Professionals today are vying against an avalanche of competition of others who are creatively, and business minded. The presentation of any artist has to be top notch, and this starts with the presentation of their portfolio.
Many young creatives today don’t understand just how important a great portfolio can be and don’t put in the proper time and energy to make their portfolio stand out among the crowd. Here’s a quick guide to creating a great, professional portfolio for your creative efforts.
- Edit your portfolio down several times
- Create a holistic story with your work
- Ensure your digital presentation is as impressive as your creative work
Know Your Best Work
Many young creatives make the mistake of filling their portfolio with a plethora of their work, even if it may not be their best and brightest stuff. The golden rule for a portfolio is that quality is always more important and eye-catching than mere quantity. A portfolio is an opportunity for you to show off the most creative and intriguing projects you’ve worked on.
Don’t include just anything and don’t feel pressured to “expand” the portfolio just to make it look bigger and bulkier. The portfolio should be fairly diversified and show prospective clients that you know how to operate under a range of conditions and can be perfectly flexible when the time calls for it.
Know What To Edit Out
Even when you feel that your portfolio is ready to be shown and that you’ve cut everything you can from it, give it a nice, thorough once-over. Pay close attention to anything which simply doesn’t stand up in quality and cut it out, as well as items which don’t add to the holistic feel of the portfolio.
Your clients should be taken through a journey when looking through your portfolio, they should be led from one work to another naturally. Cut out any projects which don’t seem to quite fit in, but keep your portfolio diverse and intriguing at the same time. Whatever the current length of your current portfolio, trim it down by about ten percent.
Let Your Portfolio Tell Your Story
Talk is cheap, but results let your clients know exactly how good you are and what you can do for them. One simple way to “refresh” your portfolio without adding anything new to it is to rearrange and reshuffle it to try and find a creative and engaging angle. Simply having projects in order of chronology or quality can be boring and not give prospective clients a true understanding of what kind of artist you are and how you think.
Your portfolio is more than just a random sampling of projects; it’s a journey through your mind and your artistic process for everyone to see. This journey should pique their interests and give them full confidence in hiring you for their creative projects.
Learn To Talk About It
A common problem many young creatives face today is stuttering and beating around the bush when talking about their own work. The visual results of your creative process may be interesting, but how did you come to those results? What’s your inner process and your own unique style which will be developed and matured as you continue your work?
You need to be able to define your skill sets while being insightful and creating solutions which can speak to a range of problems. Using multiple design tools and communicating your process is a great addition to a strong portfolio which people will certainly take note of when they talk to you.
Know Where You’re Aiming
If you’re pitching your portfolio for a specific job, you have to know what the job entails and how much experience your prospective employers are requiring. If the job you’re after is only entry level, an emphasis should be placed on how well-rounded you are and that you firmly understand the fundamentals of your chosen field and industry.
You should be able to wow them with the technicals. However, if you’re after a mid or senior level position, you need to express more depth and vision for your projects. Companies looking for high level talent want to know that they’re hiring someone who knows what the end results will look like before they even start to sketch a preliminary draft.
Streamline Your Digital Platform And Remove Lorem Ipsum
Finally, if your presentation is digital and available for all to see through a website, you need to make sure your navigation and digital presentation is as impressive as the actual work showcased in the portfolio. People hate trying to awkwardly navigate anything in the digital realm, and this goes double for anything creative and trying to impress.
Make sure you’ve got clean drop-down menus and a sleek sense of digital space. In addition, it can be tempting to leave up Lorem Ipsum on your site to fill spaces where not much is happening. This is often counterproductive, however, as it looks unprofessional and unfinished.