Things You Need in Your Portfolio - Tips for Students
by Donovan Beery, (7 comments)
Recently I got the opportunity to review some portfolios from students at a variety of the area schools. Last time I had the opportunity to review student books, I posted an article on basic advice on presenting your portfolio, but this time I want to take an opportunity to discuss the different design elements that should appear in a student book.
Of course, the following advice is based on the many books I have reviewed over the past years, not just this one session, and as usual, I have it in a list of 10 so that it looks real nice and official.
1. Type
I want to know that you can handle dealing with pages of text. Most magazine ads have body copy, most brochures have copy that is meant to be read, even CDs frequently have linear notes. I need to know that you can handle working with a few paragraphs of type, and not just the headline.
2. Identity Mark
Every student book I have seen has at least one original logo, and they should.
3. Images that don’t use any Photoshop Filters
Make sure you have some pieces that use straight-forward images. Everyone ends up doing work with images that don’t require anything more than basic color correcting and cropping. If every image in your portfolio is Photoshop crazy, how can I tell if you can work with images that just need to be placed?
4. A Campaign
Posters, letterheads, ads and websites are great. Now show me that you can carry a consistent identity through all of them. When you work for a client, they should want consistency throughout their materials, and you should show examples of how you can handle this.
5. An Idea
I want to see an original concept and thought. In the long run, this is the most important thing you have in this profession. Your knowledge of software is secondary to the idea – and it’s not even a close second.
6. Something Printed
Ideally you have a piece that is being used. Normally internships will get you one of these. I realize that it’s not exactly how you wanted it to turn out, and I know the client made you change something, but that happens, and I want to know that you can deal with it.
7. Some Design Heritage
One of the books I reviewed had a tribute to Bradbury Thompson in it. It made me happy to know the student studied some of the history of our profession. Knowing the history of design is not going to hurt you in this field, it will only help.
8. Something Done Outside of Class or Work
One student’s portfolio was so far ahead of the others from the same school because she did projects outside of class. Most of her best work was done outside of mandatory school work, and she did it solely because she enjoys design – it showed. Just because it’s not graded doesn’t mean you can’t do it.
9. A Group Project
This is the one that baffled me the most. A few of the students were almost embarrassed to show a piece or two because other people helped work on it. That makes no sense at all, and I said as much. If someone hires you to work on their team, they want to know you can work on a team. Most professional projects have a few people working on them (even if the client counts as one of them), you need to show that you can work with others. Your book is secondary in the interview, you’re what they are hiring, and no book is good enough to hire if they realize you won’t work well in their organization.
10. More Type
Seriously, I need to see that you can work with type. A newsletter without 4 pages of text doesn’t look like any newsletter any clients I know would use.
Comments (7)
Dan Lurie said:
It’s so nice to have a resource like BADG with articles like this, especially for a beginning design student such as myself. I think a lot of the things you guys cover and discuss are things I would have to learn the hard way later on down the road. And although there is something to be said for learning through experience, I would rather spend my time creating good design.
Posted on February 26, 2006
Kyle said:
Donovan, this is a good list! It looks like everything I take into account when reviewing portfolios was covered—and more. What’s fun sometimes, when you’re reviewing fresh graduates that have all had the same professor over the years, compare amongst candidates who solved the problem the best. For example, in the last 3 years, I think I’ve seen about 15 different redesigns of the old Sprint logo. (I don’t think I’ll be seeing Spring anymore, but maybe Verizon could use some class time).
I would ague that showing you can work in a team is one of the most important. Leading will come with experience, and people who work alone best are best working alone, as in freelancing. But in my experiences, teamwork is vital to show you can not only get along with others, but take and give constructive criticism from them in order to best serve the business you’re applying for. Teamwork is not only demonstrated in a portfolio review by including good collaborative pieces, but also by carefully answering questions that refer to colleague and client relationships.
Posted on February 26, 2006
Jessica said:
Thanks for the great tips. It couldn’t have come at a better time. I’m beginning to think about putting together my portfolio and it’s so nice to hear from someone who has seen the best and the worst.
How many pieces do you recommend including?
Posted on February 27, 2006
DC1974 said:
As someone who has a, um, unique work history (editorial, agency, pro-bono) and who has been thinking about my portfolio recently and what to include and what not to. It’s good to see a nice back to basics list. I think this is helpful for everyone looking at your portfolio again and trying to judge it with an outsider’s view.
Posted on February 27, 2006
Donovan Beery said:
Jessica, I have always said that 8-10 pieces is ideal, but 7 good pieces is better than throwing in an inferior piece just to get the numbers up. There is a thought, that even I use to have, that you should have a letterhead, poster, brochure, etc., but it really comes down to what the work shows (which is what I based this list on), not what type of work it is.
Posted on February 27, 2006
Strat said:
It’s good to see a list of items that should be in a basic portfolio as many portfoilio reccomendations can vary depending on whos looking at it. It’s important to remember to always look the prospective viewers requirements or preferences just as you would if you were working on a project for them.
Posted on February 27, 2006
Andy C. said:
These are fantastic tips. I personally think that the tip regarding the need to reduce the amount of photomanipulated imagery through the use of photoshop filters in ones portfolio is a very good and helpful one.
Great tips overall.
Posted on February 28, 2006