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7/27/2019 Designer Portfolio Guide
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A portfolio represents how a design
er visually andverbally approaches a problem, and how this relatesto the intended audience. Anything that helps me tounderstand that process is great.
-Steve Liska
PORTFOLIOS
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Creating your portfolio is an extensive design project in itself,
and should be treated as one. A memorable portfolio cannot be
completed in a day. In fact, your portfolio is one of the on-going
projects you will be continuously revisiting throughout yourentire design career, so understand that your portfolio is your
marketing tool, talent showcase, and an experience by itself.
By understanding this, you become aware that in creating your
portfolio you are creating a brand of your name, with the
products being your designs and skills and the portfolio being
the point of sale system. Through this understanding, we can
tackle the creation of both an online, web-based portfolio and
printed portfolio, through a client-based perspective, where you
are the client, and you need a point of sale system designed to
attract customers and captivate them to the point where they arecompelled to contact you because they have confidence in your
services and that they will have a healthy and mutually beneficial
relationship with you.
A great portfolio will serve its designer by telling your story,
expressing your personality, showcasing your skills in both
their breadth and depth, and displaying your process and f inal
products. And since you are the client, the process of research is
natural because you know more about yourself and your unique
personality and sense of expression than anyone else. As well,
the process of revisions will be streamlined because you are
probably your own harshest critic so revisions will naturally occur
for the purpose of making the viewers experience of your work,
skills, and personality more authentic. Asking for other design-
ers and professors to review your portfolio is a fantastic way to
get creative feedback, especially as the professors are incredibly
attuned to noticing the details of the t ypography, layout, content
hierarchy and organization, flow, color system, photographic
quality, body copy, piece selection in terms of range and quality,
and creative presentation of the portfolio.
Writing out the Creative Brie
The first step in creating a design portfolio is completing a
creative brief for yourself. As you are the client of your portfolio,it is important to write out a creative brief to clearly understand
the design problem and direct your attention to how you can
solve this problem.
To have a more complete understanding of your portfolio, and
how it uniquely addresses your marketing and branding strategy,
write a projec t summary, establish an audience profile what
constitutes your typical c lient or hiring manager describe
how you plan to set the tone and perception of your portfolio,
determine your communication strategy, and create your target
message that the audience with leave with after experiencing
your portfolio. These components will provide a foundation for
your creative brief to support the creative direction you take in
expressing what you have to offer through your portfolio. From
this brief, decide whether you want to tackle your printed and
pdf portfolio first or if youd rather start by designing your web
portfolio, or if you want to take them on simultaneously.
Physical vs. Website Portolios
Printed portfolios have their advantages in being able to give
someone a physical object that they can touch and see in the
real world. The true power in a physical portfolio comes after the
layout design, in choosing the paper type and weight, the design,
material, and dimensionality of the cover, the binding, and
designing the physical user interaction.
Portfolio websites are advantageous because they allow
you to display interactive web designs, video and media work.
They are accessible from all parts of the globe, expressing your
designs to clients and hiring managers from all over the wor ld.
Creating Your Post-Undergraduate Portfolio
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PHYSICAL PORTFOLIOSThe Purpose o a Physical Portolio ........................ 3
Beginning Your Physical Portolio ........................... 4
Grid, Layout, & Dimensions ......................................... 5
A Cohesive Personal Experience ............................... 6
Cover Pages and Binding................................................ 7
Packaging and Casing....................................................... 8Content Organization ....................................................... 9
Presenting a Redesign ...................................................... 11
Showcasing your Photography ................................... 13
Dealing with Three-Dimensional Designs ......... 14
Motion Graphics and Interactivity ........................... 15
Presenting Websites in Print Portolios ................ 16
Ending Your Portolio ........................................................ 17
A Note on Leave-Behinds ................................................ 18
WEBSITE PORTFOLIOSThe Purpose o a Website Portolio ......................... 19
Types o Online Portolios ............................................. 20
Formatting your Best Designs or the Web ....... 21
Grid, Layout, and Navigation Planning................ 22
Crating your Logo, Tagline, and Branding....... 24
Creating a Cohesive Theme ......................................... 26Welcome Screens & the Home Page ....................... 28
Designing Your Portolio Pages .................................. 29
Personalizing Your About Page .................................. 31
Providing an Unorgettable Experience ............... 32
Downloadable Resume and PDF Portolio .......... 33
Making yoursel Easy to Contact .............................. 34
Building Trafc and Getting Noticed ..................... 35
Blogging and Social Media Presence ...................... 37
A Quick Preview of Whats to Come
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The purpose for having a physical portfolio is not necessarily
to have a case or book that displays your skillful designs, but a
presentation and storytelling tool. Of course, a large part of your
physical portfolio, especially if it presents a smaller quantity ofdesigns that were all large and challenging projects with plenty
of process displayed alongside it, would be then to display your
skillful designs. There are plenty of skillful and genious
designers out there, however being talented is not what gets you
hired. The client and hiring manager are interested in you and
your relationship to them. Of course, they care about your
portfolio, and having a poorly-designed, generic, or even
nonexistant portfolio will cost you that job opportunity. Most
interviewers ask you to come in because they have seen some of
your work you sent and were interested, or had you recommenedfrom the design community, and now they want to know what
kind of designer and person you are.
The printed portfolio can take on many dimensions, layouts,
configurations, binding styles, and surfaces. With your creative
brief, begin brainstorming ways to express the targeted message
you want to the audience through the communication strategies
you determined, and any others that come to you in the process
of communicating that message.
Start with Sketches
Once your brainstorming starts producing some compelling
directions or when you hit a brainstorming roadblock you
can start sketching out some of your ideas, experimenting with
dimensions, the grid, cover design, and beginning to select the
pieces in your collection you would like to showcase as your best
designs. By sketching out ideas, creating a storyboard of your
portfolio, you begin to play with your overall portfolio organi-
zation, the order of the pieces you choose, and themes of thelayout, such as rules, type size, positioning.
The Purpose of Your Physical Portfolio
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Limit the selections to your Best Designs
When selecting pieces for your portfolio, limit your selections to
only designs that you are proud of, expressing the range of skills
and projects related to the specialties and variety intended for
your client or hiring manager. Limit these selections to six to ten
designs that display your breadth and depth in design skills and
thinking. Including too many designs will detract from the ef-
fectiveness of the ones you are most proud of, and will mean you
are more likely to include poor designs that you are not proud of
or did not complete to the same quality and level of skill as the
best designs, so be selective and scrutinize your work. Know that
most hiring managers will spend 10 seconds to 1 minute f lipping
through your portfolio, so only show them the best designs thatwill engage them to spend more time to delve into your work.
Start Strong, Finish Strong
The order of your pieces is extremely important, and you should
make sure to choose your two best pieces and display them first
and last, making a powerful first impression and a lasting final
impression. In between the first and last pieces comes your
creative ordering of your selected pieces. Choose an order that
works for you, where the ordering takes the viewer on a journeythrough your design work, telling your story with changing color
schemes, styles, and formats. Showing your range in design
among different mediums and also your range within one
medium (i.e. posters, business cards, envelopes, books are all in
the print-on-paper medium) is one organizing constraint.
Choosing Your Best Designs
Dont put anything in your portfoliothat youre not proud of.
-Tim McNeil
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Prototyping Dimensions and Layouts
With your selected pieces in the correct order, it is time to
begin experimenting with page dimensions and layouts.
You can begin selecting appropriate dimensions and layouts
by getting multiple pages of dif ferent sizes from a copy shop,
printing and cutting your designs to size, and moving them
around over the various page sizes, and seeing how your
design is presented on the page. Print out dummy tex t that is
approximately the type size, style, and treatment of what your
page text will be once you have made it and arrange that on
the pages too, along with selected sketches, brainstorming,
and other forms of process that led you to creating your final
designs. Physically prototyping the dimensions and layouts isimportant because your portfolio is a physical piece that the
viewer will be interacting with, and feeling the size and weight
of the page and where the elements are located and in your
visual span gives you an intuitive and direct vision of how
your final design will look and what sensations and cognitive
thoughts it will inspire in the viewer.
Once you have several of these quick mock-ups arranged,
ask other designers and your professors to give you feedback
on the piece selection, piece order, spread layout, and page
composition. Ask several non-designers to give you their
feedback too, as your clients will look at your portfolio, and it
is in your best interest to ensure that both designers and
non-designers can easily navigate and understand your story.
Drating your Grid
Begin drafting your grid from the layout mock-ups that were
successful. Your grid will unify your portfolio by giving it a
consistent structure that is flexible to adapt to each spreads
layout needs and guides the eye in understanding the page.
Grid, Layout, and Dimensions
Explore all kinds of different portfolios.
There is a wide range of possibilities to be inspired byin creating your own uniquely.
-Susan Verba
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Styles, Themes, and Color Schemes
Once you have addressed the layout, dimensions, and grid of
your design, it is time to experiment with the graphical style
of your printed portfolio. Experiment with creating a few main
avenues of type styles, expression of hierarchy, color schemes,
use of rules and bleeds, and even alternative ways of navigating
through your portfolio, such as opening fold-out three and four
page spreads.
Once you have created a set of cohesive, personal and expressive
themes, it is time to prototype them by creatively applying your
styles to page layouts that have been refined by your new grid.
Maintain cohesion throughout the portfolio by applying styles in
a consistent way among the different types of pages and the con-
tent within those pages. This themes open graphical expression
of your design values and skills gives the viewer a stimulating
experience, helps organize your portfolio, and cues them into
your personality and how you relate to the design world.
Do not forget that, first and foremost, your portfolio pieces and
process should be the main message you are communicating.
Simplify your styling so that it complements your work, rather
than competes with it. The purpose of your portfolio is a point
of sale system of your services, a communication platform withwhich you can tell your professional design story visually and be
direct about your process and product.
A Cohesive Personal Experience
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We Judge a Portolio by its Cover
While you are thinking about style, its time to think about your
cover and how you will be packaging this por tfolio. If you plan on
doing a portfolio book, there are many ways of binding the book,
and you should experiment with cover designs and materials
that speak to you. Visit websites like Lulu.com and Blurb.com to
submit your materials for relatively cheap printing and binding.
Displayed here are just a few examples for inspiration in putting
together your portfolio cover and binding it.
Cover Pages and Binding
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The Creativity is in the Case
The packaging of your portfolio is another option to consider.
Many designers go for two different approaches, the book bound
portfolio with a sleek case or the box of designs mounted to
matte board, or other materials. Craft is essential in all aspects
of portfolio design, but will be exceptionally important on the
casing. The casing is the clients f irst impression of your work
and your design standards, and if your casing is sloppy, cumber-
some, or ill-suited to your type of design, you will not get hired.
Packaging and Casing
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Content Organization
Organizing Content on each Page
The pages of your port folio will have plenty of information on
them, and youre responsible for the organization of the copy
and graphics, as well as their content. Each of your projects,
whether displayed on a single page, across a spread, or across
multiple spreads if the scope of the project is big enough that
you need multiple pages to display the project, should include at
least the basics below of defining the project briefly, displaying
process, and presenting the final design.
These information sections, with a few others, are shown in this
example from a UC Davis alumnis portfolio at right.
1. Define the project and the design problemInclude the projects title, client, the design problem
that you solved through this project, and any necessary
background information
2. Display brainstorming and sketches
Show people your brainstorming, mind maps, word lists,
and sketches. It informs the designers of your process and
the non-designers that youre thinking.
3. Show prototype designs
Introduce your prototype submissions, depicting that youunderstand the process of working with a client, and that
your finalized proposal nearly always requires revisions.
4. Finalized design
Present your finalized design on the page where it can be
clearly understood to be the finalized design, and the one
chosen by the clients.
(5.) (Optional) Alternative final submissions
Exhibit your alternative f inal submissions (if there are any),
showing that you proposed several options for the client tochoose from, all of which of strong design.
Having reviewed and presented many portfolios myself, I found that the most compellingpresentations are ones where designers are unafraid to share their processeven if itmeans including work that is incomplete or unpolished.
-Cavan Huang
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Clean Technology Club
Original Logo Submission
Problem: Create a logo or the Clean Technology Club that refects thepurpose o the club, which is to educate the community about cleantechnology.
I entered this logo as part o a design competition created by the CleanTechnology Club, which is run by students o the Graduate School oManagement at UC Davis. Ater my design was chosen by a panel o
judges, I continued to work with the Clean Tech Club to make additionalchanges to my entry. Together all the elements o the logo; the sun, the leaand globe communicate clean technology, sustainability and community.
Alternative Logo Ideas
Finalized Design
Clean Technology Clubat the University of California, Davis
Description of client, problem,and solution
Brainstormingthrough mind maps.
Display of final variations! Excellent.Shows you have a well thought-outvariety to choose from
Display of final design in aprominent location
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Great display ofprocess with sketchesand development!
Example rom 2011 Design Alumni
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Presenting a Redesign
Organizing content o a project Redesign
Organizing the layout of a graphic redesign, whether that is
a redesign of logo, promotional material for a recurr ing event,
redesign of a website, redesigning the graphic standards for a
client, or redesigning an information graphic, all include the
basic organizational content for each page. However, there are
a few elements that are specific to organizing your project when
displaying a redesign.
These organizational elements are depicted in this example from
a UC Davis alumnis portfolio at right.
1. Define the project and the reason for the redesign
Specify what is ineffective with the original design and whythe redesign is necessary, and how your redesign addressed
the issues to solve the design problem.
2. Display the original graphic
Show people the original graphic that you redesigned.
Position the original graphic nearby the final redesign so
the two are easily comparable, stimulating the viewers to
compare original and redesign for themselves.
3. Organize prototype designs in their progression
Introduce your prototype submissions in a systematicorder from first prototype to most similar to final redesign.
4. Finalized design
Present your finalized design in a location where it can be
clearly understood to be the finalized design, and easily
comparable to the original chart.
McNulty
Identity
The oshore construction company required a fresh identity
to modernise their image. Visuals were architecturally
inspired and these were selected as the strongest proposals.
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Description of problem anddesigners solution.
Draft redesignsand progression iswell ordered.
Showing original in comparison with theredesign organized for quick comparisonand to hold your attention.
Page layout needs work and doesntcorrespond with other portfolio pagescontent flow. Eye moves according toarrow at right.
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Example rom 2011 Design Alumni
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Inner Beauty
Myself
Film Photography B&W
I have always been passionate about interior spaces, mainly, restaurants. Capturing these
rare moments in black and white brings back a nostalgic feeling of eras past.
Title:
Client:
Medium:
Wistful Photography
Showcasing your Photography
Refne your Photographic Images
Unless the only pieces you are presenting in your por tfolio are
illustrations, logotypes, symbols, web designs, and typographic
treatments, you will likely be presenting photographic images.
Photos are a fantastic way to add context to your designs, to
vary your visual storytelling, and to display your photographic
skill . Select your most professional, well-designed photos that
express the perception and tone derived f rom your creative brief.
After selec ting your professional quality photos stored at large
sizes, with a minimum of 300 DPI and placing them on the
page, it is time to edit these photos to complement your theme
and visual strategy. Make sure to transform the color mode to
CMYK for accurate color matching when printing. Adjust the
levels, brightness, contrast, color balance, saturation, and resize
or crop the image so that it matches your similar photographs in
your portfolio and your visual theme.
Full Bleeds and the Paper Canvas
The power of depicting beautiful, professional photographs in
your portfolio comes not only with editing the photographs to
bring out the vibrancy of the colors and the dynamism with the
right amount of contrast, but with how they are handled on thepage. Your portfolio page becomes the paper canvas for your
photographs, and bleeding the edges of the photo frees the
viewer from the frame of the margin, granting a personal
experience of your photo. Experiment with cropping photos or
joining them side-by-side or in a grid-system, and find other
ways of using photos on the paper canvas to create dynamic
compositions depicting your designs.
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Presenting three-dimensional designs on a two-dimensional portfolio page is challenging and
requires you to show photography of the design taken at multiple angles that showcase all of the
intricacies of your design.
Considering the Background when Photographing your Design
The challenge lies not only in photographing the three-dimensional design at angles to showcase
the salient charac teristics of the design which should be the focus of the photos but also
in considering the background your photo is pairing your design with, and how appropriate the
background is in relation to the purpose of the design. When photographing product designs
and small-scale models, use a light-tent to distribute light equally around the design and provide
that soft, warm-white background used often in product photography. If your are photographing
full-scale signage, a sculpture, or other large-scale three-dimensional piece, incorporating natural
background scenery to match the scale. For both instances, always color correc t your photos.
Presenting The Dieline Skin
Part of showing the process of creating the three-dimensional
graphic design may involve creating an exterior skin that wraps
around or bends to become the three-dimensional design.
Present your skins as one of the final stages of your process,
and depening on the project it may be accompanied by a scale.
This confirms to the client or hiring manager that you have the
ability to think and plan in two-dimensions and translate those
plans to succesful three-dimensional designs.
Detailed sketches and developedideas with supportive reasoning!
Description of problem anddesigners solution.
Brainstorming, sketches, andexperimentation. Excellent!
When taking photos of small3D objects, use a light-tent.Color correct your photos too!
Images at different anglesshowcase the dimensionality ofthe product! Well done!
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Dealing with Three-Dimensional Designs
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All the Kids
The New Humans
Problem:Create a vibrant musicvideo that eectivelyportrays the bandsvision and incorporatestypography, video ootage, and abstract shapes.
Thisvideo was made or The New Humans, a dance/rock/electronicbandbased in Sacramento. What originallystarted asone minute fnal projectwasone o three selected bythe band to be produced asa ull length musicvideo. The song Allthe Kids is allabout having un, dancing, and justenjoying the club scene.
Motion-based and interactive design are challenging mediums to present in a print port folio.
This UC Davis alumnis portfolio spread uses sequential panels to depict change and motion.
Still Frames Depicting MotionMotion-based designs can be exposed in a print portfolio by using the same principle that the film
strip does, or before that the comic strip. By presenting a series of frames taken from your video-
based design arranged in a sequential order, the viewer interprets the changes between the frames,
notices the similarities and observes the pattern through which the differences occur between the
frames, and mentally completes the motion.
Still frames serve a larger purpose in a print portfolio by showing the designers mastery over
composition, by balancing the figure and ground into a dynamic visual experience in the still frames
between the motion.
Great use of sequential panelsto depict movement
Description of problem anddesigners solution.
Inclusion of process andsketches! And in color!
Comparison betweensketches and final video.Excellent!
Strong choice of largestill shots
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Motion Graphics and Interactivity in your Physical Portfolio
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Presenting Websites in your Physical Portfolio
Although websites are not intended to be viewed on print media,
be ready to have pictures of your websites and talk about them if
they are a part of your design skills and experience that you want
to portray to your client.
Using Panels to Display Webpages
One of the easiest ways to display webpages inlcudes using
multiple panels to showcase the home page and other related
pages. Through this, the user can experience much of the
website in well-designed, still images, that present the websites
identity and showcase the navigation system and other unique
features.
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ContactArianna Azevedo408.607.0421arianna.azevedo@gmail.comhttp://cargocollective.com/ariazevedo
Ending Your Portfolio
Including your Contact Inormation
Finishing your portfolio with your contact information is
essential to ending your portfolio presentation, especially if
you have sent your portfolio via mail rather than taking it in
for an interview. Leaving your contact information is how you
give them the resource to call you in, if you did, in fact, send
them your portfolio via mail.
Be sure to include all relevant forms of contact for the client or
hiring manager. Include your website, blog, phone number, and
email. If you are catering to a niche-area like motion graphics,
make sure to include your vimeo or youtube channel.
If you did take in the portfolio for an in-person interview,bring a well-designed business card that is cohesive with your
portfolios style, or you can get creative with a leave-behind.
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A Note on Leave-Behinds
What is a Leave-Behind?
Leave-behinds are items within the design community that serve
the purpose of reminding the client or hiring manager who you
are and quickly showing your work again. Leave-behind designs
originated as deal-closers, because if you would leave something
behind that has your name and beautiful design on it and it stays
on their desk, eventually they will recognize it and they will likely
call you, especially if your design concept is great and your craft
is excellent.
Leave-behinds have become so popular that they have
oversaturated the market. Many of your competitors that are
pursuing the same job are using leave-behinds to remind the
employer to call them. However, if everyone uses leave-behindsthey do not become special anymore. When this happens,
the art directors that are looking to hire people have their
desks littered with leave-behinds. This is not good marketing.
The solution: if you are going to do a leave-behind, be smart
when you do it. Make something that really expresses you, that
strikes the client or hiring manager as not just a mini portfolio,
or that has its own utility.