How Important is Your Physical Portfolio to Your Career

A portfolio is a representation of the abilities and skills you are capable of, whether that portfolio is a physical copy or an online version. Today I am going to discuss a few things that go into creating an efficient PHYSICAL portfolio.

  1. Organization

First things first, make sure your portfolio is organized. What do I mean by organized? What I mean is: include page numbers, include titles for your work, include sections of work based on whether it was a logo design, website design, etc. Now, this is not just for the purpose of making the portfolio look nice and clean, it is also to make it easy for potential employers, or those just browsing through your portfolio, to refer back to a specific design they took a particular liking to.

  1. Don’t be afraid to show all you are capable of

If you are applying for a specific job you should fill your portfolio with works that fall under that job title’s description. However, you should not steer away from other skills you are proficient in. If you have talent in coding, photography, painting, etc. whatever it might be, you should add a couple examples of these talents you possess as well.

  1. Professional and Personal Work

Your portfolio does not have to be a combination of just professional work you have done for clients. Sometimes some of the best and most creative work we, as designers, come up with is when we are just doing some personal projects as a hobby. Most of the time that is when we are given the most freedom and able to use our creativity to its full potential. Showcasing personal projects gives the viewer an example of exactly that.

  1. Context

It is essential to include some type of context to your work and not just have pages full of projects with no description as to what the briefing was for that specific project was, what it was used for, how you came up with that design, obstacles you came across, etc. Including what the briefing for the project was is a good way to show that you can actually follow the directions given to you and not just your abilities to create a design. Also, including small notes to your work as to how you came up with that design is a good way to give the viewer an idea of you think when it comes to creating new designs.

  1. The Amount of Work

Your portfolio should not consist of every single project you have completed. You should have about 20 pages of your best work. Remember, these projects should fit under the job description you are applying for while still showing a variety of skills you are capable of.

Next week we will be discussing what it takes to put together an efficient online portfolio!

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