Overview

A portfolio is a curated collection of your best work that you can share with potential employers, clients, or anyone who is interested. Ideally, it shows your breadth of skill, expertise, and versatility and helps you to get the jobs and clients you want to work for.

A portfolio is something you will need throughout your career. Over time it will change and should always reflect your current work and the work you hope to do. As part of this visual presentation, your work needs to speak for itself; projects should include minimal details if it helps with clarification, such as client name, title, and/or concept. This is also an opportunity to design a language and related imagery to help solidify your personal brand and reputation (see Lessons/Identity System).

The Job Search

It may be hard to believe that you can make a living doing something you find compelling and exciting—something you love. Finding the right first job, even if it’s a summer job or an internship, is not just an important step in launching your career, it is an exploration of the field and a continuation of the learning process.

Over the course of the semester, you will be preparing all the content needed for a successful job search in the career you are pursuing. As you get ready to present yourself and your work in a portfolio, you will start by researching and thinking through the following:

  1. Yourself: your motivations, strengths, and weaknesses
  2. Your work: its nature, style, and variety
  3. The job market: corporations, design offices, and a wide variety of other businesses that employ communication designers.

Who Is Your Audience?

When thinking about developing a Portfolio, perhaps a good starting point is to think through who might be looking at your Portfolio and under what circumstances.

Creative Directors, Art Directors, Sr. Designers, Managers, Account Planners, Directors, Marketing Directors, Strategists, Editors, Publishers, Media Planners, Social Media Strategists, PR, Copywriters, Recruiters?

Will you be there to walk them through it? Probably not always. Your presentation should be clear whether you are present or not and regardless of what type of screen it is being viewed on. This begs the question, digital or print (see below)?

Types of Portfolios

Digital Vs. Print: >>Recommended article

Online

  • Use a website template if you are not familiar with coding, especially if you are not a web designer.
  • Many hosting sites offer free or cheap templates that are easy to update.
  • See a list of hosting platforms for online portfolios.
  • Do your research. Try a few website templates to compare designs and functionality.

Print

  • Replicates the look for book covers/interiors, children’s books, magazines, newspapers, comics, packaging, surface design, etc.
  • Gives the client an accurate sense of color in print form
  • Printing can be costly

Compiling and Editing Work

Your work should showcase your skills,  process,  personality, and potential. One way to achieve this is to be able to sit and discuss each of the following for every piece displayed in your portfolio:

  • Concept
    Think “big picture” What is the overall idea?
    You should be able to explain this to someone in a meeting or interview.
  • Thought Process
    How did you go from the start to the finish of a project?
    Brainstorming, sketching, mock-ups, research
  • Use of Typography
    Readability, legibility, style, design sense
  • Composition
    Balance, eye-focus, positive and negative space
  • Craftsmanship
    Work should feel polished and client-ready or “gallery ready.”
    Does anything need to be adjusted or digitally corrected?

How Many Pieces to Include?

Having too many projects can be distracting and overwhelming. The perfect number of pieces depends on your work and whether collectively you have enough to showcase your range: skills,  process,  personality, and potential.
8-15 pieces is a healthy number to strive for. You can always curate that number according to the needs of those looking through your “book”.

Organizing and Structuring Work

  1. Organize work into categories:
    Illustration, graphic design, photography, animation/motion graphics, etc.
  2. What subcategories can you break your work into?
    • Illustration: comics, children’s books, storyboards
    • Graphic Design: branding, lettering, advertising
    • Broadcast Design: Commercial, Experimental, Documentary
  3. Do you have a few images or variations for one project? Are there multiple pieces or is the project composed of a series?

Additional Components

  1. Personal Identity System (logo, logo mark/monogram, and signature)
  2. Optional: mini identity style guide (color schemes, typography, etc.)
  3. Resume
  4. Cover Letter
  5. Business collateral: digital letterhead and business card
  6. Social Media icons, or profile images (avatar): FB, IG, and LI
  7. Social Media cover images: FB, IG, and LI
  8. Social Media accounts: Linkedin, IG, TT
  9. Process Book: sketches, research, notes, and drafts
  10. Digital Online Portfolio
  11. PDF Portfolio
  12. Optional: Physical portfolio

Additional Resources

  1. >> How to create a graphic design portfolio (UAL)
  2. >> How do I create a graphic design portfolio? (Penguin)

Next lesson >>Lessons/ Lesson 2 Self-Assessment