Formatting and Soft Skills

Business Cards

Understanding how color prints versus on-screen color is extremelyHere is a link to a very helpful set of printing guides:

Created by Dev Kimiko

Not all printers print the same. Do your research and see who has the best options for you and your project, based on:

Some Vendors:

PDF Presentation

Make sure it is properly sized to screen resolution. Standard screen resolution (for now) is 1920x1080p. Set your InDesign document to this size, so it fills the screen when someone is viewing it.
No PDFs should be larger than 10mb. Most company (large corporate and smaller companies) limit the size for multiple reasons. Security – DDOS attacks can shut down servers by overloading them. Storage – email servers are not file servers and most people don’t want to spend the money to store copious amounts of files on them. There are probably other reasons but just know that if your PDF is larger than 10mb it will likely bounce, and you don’t want that.
How to down sample your file when exporting from InDesign: Go to File > Adobe PDF Presets > [PDF/X-1a2001] > Then click on the COMPRESSION tab and change image settings to downsample as shown in this screenshot:

Time Management/Project Management

Plan Backwards – always begin every project by clearly defining what is due and when it is due. You can build a timeline backwards from that deadline by asking more questions: do you need to allow time for printing/shipping? Do you need to allow time for beta-testing a website/app? How many rounds of approval? Does the client respond with revisions/notes in a timely manner – i.e. are you managing the client or working in concert?
To clearly define the deliverable/what’s due, you need to ask as many questions as you possibly can. Don’t make assumptions about what they need or even what they think they need, because they have assumptions about what you are delivering. And those assumptions can drastically affect cost, so not talking about them can have disastrous results
Figure out who you are working with and who you will need to work with: who is giving your feedback? Will you have to subcontract any work, i.e. if you don’t do web implementation then you need to hire someone. Are you relying on anyone for assets? Figure all of this out by asking questions (see previous bullet) and communicating.

Soft Skills

Thank You notes – always always always ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS send a Thank You note. After an interview, after someone speaks to your class, after you’ve met someone at an event or talk…
CONFIDENCE. This is a lot more complicated than just writing or talking about. This is something that is very personal and specific to each of us, depending on whether we are an introvert or extrovert. The level of comfort one has with putting ourselves out there will affect our ability to build a network, get jobs, and more.
- Your Portfolio is never done, and the pieces in it will never be perfect, so you will need to put yourself out there in spite of this. And you will need to be able to stand proudly by it, knowing it isn’t perfect!
- Apply anyway. If you get rejected try to find out why you did.
Mike Monteiro’s workshop on Presenting with Confidence
Jake Parker’s vlog on Finished, Not Perfect
There are the soft skills you need as a student applying for jobs, and the soft skills that are valued in the workplace – there’s a lot of overlap, but here is a nice bit on workplace skills: https://www.thebalancecareers.com/top-soft-skills-2063721

COMD 4801 | The Portfolio