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Content Is King
LONG LIVE THE MOTTO: GARBAGE IN, GARBAGE OUT
When creating your portfolio, you need to find your niche and highlight the design components that fit your business and
your experience. You know your product and you also hopefully know the people who need your product or service.
Do you embark on a treasure hunt
of sorts, rummaging through every
creative element you have ever
developed? Certainly not. Determining
the content of your portfolio should
require deliberation and a fair amount
of strategic thinking.
The first step in portfolio development
is deciding which pieces warrant
inclusion. Select items that are clearly
representative of your skill base and
expertise. Keep in mind that some
clients require permission to promote
work that you’ve completed for them,
so get written approval prior to creat-
ing your portfolio or self-promotion
items in which their work will appear.
Depending on your level of expertise;
be sure to include enough elements
within your portfolio that capture the
breadth of your creative genius.
p l a n n i n G c R E A T I N G i m p l e m e nt i n G
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the Do’s of Portfolio
Creation
•••
Make it relevant. Your portfolio
needs to be relevant to the
audience. Include only those
portfolio-worthy elements that
really shine. Your portfolio
should be streamlined,
incorporating only the most
pertinent examples of your
work.
•••
Make it timely. Ever walk into
a doctor’s office only to find
an array of year-old maga-
zines awaiting your perusal?
No one wants to read old
news. The same can be said
for old portfolio content.
•••
Make it understandable.
There is no one standard
way to organize a portfolio,
but to be effective, it needs
to be understandable and
meaningful to your audience.
Choose elements that provide
a complete picture of your
professional skills and abilities.
•••
Remember that the docu-
ments in a portfolio are not
meant to tell the whole story.
Rather, the elements featured
are intended to pique the
viewers’ interest and invite
them to ask more questions.
√π
A fourteen-page concertina showcases
the company’s portfolio. The concertina
is divided into two sections, “Work” and
“Play.” The Work section features corporate
projects, while the Play section features
personal projects and work for clients who
specialize in fun products and services.
c reative Spark
p l a n n i n G
c R E A T I N G
i m p l e m e n t i n G
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Design Parameters
SHOWCASI NG YO U R C R EATIVE CAP ITAL
Artists, advertising creatives, designers, architects, photographers, fashion designers, and writers have been using
portfolios as their primary promotional vehicle for centuries. Perhaps even Leonardo da Vinci had a portfolio of sorts when
he was commissioned to paint the Sistine Chapel. A well-thought-out portfolio can be a very effective marketing tool—one
that is imperative when landing that ideal job or next client.
According to Jeff Johnson, founder of
Spunk Design Machine, today’s high-
end portfolios are efficient and very
affordable to produce. That’s because
the advent of high-end, reliable, digital
book printing and binding has really
democratized the quality leave-behind
portfolio options. “Companies like
Bookmobile, Blurb, and others now
provide excellent hard-bound, low-
quantity, and low-cost book manu-
facturing,” Johnson says. This trend
is also sometimes aptly called “vanity
books,” as they allow an independent
designer or design student the option
of designing and publishing a great
hard-bound portfolio that can double
as a leave-behind.
“That’s on the good side of the fence,”
Johnson says. “On the bad side is
the sole reliance on online portfolios
to represent one’s work. I regret this
trend. A big part of the job of any
good designer is lending distinction
to the work at hand. The options for
creating a lively, honest, and distinc-
tive portfolio are endless. A website,
however grand, is still just a website. I
really cherish the care for the artifact.
We live, and choose options, in a real
3-D world.
“On the sunny side, the Internet has
really done a lot for democratizing ac-
cess for designers. Internet access to
design media has allowed our Spunk
Design Machine to compete and
succeed on a global scale,” he adds.
“For a small boutique like ours, having
a diverse client base is a must. Our
online portfolio allows our work to
travel where we can’t, or won’t. We
have clients in Mexico, Switzerland,
Ireland, Japan, etc. The smaller, cre-
atively focused studios have a distinct
advantage, as the barriers for delivery
of quality of work have been radically
eliminated in less than a decade. It’s
been a real game changer. Last year,
we opened our first branch office in
New York City. I had experienced a
really difficult, and ultimately unsuc-
cessful, design office expansion from
Minneapolis to New York City with
another great design company in the
mid-’90s. The technical ease of our
current studio expansion is due, in no
small part, to the maturity of remote
digital media access. Our clients can
see our work in any number of cities
and decide if our work is a potential
fit. The remote studio option is just
one more decision maker for the
potential client,” Johnson notes.
P L A N N I N G C R E A T I N G I M P L E M E NT I N G
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THE DON’TS OF PORTFOLIO CREATION, BY JEFF JOHNSON
When I got into the design world
after graduating in 1992, it was
common to see some pretty mondo-
crazy portfolio creations—mine being
probably one of the worst and largest.
The portfolio I brought to MTV, Push
Pin Group, CSA, David Lance Goines,
Duffy, etc., weighed in at 70 pounds—
I’m not kidding. It even included a full
20 × 30-inch [51 × 76 cm] zinc plate,
and I manufactured my own carrying
harness. I just had to have that hand-
etched zinc plate, don’tcha know.
My second portfolio that I took to New
Zealand in 1998 was only slightly
less stupid. This one was made as a
metaphoric handshake. The portfolio
was an old powder-coated electrical
switch box with a ceramic hand bolted
to the box. The hand was an old
rubber glove mold I found at a surplus
store. One could flip open the switch
box and review the work. It mostly
looked like a Trent Reznor nightmare.
Today’s portfolio model is an easy
leave-behind piece that holds a DVD
of more expanded work.
π®
Two of the portfolios that Jeff Johnson
utilized during the early years of his career—
albeit memorable, they simply didn’t offer the
streamlined approach of today’s portfolios.
S P u N k DESIGN MAchINE
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It’s a Digital World
LET YOUR FINGERS DO THE WALKING
Websites say a lot about a company,
so their appearance and functional-
ity is critical to the business they
represent. We all know that Web use
has grown at a phenomenal rate and
projections are higher yet. Even your
plumber has his own website. You see
the trend and know where you need
to be. But how do you use the Web as
a portfolio tool?
According to Neil Tortorella,
marketing consultant and founder of
Tortorella Design, technology and,
in particular, the Internet, has had a
tremendous impact on portfolios.
“It’s a 24/7/365 world now,”
Tortorella says. “Art directors,
employers, and clients can view
online books at their leisure, search
for exactly what they need (medium,
style, specialization, etc.), and create
their short list faster than ever.”
The Web has also significantly
increased the competition. There are
numerous portfolio sites with scores
and scores of portfolios. It’s tough to
stand out. Competition is no longer
local, regional, or even national. It’s
international. Designers now compete,
daily, with others across the globe
who can often work for a lot less,
while still producing good design.
According to Laura Hamlyn, creative
director at Clean Design, online
portfolios are simply expected these
days. Even PDF versions of designer
portfolios feel a little “analog.”
“Earlier on, online portfolios were
purely for convenience’s sake—to
ensure your work is easy to access,”
Hamlyn says. “Today, online portfolios
serve as a way to showcase Web
design capabilities. Clean Design
uses our online portfolio as a way to
showcase fresh work. It does not cost
a thing to post new work online as
often as we can.”
Tortorella agrees: “On the upside,
technology has made it possible to
have your portfolio available online all
day, every day.” Digital media enables
designers to easily distribute samples
of their work. Plus, enewsletters,
blogs, the myriad of social networking
sites, along with sites like Flickr and
Google’s Picasa, have given design-
ers a host of mediums to display
their work to a larger audience.
These outlets can, in turn, point to a
designer’s website, where visitors can
see additional work or larger versions,
read case studies, and learn more
about the designer or firm.
Marketing and promotion via the
Internet is easier and much more
cost-effective than in the past. Sites
such as Jigsaw.com and Spoke.com
make finding targeted prospects a
snap. Online press-release distribution
services get a designer’s news out
to a broader audience, often for free.
Business networking sites, such as
LinkedIn.com and Biznik.com, keep
people connected and offer them
a vehicle to obtain introductions to
prospects and promote themselves
through their profiles, articles,
answers to member questions, and
such. Social networking, when used
correctly, can also be a promotional
tool. There’s more to Twitter and
Facebook than telling the world you’re
having a bad hair day.
“Add blogging into the mix and there’s
more opportunity,” Tortella says. Blog
topics can be case studies, how-tos,
tips about working with a designer, or
other design- and marketing-related
content that would be helpful to both
clients and prospects.
Beyond this, website and enewslet-
ter traffic statistics help designers
determine what content is important
to prospects. This enables them to
place promotional messages within a
page’s content or sidebar or help to
drive traffic to other pages, as needed.
P L A N N I N G C R E A T I N G I M P L E M E NT I N G
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