Hey guys, welcome back to my channel.
Several weeks ago now I posted a video where i was looking through my old portfolio that
I used to apply to university and in that video i offered to give some tips on what
I've learned about portfolios over the years, and quite a few of you guys said that you'd
really like to see that, so that's what I'm doing for you today.
the most common question I've been asked is about the format of your portfolio whether
it should be a print portfolio or a digital one on a website.
i think this one really does depend on what discipline of design you're in, but in saying
that no matter what discipline you're in I think it's really valuable to have your work
on a website where potential clients can see it, and it will really help build your reputation.
There may be some universities or agencies perhaps that do require a print portfolio,
so I recommend just checking in with the job or the school that you're applying for and
see what they recommend.
If you're a graphic designer and you deal mostly with print things, then bringing along
a print portfolio to an interview can be a great way to have something tactile to talk
about your work to, and also the print portfolio in itself can be a great example of your work.
If you're a web designer though and you do want to have something tactile to show in
an interview, I don't recommend printing out your websites, i think that seems a little
bit weird, but maybe bring along an ipad with shots of your work on it that you can sort
of flip through and show the interviewers.
Your portfolio really should be an example of your work in and of itself as well.
So like I said if you're a print designer then designing a print portfolio and making
it really beautiful could be a real asset, and same goes for a web designer if you design
yourself a really beautiful website.
It is important not to go too overboard with the design of your portfolio though because
the most important thing is the work inside it so you kind of want to let that speak for
itself.
In saying that though, it is good to inject a bit of personality into the design of your
portfolio, because remember that the school or the agency or the company that you're applying
for is probably seeing hundreds of these so if yours can stand out a little bit then that's
a bonus.
So like I said, no matter what kind of designer you are I think it is really important to
have some sort of web portfolio presence and there's so many sites these days that make
that super easy.
there's Behance and Dribbble and Caro Collective just to name a few of the most popular ones
but if you're a web designer then I think it could be a real asset for you to actually
design your own website.
This doesn't mean that you have to code a CMS from scratch or anything like that.
i think cargo Collective you can customise it pretty heavily to your own design.
And for my website I just use a Wordpress portfolio plugin.
I just wanted to have something that was a bit more special than the normal Behance or
Dribbble profile because I'm a web designer and I wanted to design a website.
But if web design isn't your strong point and that's not the type of job you're going
for then there's absolutely no harm in just posting some work on Behance or Dribbble.
the next biggest thing I've been asked I guess is what to actually put in to your portfolio.
And I think when you're first starting out there is definitely the real temptation to
just include everything because you might feel like you haven't done much work so you
want to show off as much as you can as a possible.
But this is actually not a brilliant idea.
It's so much better to have six really strong pieces in your portfolio than to have ten
pieces where six are really strong but four are pretty average because your portfolio
is only really as good as your weakest piece.
So someone looking at your ten-piece portfolio will see the six strong ones, but then see
the four weaker ones and sort of start to question your standards, and maybe those four
average pieces will make the really strong ones seem weaker, so definitely be selective
and edit your work, and only include pieces that you know are your very best.
On that note too, if you're looking for freelance work, you will be hired to do work that's
similar to what's in your portfolio, so make sure the projects that are in there really
sum up your skills as a designer and sort of show off who you are and are also the kind
of projects that you wouldn't mind working on more of.
the next most important thing is to organise the work in your portfolio.
With websites these days you do sort of have less control over the exact order that users
will see your work in, mostly they'll just sort of see a thumbnail they like the look
of and click on that, but obviously there's things you can do like putting your strong
pieces up the top.
First impressions really do count whether that's in a print portfolio or on a website
you want to make sure you lead off with a really strong piece.
In a print portfolio too you really want to end on a strong piece because that will be
the lasting image in that persons mind and you want to end on a good note.
Another good idea for organisation whether it's online or in a print portfolio, is to
mix up the work so that similar projects aren't sitting too close together.
For example if you start your portfolio off with a website design the next thing you'd
put in might be a print piece and then an apparel design or something and so on, just
to keep things interesting.
And this still applies even if you've only got one discipline of work in your portfolio.
For example you wouldn't have two websites that are both for restaurants right next to
each other you'd sort of break it up with a different client in between cos this is
gonna show the interviewer or whoever is looking at your portfolio that you're much more versatile.
I think those are all the tips I have for today but if you've got any questions still
of things that i didn't cover, please feel free to leave them down below in the comments.
If you're a design student watching this, I would absolutely love it if you wanted to
tell your peers about my channel because I'd really appreciate that and hopefully it would
really help them out a lot as well.
And as always if there's any other design topics you'd like covered in a video please
feel free to let me know.
Let's have a chat down below in the comments.
I'll see you guys next time.
bye!