Portfolios, Portfolios Everywhere…

You can never have too many portfolios in various formats and locations.

My graphic portfolio list comprises off:

Hard Based Copy

Which is my A3 portfolio. This use to be A1 in size because of all my art pieces but lugging that about was a bit of a hassle, so I down sized to something more manageable.

But with each one I mounted my work onto black backing paper and they were then placed into plastic sleeves. I normally have around 8 projects in my portfolio.

When mounting work I tend not to use spray-mounting glue anymore as if and when you want to change anything or reposition it might be a bit difficult. As I found after a year my work was solidly stuck to the backing paper and pieces had to be sliced off or reprinted.

I tend to have a page title on each project, and a very brief explanation about the project beside. As for project order, I start with a good/exciting piece and I also end on a good piece. Another thing that I do is I keep a sketch book in the back of my portfolio to show work in progress.

PDF Copy

I normally use my PDF portfolio when sending it in an email attachment, as the file size is quite small and won’t take too long to download.

I made my digital portfolio using Adobe Indesign. I positioned things the same as I would with a paper copy. But I alternated the background colour, so instead of going for my usual black I also had white backgrounds.

On the first pages I have my CV this is so there aren’t two attachments to download. I find my digital portfolio really useful as you can then have web links to any live sites you’ve worked on. And PDFs allow you to embed movie files and this is something I have recently had to do as my design area expands.

Online Portfolio Sites

Such as Deviant Art are really useful to show case your work. One reason for this is if you are applying for a job through an online form and there is no where to upload your digital portfolio you can always then supply a link to the online site where your work is based.

Online portfolio sites are also good for getting feedback from other creative people.

And last but not least, Personal Websites. Like my own, which can be viewed here

Of course this means spending a bit of money for domain name and hosting. But totally worth it if you want to sell yourself and get noticed.

Hope you found this helpful!