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Book Description

The design marketplace has never been more competitive, or demanded more from emerging talent. To succeed, you must navigate the transition from learner to professional with purpose and precision. In Stand Out: Building Your Design Portfolio, Denise Anderson offers a hands-on, three-step, full-color action plan for establishing your unique brand, crafting a killer portfolio, tailoring and delivering your message, getting your perfect design job, and excelling once you're hired.

In this superbly organized and beautifully designed book, Anderson distills 20+ years of experience as a graphic designer, entrepreneur, instructor, and mentor, offering you powerful insights and easy-to-use tools for successfully launching your career. Whether you're in graphic design, advertising design, interactive or web design, fashion, or any other design field, Anderson will help you identify what makes you unique, and use it powerfully differentiate yourself from everyone else. Stand Out's step-by-step approach, hands-on work exercises, and short, easy-to-absorb chapters guide you through:

  • Clarifying your brand purpose and unique attributes

  • Designing your brand identity, encompassing all brand touchpoints

  • Creating an online presence that showcases you at your best

  • Self-promoting your brand, from social media to print "leave-behinds"

  • Optimizing your portfolio for the industry and company where you want to work

  • Discovering what's hot in portfolio design and strategy - and what's not

  • Understanding what employers want from you

  • Producing your digital and/or print portfolio

  • Choosing your mentor(s) and creating your personal advisory board

  • Developing a personal job plan you can start executing right now

  • Protecting your work against theft

  • Identifying your dream job

  • Writing and designing outstanding resumes and job-specific cover letters

  • Interviewing and presenting your work effectively

  • Accepting a position and negotiating salary

  • Succeeding in your first job, and preparing for the next

  • Stand Out brings together all the easy-to-use forms, checklists, and tools you'll need… multiple examples of great student and young professional portfolio work to show you how it's done… dozens of great tips and tricks… "in the trenches" insights from recent graduates… all you need to get where you want to go!

    Table of Contents

    1. Title Page
    2. Copyright Page
    3. Dedication Page
    4. Acknowledgments
    5. Foreword
    6. Introduction
    7. Table of Contents
    8. Section One: Design a Personal Brand
      1. 1. Get Personal with Your Brand
        1. Inside Self: Who are you?
        2. Inside Self: What makes you stand out?
        3. Inside Self: What are you good at?
        4. Inside Self: Where are you going?
        5. Outside Self: How do others see you?
        6. Outside Self: How do others see you?
      2. 2. Develop Your Brand Story
        1. Look for Insights
        2. Develop Your Brand Story
          1. Your value proposition: What can you offer?
          2. Your brand statement: What are you made of?
          3. Your brand promise: What can you live up to?
          4. Brand characteristics: What do you want your brand to say about you?
        3. Develop Your Creative Brief
      3. 3. Design Your Brand Identity
        1. Build Your Mood Board
        2. Create Your Brand Identity
      4. 4. Promote Your Brand
        1. Write Your Brand Strategy
          1. Who
          2. What
          3. Where
          4. How
          5. When
        2. Develop a Personal Website
          1. Select a domain name and professional email address
          2. Organize your site
          3. Identify the type of site you want
          4. Design your website
          5. Test and launch the site
        3. Choose Your Social Media Platforms
          1. “The 5Cs of a Killer Social Media STRATEGY“
      5. 5. Case Studies: Brand Identity
    9. Section Two: Build a Killer Portfolio
      1. 6. Prepare to Build Your Portfolio
        1. 1. Organize yourself—right now.
        2. 2. Save up some money.
        3. 3. Assess your work’s strengths—and weaknesses.
        4. 4. Include five integrated campaigns. Eliminate two.
        5. 5. Showcase some personal projects.
        6. 6. Let your work speak for itself.
        7. 7. Focus on the work, not on how it’s presented.
        8. 8. Focus on how your work is presented.
        9. 9. Ask for advice. Take the advice.
        10. 10. Let a professional photograph your work.
        11. 11. Design every touchpoint.
      2. 7. Select Killer Work for Your Book
        1. The Purpose of Your Portfolio
        2. What to Include in Your Portfolio
          1. Work that reflects what you want to do
          2. Work that reveals your interests
        3. How to Select Work for Your Portfolio
          1. Tell good stories
          2. Diversify product types and include a range of touchpoints
          3. Communicate wicked skills
          4. Choose the right number of pieces
      3. 8. Create New Projects
        1. Criteria for Creating Practice Projects
        2. The Creative Brief (For Projects)
          1. Project Objectives
          2. Target Audience
          3. Project Deliverables/Brand Touchpoints
          4. Audience Needs
          5. Brand Statement
          6. Value Proposition
          7. Brand Promise
          8. Brand Characteristics
        3. The Creative Process (Revisited)
          1. Understand
          2. Research
          3. Brainstorm
          4. Design
          5. Present
          6. Produce
          7. Assess
      4. 9. Develop Your Presentation Layout
        1. Portfolio Types
          1. The traditional print portfolio
          2. The interactive PDF portfolio
          3. The website portfolio
          4. The interactive PDF mini-portfolio
        2. Portfolio Content
        3. Portfolio Development Strategies
        4. Portfolio Layout
          1. ∼Four Steps to Designing a Portfolio Layout∼
      5. 10. Make Images that Show Off Your Work
        1. Image-Making Media
        2. Image-Making Strategies
        3. How to Photograph Images
        4. How to Adjust Your Camera Settings
      6. 11. Produce Your Pieces
        1. Before You Begin
      7. 12. Case Studies: Student Portfolios
        1. Max Friedman
        2. Nicole Trusa
        3. Stephen Sepulveda
        4. Denyse Mitterhoffer
        5. Maria Finelli
    10. Section Three: Find a Great Design Job
      1. 13. Prepare for Your Presentation
        1. How to Tell Effective Stories About Your Projects
        2. How to Tell a Story About Your Project
      2. 14. Employ the Tools for a Dynamic Job Search
        1. Create a Compelling and Concise Resume
        2. Content Counts
        3. The Anatomy of a Resume
        4. Determine Your Resume Type
        5. The Cover Letter
          1. Tips for an Emailed Cover Letter
        6. References Can Help you Stand Out
        7. Social Media
        8. The Business Card
        9. The Thank-You Note
      3. 15. Launch Your Job Search
        1. Job Search Strategies
        2. How to Search for Work
        3. Categories of Design Jobs
          1. Before the Interview...
        4. Where to Look for Work
        5. Strategies for the Interview
          1. Practice, Practice, Practice
      4. 16. Manage Your Stand-out Career
        1. Ria Venturina
        2. Robin Landa
        3. Cesar Rubin
        4. Alan Robbins
        5. Paula Bosco
        6. Ron Badum
        7. Joseph Serrani
        8. Jim Burns
        9. Dave Fleming
        10. Kristin Leu
        11. Jennifer Bohanan
      5. 17. Case Studies: Design Careers
        1. Suzanne Anan
        2. Jennifer Abujawdeh
        3. Eric Vita
        4. Connor Paglia
        5. Jaime Mazauskas
        6. Max Friedman
    11. Resources
    12. Credits
    13. Index
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