10 Tips For a Creating a Strong Print Portfolio
Choosing the Right Work
Choosing the right work for your portfolio is often the first step and hardest part of creating a solid print portfolio. Your work should be recent and every piece should be as strong as possible. Having a variety of work is essential because it shows you are versatile, but you will still want to tailor your print portfolio based on the job you are applying too.
If the job is for a position at a magazine, then having a majority of site designs instead of magazine spreads in your portfolio might not work out for you so much, so keep in mind what job you are applying for when choosing pieces.
Organizing and Displaying
The presentation of your pieces is very important. All your pieces should be trimmed and printed out as large as possible, especially for work such as posters you want to display it as large as possible. You should also use some type of removable tape or sticky material to keep your work secure on the pages. You don’t want your work shifting around and all lopsided when you open up your book in an interview!
Starting Strong
First impressions are everything; so make sure you put one of your best pieces at the start of your portfolio. This will help wow the viewer and entice them into wanting to see more, but the catch is to make sure the rest of your portfolio is just as good! Don’t put your resume in the first sleeve, place it in the back or keep them out of the portfolio.
Portfolio Flow
There should be a good flow to your portfolio, try to find a balance between types of work, color and the strength of the designs. If you have 6 great designs and 6 good designs alternate between good and great and make sure you start with a great and end with a great design!
Portfolio Spreads
Don’t just focus on individual pages and how they look. Take a step back and see if the pages look good side by side. Try mixing and matching pieces to see which look best side-by-side. Your poster design may look like crap next to one of your site designs, but it may look great next to one of your magazine spreads. Try to keep projects together as well, avoid showing the business card for a company at the start and then the letterhead for that company a few pages later.
Ending Strong
Ending strong is just as important as starting strong, because this is the last thing that will be imprinted in the viewers mind, so you want it to be a good last impression.
Labeling Your Work
Labeling projects will help you while you talk about your work, but if you leave your portfolio behind and they look at it again, it will help them understand what each project is about. Keep the labeling short and sweet. Give it a title, describe who it was for and possibly a short sentence about the project in general.
The Amount of Work
Everyone has a different opinion about how many pieces you should have in a portfolio, but the key is finding a balance so your portfolio does not seem to short or too long. I would recommend at least 10-12 pieces, but no more then 18-20.
Practice Your Presentation
Make sure you are able to speak about each piece going over topics such as the concept, style, who it was for, what the company was about and the goal of the project. Practice talking about each project out loud and even in front of friends or family, until you are very comfortable speaking about each piece!
Other Essential Items
When you go to an interview you should bring other items besides your portfolio. Make sure to have several copies of an up-to-date resume, cover letter, business cards and if you portfolio case is expensive make sure to have a disposable portfolio to give your potential employer. You might also consider brining a CD with a PDF portfolio file on it, that is as small in file size as possible.
You portfolio is a reflection of yourself and it will be an essential part of your life as a designer. Work hard at creating it, take care of it and keep it up-to-date!
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