The making of a Graphic Design portfolio.
Your portfolio is a snapshot of where you are today, this month, or this year in your design process. It highlights your style, aesthetics, type choices, layout, and communication skills.
You have a couple of ways to approach your portfolio...
- Copy it from someone that is well respected in the industry. Which usually just means you imitate their layout, type, or color scheme, because if you take their work it is called plagiarism.
- Sit down and compile your best work, get feedback on that work, decide which pieces will be included, and how to best highlight the work. Develop explanations or stories around the work so that we will better understand your thinking and process.
Imitation is how we learn. When organizing your portfolio you should look at other portfolios to see how other graphic designers have approached the problem. It is important to remember that one graphic design portfolio does not fit all and if you imitate another’s too closely you will lose the essence of you.
Sometimes it’s better to look through the eyes or lens of the people that will be reviewing your portfolio. (Art Directors, Creative Directors, HR, Designers, Content Specialists, etc.) What are they looking for?
In a survey of decision makers on what makes a good portfolio a few things stood out.
- Attention to detail
- Design choices
- Insight – found a different way of approaching the project
- Communicated the message
- Case Study showed their process
We have all heard that there are no shortcuts to success. The same holds true of a good portfolio. You need to spend time deciding what best represents you, and the work you want to do in the near future. There are some good areas of focus in this article.
We also offer a course that can help you through the process. Communicating Design.