for graphic designers: Building your portfolio .. your graphic resumes

Basma · 10th January 2008

Why Use Portfolios and What Goes In Them?

Job seekers will probably need both resumes and portfolios. Skills in specific software programs and experience in print design and digital file production go into the resume. Clients of freelancers are generally less concerned about the specific software you use but they are interested in the final product that you can produce.

Graphic design portfolios are graphical resumes. They show real examples of the type of work you have done in the past. It is an indication of the type of work you can do in the future.

The first step in building a portfolio is deciding what will go in it.
Choosing Samples of Your Work
1. Actual samples
whenever possible use actual samples. That is, if you did a four-color brochure for a client, put one of the original brochures in your graphic design portfolio rather than an inkjet copy. Use these in your graphic design portfolio and as non-returnable samples sent to potential clients.

2. Photographs
If your work involves designs that are too large or odd-shaped to fit in traditional graphic design portfolios (large boxes, billboards), get the best photographs you can of the finished pieces. You might also want to accompany these photographs with smaller printouts of the digital files you worked from.

3. Screen shots
If your work involves Web design or other non-print designs you can still put together printed portfolios. Make screen shots of the work or print Web pages from your Web browser. Since screen resolution may not always print crisp and clear you may want to include high-resolution printouts of special logos or other graphics you created for screen display.

TIP: Even if the logo or graphics you design are for Web display, start out with a high-resolution version and save it at various stages. You never know when a client will decide they want to use the design in print. And of course, that high-resolution version will look nicer in your printed graphic design portfolio.

Basma · 10th January 2008

Creating Samples of Work That Doesn't Exist

You need samples to get the job but you need the job in order to have samples. That old Catch-22 doesn't have to stop you from putting together a good graphic design portfolio. It just requires a bit more creativity.

Use Made-Up Samples in Graphic Design Portfolios

1. Use Freebies for Friends and Family
Show off work you did for others, even if they didn't hire you. Do you design the newsletter for your school or print fliers for your garden club? Use the best of those pieces. Design business cards for family and friends.

2. Put in Your Own Identity Pieces
The identity pieces you create for your own business can be a part of your graphic design portfolio. You can even include items that a client might not normally see such as your own custom quote forms (for printers) or job tracking forms.

3. Put in Personal Design Projects
Do you make your own holiday or birthday cards? Include the best of them in your portfolio. Do you have a personal Web page? Include screen shots or high-resolution print outs of any custom graphics you created for your Web site.

4. Use Tutorial Pieces
You should know how to use your software before you start hiring out your services. One way to learn the software is to use it to create the same types of items you'll be doing for clients — brochures, newsletters, ads, etc. Use the finished pieces from your own tutorials for your graphic design portfolio.

5. As you produce new pieces for clients (paying or not) replace the less impressive items in your portfolio with the new samples. Graphic design portfolios aren't static creations. They should grow and change as your expertise grows.

Basma · 10th January 2008

What Kind of Graphic Design Portfolio should I Create?

There are 3 main kinds of graphic design portfolios. Printed, Online, and a DVD or CD.

If you can, you really should be covering all of your bases and creating all 3 types of portfolios. The print one is good for sitting down in a relaxed environment and talking about each sample.

This is the kind you will most likely be showing at the interview (unless of course you are a web designer or work with multimedia.) The online version or DVD is often the one where the employer or client will view at their own leisure. Often the employer will let people know the kind of samples they expect to see.

We'll be exploring all 3...

1) The Print Portfolio...

What do you include? Only your best. Yes, you need to show that you can do things well, but not by flooding it with items that are good but not great.
What should all of this stuff be presented in? A good idea is to have some sort of coiled book/case where you can add and take out pages as you need them. Black seems to be the color of choice, which really sets off the samples with some strong contrast.

Make sure that it has a nice cover like leather or something professional looking. The pages should turn easily, and the book itself should be big enough to give some breathing room for your samples.

Look for something that you can add or take out pages. This way you can customize your portfolio for each kind of job that you apply for. Applying for a job that requires a lot of photo manipulation skills and not much typography? Put in more samples that reflect your strength in Photoshop and take out some that you think are just fillers. That is not to say that you just focus on one thing.

Basma · 10th January 2008

2) Online Graphic Design Portfolio

It is essential in this day and age to have an online portfolio. So what will you need? Website space is a good start if you plan on presenting it on your own site. You can get free space at places like Yahoo, but then you have to display banners which will without a doubt interfere with the design and flow of your site.

Paying for a hosting service gives you a clean slate to work with no banner ads. Hosting your portfolio on your own site will show that you are taking things seriously and that you have the technical know-how involved in setting things up. Any hack can put a website on Geocities.

It's also a very good idea to obtain your own domain name like [Only registered and activated users can see links. ]. Once you have this domain name, you can use it also for e-mail. So once you own your own domain, you can create an e-mail address like [Only registered and activated users can see links. ]. Add your new custom e-mail address and website address to your business cards, letterheads, resumes, portfolios, and anywhere else you can. You now have a very easy way of people reaching you.

The Design....

The layout and design of your website portfolio should be easy to navigate, and once again show off your samples. Having too distracting of a website can take away from your work. Make sure there is strong, clear navigation on EVERY page so that the viewer knows where they are, where they can go, and how to get back to where they were.

A technique that most portfolios employ is the use of thumbnails for your samples. These are small versions of your samples that can give the viewer a preview of what they are about to click on. This gives the viewer the feeling that they are in control, rather than you dictating what order they are to view things.

As for the actual samples, they should be no smaller than 300 pixels wide, and no bigger than 800 pixels wide. Many tend to stick around the 600 pixels wide range. Keep the image samples themselves to 150kb or less. Remember that not everyone has high speed Internet, and making people wait is a sure way to frustrate the viewer.
Did You Just Flash Me???

The use of Macromedia Flash has really become a trend for portfolios in the graphic design realm. More so for multimedia and web design specialists. Most web browsers these days will show Flash right off the bat, so you don't have to worry too much about companies in related high tech fields not being able to view your portfolio presented in Flash. Keep in mind however that more traditional companies focused on print, typesetting, prepress, photography, and other more traditional media might not have the latest browsers installed.

It's better then to use a straight up html site where anyone can view it.
Although it is more work, often there will be 2 options on a site. "Click here for the Flash version of this site, or click here for the html version of the site". This gives you the more creative options of Flash without alienating those who cannot or do not want to see a Flash site.

Basma · 10th January 2008

3) The DVD Graphic Design Portfolio...

(We'll be using DVDs in this article, but you can just as easily use CDs)

A great cheap way of showing off what you can do is by sending out a graphic design portfolio DVD. What do you put on the DVD? The easiest thing to do is to simply slap your website on so they don't have to be connected to the Internet. Just make sure that it is obvious how they open the starting index page. Call the starting index page something that will be obvious like portfolio.htm or something along those lines. Also keep the rest of the files and html pages in subfolders so the only html file they see when they open the DVD will be the one they need to click on.

Stick to the same rules mentioned in the online portfolio. Keep in mind though that there is no longer an issue with Internet speeds to view your stuff because they are just opening your portfolio up, so your image file sizes can be a bit larger. DVDs are more ideal for big files like animations and video due to the storage capacity.

Make the look of the DVD a lot nicer by buying a CD/DVD labeling kit that allows you to print up nice labels and inserts for jewel cases.

-----------------------

Extracted from [Only registered and activated users can see links. ] & [Only registered and activated users can see links. ]

Avatar · 10th January 2008

amazing stuff. Thanks for the effort

.

This thread has the honor of being the first one to get stickied

10th January 2008	#1 (permalink)
Basma Administrator Join Date: Dec 2007 Posts: 89	for graphic designers: Building your portfolio .. your graphic resumes Why Use Portfolios and What Goes In Them? Job seekers will probably need both resumes and portfolios. Skills in specific software programs and experience in print design and digital file production go into the resume. Clients of freelancers are generally less concerned about the specific software you use but they are interested in the final product that you can produce. Graphic design portfolios are graphical resumes. They show real examples of the type of work you have done in the past. It is an indication of the type of work you can do in the future. The first step in building a portfolio is deciding what will go in it. Choosing Samples of Your Work 1. Actual samples whenever possible use actual samples. That is, if you did a four-color brochure for a client, put one of the original brochures in your graphic design portfolio rather than an inkjet copy. Use these in your graphic design portfolio and as non-returnable samples sent to potential clients. 2. Photographs If your work involves designs that are too large or odd-shaped to fit in traditional graphic design portfolios (large boxes, billboards), get the best photographs you can of the finished pieces. You might also want to accompany these photographs with smaller printouts of the digital files you worked from. 3. Screen shots If your work involves Web design or other non-print designs you can still put together printed portfolios. Make screen shots of the work or print Web pages from your Web browser. Since screen resolution may not always print crisp and clear you may want to include high-resolution printouts of special logos or other graphics you created for screen display. TIP: Even if the logo or graphics you design are for Web display, start out with a high-resolution version and save it at various stages. You never know when a client will decide they want to use the design in print. And of course, that high-resolution version will look nicer in your printed graphic design portfolio. Last edited by Basma : 10th January 2008 at 03:32.

10th January 2008	#2 (permalink)
Basma Administrator Join Date: Dec 2007 Posts: 89	cont. Building your portfolio .. your graphic resumes Creating Samples of Work That Doesn't Exist You need samples to get the job but you need the job in order to have samples. That old Catch-22 doesn't have to stop you from putting together a good graphic design portfolio. It just requires a bit more creativity. Use Made-Up Samples in Graphic Design Portfolios 1. Use Freebies for Friends and Family Show off work you did for others, even if they didn't hire you. Do you design the newsletter for your school or print fliers for your garden club? Use the best of those pieces. Design business cards for family and friends. 2. Put in Your Own Identity Pieces The identity pieces you create for your own business can be a part of your graphic design portfolio. You can even include items that a client might not normally see such as your own custom quote forms (for printers) or job tracking forms. 3. Put in Personal Design Projects Do you make your own holiday or birthday cards? Include the best of them in your portfolio. Do you have a personal Web page? Include screen shots or high-resolution print outs of any custom graphics you created for your Web site. 4. Use Tutorial Pieces You should know how to use your software before you start hiring out your services. One way to learn the software is to use it to create the same types of items you'll be doing for clients — brochures, newsletters, ads, etc. Use the finished pieces from your own tutorials for your graphic design portfolio. 5. As you produce new pieces for clients (paying or not) replace the less impressive items in your portfolio with the new samples. Graphic design portfolios aren't static creations. They should grow and change as your expertise grows. Last edited by Basma : 10th January 2008 at 03:33.

10th January 2008	#3 (permalink)
Basma Administrator Join Date: Dec 2007 Posts: 89	cont. Building your portfolio .. your graphic resumes What Kind of Graphic Design Portfolio should I Create? There are 3 main kinds of graphic design portfolios. Printed, Online, and a DVD or CD. If you can, you really should be covering all of your bases and creating all 3 types of portfolios. The print one is good for sitting down in a relaxed environment and talking about each sample. This is the kind you will most likely be showing at the interview (unless of course you are a web designer or work with multimedia.) The online version or DVD is often the one where the employer or client will view at their own leisure. Often the employer will let people know the kind of samples they expect to see. We'll be exploring all 3... 1) The Print Portfolio... What do you include? Only your best. Yes, you need to show that you can do things well, but not by flooding it with items that are good but not great. What should all of this stuff be presented in? A good idea is to have some sort of coiled book/case where you can add and take out pages as you need them. Black seems to be the color of choice, which really sets off the samples with some strong contrast. Make sure that it has a nice cover like leather or something professional looking. The pages should turn easily, and the book itself should be big enough to give some breathing room for your samples. Look for something that you can add or take out pages. This way you can customize your portfolio for each kind of job that you apply for. Applying for a job that requires a lot of photo manipulation skills and not much typography? Put in more samples that reflect your strength in Photoshop and take out some that you think are just fillers. That is not to say that you just focus on one thing. Last edited by Basma : 10th January 2008 at 03:34.

10th January 2008	#4 (permalink)
Basma Administrator Join Date: Dec 2007 Posts: 89	cont. Building your portfolio .. your graphic resumes 2) Online Graphic Design Portfolio It is essential in this day and age to have an online portfolio. So what will you need? Website space is a good start if you plan on presenting it on your own site. You can get free space at places like Yahoo, but then you have to display banners which will without a doubt interfere with the design and flow of your site. Paying for a hosting service gives you a clean slate to work with no banner ads. Hosting your portfolio on your own site will show that you are taking things seriously and that you have the technical know-how involved in setting things up. Any hack can put a website on Geocities. It's also a very good idea to obtain your own domain name like [Only registered and activated users can see links. ]. Once you have this domain name, you can use it also for e-mail. So once you own your own domain, you can create an e-mail address like [Only registered and activated users can see links. ]. Add your new custom e-mail address and website address to your business cards, letterheads, resumes, portfolios, and anywhere else you can. You now have a very easy way of people reaching you. The Design.... The layout and design of your website portfolio should be easy to navigate, and once again show off your samples. Having too distracting of a website can take away from your work. Make sure there is strong, clear navigation on EVERY page so that the viewer knows where they are, where they can go, and how to get back to where they were. A technique that most portfolios employ is the use of thumbnails for your samples. These are small versions of your samples that can give the viewer a preview of what they are about to click on. This gives the viewer the feeling that they are in control, rather than you dictating what order they are to view things. As for the actual samples, they should be no smaller than 300 pixels wide, and no bigger than 800 pixels wide. Many tend to stick around the 600 pixels wide range. Keep the image samples themselves to 150kb or less. Remember that not everyone has high speed Internet, and making people wait is a sure way to frustrate the viewer. Did You Just Flash Me??? The use of Macromedia Flash has really become a trend for portfolios in the graphic design realm. More so for multimedia and web design specialists. Most web browsers these days will show Flash right off the bat, so you don't have to worry too much about companies in related high tech fields not being able to view your portfolio presented in Flash. Keep in mind however that more traditional companies focused on print, typesetting, prepress, photography, and other more traditional media might not have the latest browsers installed. It's better then to use a straight up html site where anyone can view it. Although it is more work, often there will be 2 options on a site. "Click here for the Flash version of this site, or click here for the html version of the site". This gives you the more creative options of Flash without alienating those who cannot or do not want to see a Flash site.

10th January 2008	#5 (permalink)
Basma Administrator Join Date: Dec 2007 Posts: 89	cont. Building your portfolio .. your graphic resumes 3) The DVD Graphic Design Portfolio... (We'll be using DVDs in this article, but you can just as easily use CDs) A great cheap way of showing off what you can do is by sending out a graphic design portfolio DVD. What do you put on the DVD? The easiest thing to do is to simply slap your website on so they don't have to be connected to the Internet. Just make sure that it is obvious how they open the starting index page. Call the starting index page something that will be obvious like portfolio.htm or something along those lines. Also keep the rest of the files and html pages in subfolders so the only html file they see when they open the DVD will be the one they need to click on. Stick to the same rules mentioned in the online portfolio. Keep in mind though that there is no longer an issue with Internet speeds to view your stuff because they are just opening your portfolio up, so your image file sizes can be a bit larger. DVDs are more ideal for big files like animations and video due to the storage capacity. Make the look of the DVD a lot nicer by buying a CD/DVD labeling kit that allows you to print up nice labels and inserts for jewel cases. ----------------------- Extracted from [Only registered and activated users can see links. ] & [Only registered and activated users can see links. ]

10th January 2008	#6 (permalink)
Avatar Administrator Join Date: Nov 2007 Posts: 342	amazing stuff. Thanks for the effort . This thread has the honor of being the first one to get stickied