How To Create a Compelling Print Portfolio: 5 Tips
There is absolutely no doubt that a strong portfolio can make all the difference between a popular household name and an artist who only creates work as a hobby. It is very important for an artist or designer who wishes to make a living from his or work to use a combination of tasteful arrangement, powerful images, and a professional looking presentation.
It may also help the artist to consider his or her portfolio as his or her resume. This is the only way for the viewer to obtain an understanding of how talented the artist really is. In addition, this is the best way to get high profile jobs. It is also the best way to gain work from very important clients. Even if the artist is new and fresh out of design school, it is never too early to focus on a portfolio.
Tip One: Pick the Best Design for Your Print Portfolio
Trying to decide on what designs you want to put into your print portfolio may very well be the hardest part when you are creating your print portfolio. It is very important for you to use your most recent work. You should also pick out designs that are extremely strong and very impressionable. It is very important for you to pick out work that could impress anyone that you come across.
You should also make sure that your print portfolio features a wide variety of work while still staying on topic with the job interview. This shows how versatile you can really be while you are working with the company or client. Making sure that your designs are on topic is also very essential to the print portfolio. For example, if you want to obtain a job with a magazine, it will not help you if you show the interviewer many website designs. All of your work needs to be relevant.
Tip Two: Organize its Appearance
As you may have learned in art school, presentation is one of the most important aspects of a career in design. All of your design pieces should be displayed as large as possible. In addition, you should make sure that all of the designs are trimmed and neat. This is especially the case for posters that you may have created for past clients.
You may also want to consider using removable tape. This can keep all of your designs on the pages. It is very important that your print portfolio looks appealing. The removable tape will keep the print portfolio from looking unorganized and messy during the interview.
Tip Three: Where to Put Your Designs
You may not be able to figure out in what order you should put your designs. In truth, no one can figure this out but you. However, it will really help your case if you were to put one of your best pieces of work at the beginning of your portfolio. By doing this, the person who interviews you will be very impressed. This will convince the interviewer that you are someone that he or she should really look into. However, even though this convinces the interviewer that he or she wants to see more of what you have to offer, this will not convince the interviewer that he or she should hire you. You still need to make sure that all of your pieces are the best that you have to offer. You want to get your interviewer interested and keep him or her interested.
It will also really help your cause if you avoid putting your resume at the front of the portfolio. As mentioned before, your print portfolio is your resume. It is very important for you to either keep your resume out of the portfolio or put it in the back of the print portfolio. When your interviewer asks to see it, this is when you give it to them.
Tip Four: Keep Your Portfolio Flowing
This tip ties into tip three. If you have a portfolio that has a very good balance and an acceptable flow, then nothing should worry you. However, it may help if you keep your work organized. Base the flow of your print portfolio on the color of the designs, the strength of each design, and the types of work features. You may also want to alternate between amazing pieces of work and only decent pieces of work if you do not have that many great designs. It is a bad idea to put all of your decent designs in the back of the portfolio.
Tip Five: How Your Print Portfolio Looks
The first thing that you should do is avoid focusing all of your attention on each individual page of your print portfolio. You may want to focus on making sure that all of the pages look great when they are viewed side by side. Keep your work organized and make sure that all projects can be found together. It may also help if you were to mix it around and see what looks good together.
Once you have your portfolio finished, give it a look yourself. Make sure that you are satisfied with how you have everything set up. It may also help if you get a second opinion from your friends and family. After you have done this, you are ready to go to your interview.
Image Source: Art Institute of Portland
About the author
James Adams, an in-house technology writer for a leading specialist ink cartridge store based in the UK, wrote this blog post. When he isn’t neck deep in reviews of hardware such as the HP 901XL, he enjoys writing about art, design and media on their blog.
I would argue that only your best work should be included in the book. If all you have are “decent” pieces, then it’s not ready. Also, you haven’t mentioned much about content here. Each and every piece should be a powerful piece of beautifully crafted communication that delivers a message conceptually and smartly. Designers tell stories, and what they put forward in a portfolio should tell those stories in the most engaging and endearing way.