Our next topic comes from Denise Anderson, Assistant Professor and Senior Portfolio Coordinator at the Robert Busch School of Design at Kean University.
Whether you are starting your design career or updating your book for a new position, these ten points will help you along the way:
1. Back up your work. Now.
Every semester I inevitably have at least one student who tells me in a panic, “My hard drive crashed and I lost everything.” There is no excuse for spending months or even years building a body of work and then risking losing it to a virus or a hardware failure. Several (free!) tools, including Dropbox and your school Google Drive account, make it easy to back up your work. Adobe Creative Cloud subscribers get free cloud storage. Or, if you can’t trust yourself to back up your own files, buy an external hard drive and let Apple’s Time Machine do it for you. CDs and memory sticks work as stand-ins, but they shouldn’t be seen as a long-term solution. I suggest keeping your files in three separate places, one of which should be in a different location from the others, in case something happens.
2. Your portfolio is only as strong as its weakest piece.
The aim of “The Weakest Link”, a TV quiz show that was popular some years ago, was to win money by building a chain of correct answers in a row, and the metaphor fits here. To find and land a design job, you need to build a strong, consistent body of work. You can achieve this through the following:
Consistency: does the website you designed use a master grid on every page? Are the type styles consistent across your whole branding project? Does the ad campaign you designed have several pieces that still look like part of the same family? An art director can easily judge a designer’s ability to make aesthetic and conceptual connections. These connections say a lot about a student’s design sensitivity and eye for detail.
Persuasiveness: creating brands that are clever and have heart can be challenging, but you know you have created something convincing if an art director looks at your work and has to ask whether it is a real product or a real job. The story of the brand you invent should feel real, meet the needs of an intelligent audience and connect emotionally with the viewer. Think in terms that answer to the real world.
Process and prototypes: in a world of digital access and mass media, it is refreshing to see and touch something real. Include your early sketches or mind maps, especially if your process for developing the idea is rich, or if your packaging or book design is well built. A hands-on look at your work can help an art director judge your ability to build prototypes and your attention to detail. If you are diligent with your own personal work, you will be diligent with client projects too.
3. Include five complete campaigns. Cut two.
Art directors are busy and want to get a feel for a student’s work quickly. They have no time to waste, so edit your projects to show your strongest and most coherent work in your digital and/or print portfolios. Cross-media storytelling is a good strategy for linking your ideas across several print and on-screen channels, as long as you choose the right applications for your complete campaigns. Remember, it is neither necessary nor even desirable to include every school design project you have finished in the portfolio you present. Keep a few things to show only on your website that will round out your portfolio, such as illustrations, a series of book covers or smaller brands that don’t need to tell a long story. Whichever projects you choose, choose wisely.
4. Include personal projects.
Plenty of good designers graduate every semester, so how can you stand out from the crowd? One way is to include projects that spark your passion. If you are an illustrator, challenge yourself to make one image a day and create a blog or social media page for it. If you have an interest outside design, turn it into a design project, such as a book about your recent trip to Machu Picchu. Personal (or passion) projects show off your ability to design and also share something personal about who you are. This kind of personal disclosure can connect the reviewer with you and inspire them to refer you to someone who is hiring, even if they are not, or serve as a conversation starter in an interview.
5. Let your work speak for you.
Gone are the days when the only way to get hired was to drag a large printed portfolio through a revolving door and into a crowded lift for a meeting with a creative director. Most of what you do will already have been seen on websites when you are not in the room, so it is essential that the work speaks for itself. The viewer shouldn’t have to guess why you chose an image or a particular application to carry your idea.
6. Focus on the work, not the presentation
An art director will see past the clever Photoshop effect you use to cover up a weak effort, which shows that no amount of seasoning will make a bad idea or design taste better. Your portfolio is about your ideas and how you carry them out through your projects. An art director should remember you for the content of your book, not because they were dazzled by your pretty graphics. Use the following criteria to judge whether you are likely to catch an art director’s eye. Your work should be (1) distinctive, (2) coherent, (3) relevant and (4) memorable. Be honest with yourself. If something is not your best effort, the presentation won’t help. Leave it out.
7. Let a professional photographer shoot your work.
Photographing your work is harder than you think. Most students know little about proper lighting and/or how to art-direct their own work. An art director who is used to professional photography won’t be able to appreciate the work because of poor-quality images. Yes, there are some students who can do this well, but in most cases hiring a professional, or swapping services with a friend who studies photography, is the way to go.
8. Focus on your presentation.
I know I just said not to focus on the presentation, but I only said that because you need to build a solid book of work before you market yourself. A beautiful typographic detail, an unusual colour palette or a well art-directed photo will certainly spark interest, but a paid job will stay out of reach if your presentation skills are weak. On top of that, your ability to sell yourself and your brand will be under scrutiny, because the art director wants to know how you will handle presenting to clients.
9. Ask for advice. Take advice.
Don’t just listen to your tutor: listen to your mentors, your peers and other professional designers too. You may find that their suggestions have something in common. Until you really know what you are doing, try out their suggestions. It doesn’t take long to left-align some text or try a new typeface on a logo. At the end of the day, you are the one who makes the final decision.
10. Design every touchpoint.
Design is a way of life as well as a profession. As an experienced designer, I instinctively design everything: how I hang the toilet roll (under), which stamps I use on an envelope (I think about provocative images) and what colour the rooms I live in are (a green kitchen makes me happy and makes me want to cook more). As a student, you need to design every touchpoint, any point of contact between an employer and you, for two reasons:
To promote yourself. Every touchpoint you create is part of your own story, whether it is a handshake, a quiet conversation or how you arrange your spoon and mug in a café. Each one is a window onto your unique abilities and your design sensitivity. A talented illustrator can add illustrations as “solutions” to their brand. It may not be unique, but it will shed light on your style and, combined with your design sense, it could make you the candidate who stands out.
To pass the test. An art director who receives a link to your website by email, or your business card or CV by post, can’t help but grade, even unconsciously, how well you handle layout, typography and colour. If you are seen as a good designer and you “pass the test”, your name is very likely to go on the list of designers to keep in mind.
Yes, the road from student to professional designer can be challenging and uneven, but having a well-defined personal brand and a personal portfolio will make the journey smoother and, in many cases, give you a good head start over those who are less prepared. For designers, there is no better way to communicate your passion and your confidence than a well-designed brand and a coherent, professional book of work. Remember, your portfolio is an organic, fluid and evolving presentation of your work and your personal brand. It needs nurturing and constant updating as your skills and experience grow.
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