website looks, the more likely you will be taken seriously.
Website portfolio Services
Nowadays everyone seems to have their own personal website, and designers are no different. Because every designer's web design and development skills vary, it is comforting to know there are several online services that will allow you to customize your own website, without needing to know much (or any) code. Here are a few to check out:
Cargo Collective
cargocollective.com
Free for 3 pages/12 projects OR $9 monthly for more
*must email them to open an account.
SquareSpace.com
www.squarespace.com
$12 monthly
*Can be difficult to alter design too much.
Impact Folios
www.impactfolios.com
$21 monthly or $192 yearly (30% student discount)
*Try free for 30 days.
Physical Portfolios
Physical (printed) Portfolio books or cases are best used when you really want to show off your craft and paper choices. Some may say that all you need is a web portfolio, but there just as many that say the photographs of your projects don't always do your projects full justice. Especially since many new designers will be asked to do production work at their workplace and "how can you judge your craft by looking at a small photo on the web?"
Scrapbook-type "Book" that allows inserts to be added and subtracted, depending on how many pages you need. You can buy the books and protective inserts at many suppliers. You then can design how your portfolio pages will look and have them printed anywhere. This is a very portable way of having a physical portfolio.
Pina Zangaro: Expensive, but beautiful books made of materials like bamboo, metal and substrate. Available at several supplies, such as Dick Blick Art Supplies.
Save Time and $$: There is a huge price range among Presentation books because there is a huge range of quality. Don't have a cheap looking presentation book otherwise your work will look cheap within it. If you're on a limited budget, you can always buy the book inserts and make your own covers with screwposts and small hinges you get from the hardware stop. Be inventive—it will make you look more like a more creative problem-solver.
Portfolio Case
A case portfolio can be used to show more three-dimensional objects within the panels. You can create recesses to hold brochures, booklets and other items that aren't best represented by only photographs. This is the type of portfolio you should have if paper and material choice really makes your work stand out. Unfortunately it is not as portable as the other options and can be harder to keep updated and unmarred by travel.
Archival Methods: Several cases and boxes available. Especially good option for those that have fine art portfolio.
Obviously you'll need a résumé to apply for a job, but because you are a graphic designer... the standards are often higher. The information will need to be well-written (with no typos), and it will also need to be designed in a fresh, attractive way.
- Use an attractive (alternative) grid to layout your content.
- Don't make your type too big or too small (9–12pt. is the most common)
- Don't create an immature (cutesy) identity for yourself. Sometimes a nice wordmark is the best way to go.
- Don't forget the cover letter/letter of interest—it allows you to mention more personal interests and strengths.
Not sure how to write a résumé or cover letter? Here are some websites that can get you started.
How To Write a Résumé
Wiki How
"Ten common mistakes in résumés and cover letters" By Petrula Vrontikis, Vrontikis Design Office
Insights on writing your résumé
By Steff Geissbuhler, Chermayeff & Geismar Inc.
Portfolio Tips
Coroflot
These are great companies that has a great variety of stationary items—especially good for branding and identity projects, as well as résumé materials.
www.paper-source.com/