hi you guys welcome back to our channel, the number one place for people who love design art
and all things creative you are watching D+B's channel my name is Laszlo and i do
graphic design and illustration in this video i thought i would sit down and give you some no
nonsense actual advice on improving your design portfolios now portfolio advice for artists and
designers is well nothing new as a video topic in the graphic design corner of youtube content
but what i found is most of these videos are way too hung up on the formalities and the details of
what makes an aesthetically pleasing portfolio which let's be honest is very subjective so i
thought for my take i would just keep things very simple and share some conceptual evergreen points
that no one really shared with me about creative portfolios so i had to learn them the hard way
tips tricks morals hindsights and all that as i said my focus is graphics and digital
art but i want to include advice which you can utilize no matter what you specialize
in within the creative fields yeah we are getting very deep in this one let's do it
tip number one it's all personal here are some cold hard facts young designers and artists should
be aware of whenever you're messaging senior people in the creative industries and asking them
for portfolio advice on very specific things like how many projects should i include in my portfolio
or what website builder to use or should i use my own name for my brand chances are you're already
approaching portfolio building with the wrong mindset a good creative portfolio looks and feels
like a design project within itself and as any good design project it needs to have a sense of
being a one-of-a-kind piece of work you shouldn't just show what you think is expected from you or
what you think will get the most attention your focus should be on the ability to show what you're
capable of within your creative field in the best possible way people tend to say you should aim
for six to eight projects within your portfolio which is reasonable enough advice but personally
i think it's better to have four mind-blowingly good design projects than having eight projects
of mixed quality if you feel like your creative personality can come across and make an impression
using only a handful of projects then don't be hanging upon quantity okay this should
be your approach toward any aspects of portfolio building you really need to make this thing yours
chances are the people who will look through your portfolio are the kind of people who look through
dozens maybe hundreds of other people's work on a very regular basis which means they have
seen all the trendy things all the tricks all the one-size-fits-all cookie-cutter solutions already
so keep that in mind and don't feel foolish for not going with the flow if you hate squarespace
for example even though they are all the rage right now just use something else or i don't know
me for example i never really print stuff out but let's say you are an illustrator who loves using
watercolors or acrylics in your practice in which case it does make sense to use physical
printed out materials within your portfolio even if your favorite youtuber told you not to do so
you know what i mean now this obviously applies to the work itself as well don't people-please and
tick out boxes when it comes to your creative projects don't have a branding project oil
paintings and animations next to each other if it doesn't feel authentic to your creative practice
only include stuff that is really you even if this means you are using some fake projects instead
of real commissioned work do whatever it takes to show the kind of stuff you want to be hired for if
you want to be designing movie posters for example but all you have in your portfolio is logo design
projects it is very unlikely that someone will commission a poster from you why would they art
directors and the people who hire designers and artists they want to see proof before they invest
their money into someone they don't know no one's got the time to look through i don't know a motion
designer's portfolio and think i wonder if this person can do children's book illustration as well
this might sound a little harsh but all i'm trying to get across is don't wait for anyone's
permission to execute your dream projects and only the kind of projects that you want to be doing
try building that very personal thing that you have been tinkering with in the back of your head
for months maybe years and prove to the world that you can do it even before anyone asks
which leads me to my next point tip number two my past mistakes oh dear...the very reason i
wanted to make this video because i got rid of my personal portfolio website lately i put it on hold
not knowing when or if i ever will activate it again now in this old website i broke my work down
onto three distinctive categories i had a page for graphic design work i had a page for illustrations
and another one for creative advertising work and i used to think to myself how cool is this "This
Is Laz" and has 3 different sides to him surely this shows my range and people will be amazed by
this level of skill set right wrong as time went on i realized that this website is nothing more
than a little time capsule of old irrelevant work stuff that no one's really looking up anymore not
even me and to be honest i think in this day and age unused web pages are doing more harm than good
for you and your creative career look what i'm trying to say here is your portfolio is not just
a collection of old work you have completed it should not feel like a room full of old trophies
doing nothing but collecting cobwebs for me there were definitely pieces of works and projects
in this old website which i only kept there for vanity because they picked up an award
or something but some of these were for the kind of works which i'm not even interested
in doing anymore your portfolio needs to show the inside of your brain it needs to inform the viewer
how your mind works when it comes to creative problem solving and as a creative a creator or
an artist that is something that you should be constantly perfecting you should be changing
the way you work your opinion changes on certain things and topics you mature and grow as an artist
or a person that's why it's very important to keep your portfolio up to date instead of showing off
years and years old projects not to mention what was technically impressive a couple years ago
might be old news in this day and age your portfolio is never done think of it like
open-ended storytelling you start telling your story and leave the ending of that story open
so prospective clients can imagine how the story ends if they come on board and they decided to
work with you ideally they can visualize based on your body of work and your thinking what you
could potentially do for them right it's all about them does that make sense anyway
the last tip tip number three pick a mission not a niche now this one took me literally
years to get right when i was younger all my teachers mentors older colleagues kept repeating
the very same thing to me when they looked at my work pick a niche pick a niche pick a niche i'll
never forget this moment when i put one of my very earliest portfolio pdfs in front of my third year
illustration lecturer and before he even opened it up he looked at the cover and said laszlo i'm
already seeing two different art styles here and i haven't even turned a page yet you can imagine
i just went completely pale in the face i used to gag genuinely feel sick whenever people were like
you need to specify you need to niche down focus on one thing and all that ah little 20 year old
laszlo was like why why can't i be a concept artist and a graphic designer and an animator as
well hindsight is a funny thing you know now fast forward half a decade i think i finally understand
what they were talking about having a niche doesn't necessarily mean what i thought it means
it doesn't mean that you're not allowed to dabble into all these different creative disciplines all
of that is fine in fact encouraged to some extent as long as you have a clear idea why you are doing
all those different things as a young designer there was no sense of direction in my portfolio
so all this dabbling constantly switching gears between art direction and creative advertising and
illustration and graphic design just made me look like i don't know what i'm doing does any of that
sound familiar so what i realized as time went on is your work needs to stand for something you need
a mission think of the biggest most famous people of all time they are seemingly going at 100 miles
per hour in terms of their work people like elon musk for example who's making electric cars and
designing spaceships and now robots as well apparently his mission per say is not car making
or spacecraft design his niche can be boiled down to one very simple word innovation or if you hate
his guts and you want another example think of this guy lin-manuel miranda who's a rapper singer
director theater guy songwriter movie director his niche representation i figured out this way
of thinking works with most famous creatives and creators who are seemingly doing way too many
different things that you could just put them in a niche box so i encourage all of you to go and have
a think what is it that you want to be known for because at the end of the day is going to be one
thing and i believe the answer to that lies within not what you are creating but why you are creating
i realize that this is not an easy assignment for me for example it took me like 10 years
to realize why i'm doing what i'm doing i quite simply want to work on designs which utilize the
power of illustration i want to create beautiful things which take the art back to design i talked
about this in previous videos how i believe there should be a stronger connection between well all
the creative disciplines overall and since the whole Dantier and Balogh brand has been built on
this kind of philosophy i probably will never shut up about this cause man that's my niche i'm the
graphic designer who draws i realize this is not a unique mission but it doesn't have to be something
as poetic as innovation or representation i'm aware that my way of thinking is not gonna change
the whole world but ever since i materialized all these thoughts for myself and been trying to
radiate this in my body of work i do feel like my clients are picking up on that and maybe for the
first time ever i am actually attracting the right clients and the right projects which is what this
is all about at the end of the day so let that be the morale of the story if you manage to create a
portfolio that goes beyond of what you have done and explains why you have done it and maybe giving
out some little clues to the viewer what else you could be doing then you know you got a good thing
going okay guys i got a whole playlist here but i talk about all this sort of arty design stuff
which i will link down there somewhere you'll find it so to make sure you're not missing out in any
of that and more content join our creative crew as you just witnessed i'm all about graphics and
illustration and my partner jacqueline's content is focusing on interior architecture and design
insights tutorials and everything in between please leave a like to help us reach more
people with this channel and i'll hope to see you this time next week with something else okay bye