PPP - Portfolio Tips Session




  • Master DOC - It’s useful to have a master Indesign document which almost acts as an archive of all your work. Whenever you complete a project you can add it on, and whenever you need to send your portfolio to someone, you can pick which projects are applicable from this master document and create a portfolio of 5-6 projects which are tailored to whoever you are sending it to. 
  • It’s important that the photographs of our finished projects look professional - don’t take pictures with your phone. Every project in your portfolio needs to look professional.
  • ‘Your portfolio is only as good as your weakest project’
  • Be clear and honest in your level of involvement in a project.
  • ‘it doesn’t have to be complex but it must be considered’
  • Sort your master document into categories of work; editorial, branding, typography etc. Try to vary the projects that you show and display something new on each project. 
  • Always export your portfolio to less then 4MB.
  • Make a list on the archive of experience and things you’ve done - if your work has been exhibited, if you’ve won a live brief etc.

I’ve already completed a version of my portfolio and successfully got a placement from it, however I still found it very interesting to see the examples of different studio’s portfolio decks in this session. Firstly it really made me think about how I can make my portfolio more visually engaging with full page images like Snask’s portfolio deck, which as well as being visually engaging, was also very fun and light hearted which just makes it a lot more entertaining to look through. 






For my portfolio, I wanted to make it very simple and minimal, with rational sans serif type and an easily understandable layout but looking at portfolios such as Anna Dora Lascsik’s, it shows there is room to add in more exciting type and design work within the portfolio pages. One thing I noticed about her deck was that she put her contact info on the first and last slides, this seems smart because as soon as someone has finished the last slide, the contact info is right there.






I also really liked WYS Studios portfolio’ its a lot more minimal then Anna Dora Lascsik’s but really like the rationality of it, with a page giving the details on the brief, and then a few following pages with really nicely shot full bleed images of their work. Even though the pages with text on are minimal, I think the use of white space still makes it very bold in an understated way. 






I like on Benedict Povey’s portfolio how he starts with the work and shows a lot fewer slides for a more succinct precise view of his work, and then he ends with an information page which its really nicely laid out and clear showing his contact info, experience, education, skills and brands he’s worked with.



Where do I go from here? - Even though over already got a placement, I want to create a master document for all my work. I want it to be bolder and more exciting with larger full page images, so what I need to do is possibly get some better photographs of my work. I’m also going to change my information page to be more rational and expansive, and put my contact info on the last page as I think thats a good idea. As well as having a better idea of what I want my portfolio to look like so it can be more professional, this session has also really made me consider how important it is to document finished projects in a bespoke way and get really nice photographs of it, that way I have it for my portfolio and I don’t need to take any more pictures in order to send it off in my portfolio etc. 

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