IDD 480 - Creating Interactive Portfolios

Often times, the first thing a potential interviewer will do is visit a designer's website to take a look at their work. This gives them a quick and easy way to view the work at any time of the day or night. It also shows that a designer is serious about their work and eliminates a lot of barriers that are involved with sending print portfolios. A lot of successful design studios redesign their web sites as often as once a year to maintain their good reputation, stay current, and give a reason for visitors to come back to the web site.

For some designers, a web site is all that is needed, for others, it won't do the designer justice. Book designs, annual reports, and other things that might have heavy typography or a lot of pages to review aren't viewed that easily on a web site. The case where all a designer might need is a web site portfolio holds often true with interactive designers and photographers.

Motion graphic portfolios are often provided on VHS, CD, or DVD and vary in length. They usually have music that accompany them. Most are usually less than 1 minute in length but there is no magic number for length.

Motion can also be shown with stills such as with the traveling exhibit film called Logomotion. The concept of animation with the famous logos is quite evident and we are able to see how they would look in motion.

Another thing to consider when creating a motion graphic portfolio for the web is optimizing them for different formats so that there is a high level of cross-compatibility. Quicktime is the most common format that is used with designers. I, however, think that perhaps Flash with its new video encoder features may take over with its perhaps even higher probability of being installed on someones computer. Not to mention files are smaller and can load quicker, but some quality is lost. But down the road I think this could prove to be useful and I may even try implementing it as another option into my website.

IDD 480 - Presentation is Everything

If there is one thing we've all learned throughout our 4 years in this program, it should be that presentation is everything in this field. Whether we are presenting a print portfolio, walking into a job interview, talking on the phone, or sending a resume; our presentation of it, is very important.

When we present our design portfolio, everything down to the box we carry it in, needs to look good. When making a live presentation, we are the MC. We get to adjust and cater the presentation to our audience however we see will best benefit us. It could be lingering on specific works longer or going over other pieces quickly. We set the tempo and the rhythm. One thing to keep in mind about print portfolios or any portfolio for that matter, is not to show your best work first. Show a piece that will get them interested or engaged into the portfolio. From what I understand, I feel that a portfolio should build up to your best work, even though in this field, it is all a matter of opinion.

When going to a presentation, first impressions are everything, right down to whether or not your shoe is untied or not. Don't arrive 30 minutes early, but also don't arrive late. 5-10 Minutes early will be quite adequate to show punctuality. If you are going to be arriving late, call ahead to let them know, but if you are calling with a casual excuse such as you over slept. Don't even bother, you'll have already lost the job. During the presentation, as a new graduate, make sure not to discuss how a project was for a class, but rather point out why you enjoyed the project and what you learned from it.

This chapter was loaded with information. It has a long checklist for making both cold calls and resumes. For example, when making a cold call, keep the conversation polite, brief, and on track. Always leave on a positive amicable note. When making a resume, avoid type that is too small or too pale. Font should always be legible and don't follow a standardized resume format at the expense of good typography. It should look like a designer created it.

When creating a portfolio, also take the time to go back over the work and clean it up. Get rid of any artifacts, adjust the color levels, and fix typography.

IDD 480 - Building a Design Portfolio

This week we started reading another book from our collection titled Building Design Portfolios by Sara Eisenman. The first chapter started to be just a bit overwhelming. The amount of varieties of portfolio cases and ways to present a portfolio are a bit overwhelming. Especially with the amount of wonderful portfolios shown in this book. Here are some of the things I managed to get out of this while being overwhelmed and hopefully it will slowly break down the process for me.

Tone - it is the overall feel for your portfolio depending on your design goals. For example, if you want to design corporate work, it should be an elegant and formal portfolio suited for the audience.

Range - After the tone is determined, it is important to show a variety of design work in the portfolio to show you as a well rounded designer.

There are many different formats for portfolios. Some of the one formats I will be covering for mine will be a web site, a DVD, and a demo reel. The concept of a portfolio in a book format is also a nice way to display your work in a professionally bound way. The design of the book also becomes an added piece to your portfolio collection. Another important thing to show is your design process and how you derived at your final design. Although in one of my readings, it was suggested that this section be removable and shown at the request of the portfolio viewer. Flexible content is also another suggestion to keep in mind depending on who views the portfolio. Being able to rearrange and adjust content make portfolios very versatile in gaining clients or jobs.

Along with different formats, there are tons of different types of ways that the portfolio can be presented. Packages range from bookcase portfolios to aluminum presentation cases. After the case is chosen, the presentation inside counts just as much. Materials inside need to be secure with enough room. Foam core and mat board can be used to display the artwork.

Our other reading included a lot of information about digitizing artwork. The most relevant information to me will pertain to photographing a couple of objects as well as scanning photographs. When photographing objects, make sure to have enough light and the proper light so it doesn't change the color of the objects and eliminates shadows. When scanning objects, scan in mind with the final touched up image being about 400 pixels wide. Take the time to touch up and make sure that everything is level and square in Photoshop.