How to Create a Traditional Graphic Design Portfolio

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Why Do You Need a Portfolio, Book, or String Book
Writers might call them “string books”, artists might call them a “book”, but in most cases, they are called “portfolios”. In what kind of situations would you need to have a portfolio? If you are a graphic designer or other creative professional, a portfolio is a MUST. A portfolio is a collected sample of your work and there is no better way to showcase your design talents. In this respect, I would say that a portfolio is for everyone in all lines of work, but especially for creatives and freelancers. A portfolio is a professional way to share projects that you are familiar with to a prospective employer. In the past, only graphic designers, artists, and writers moved from job to job. Now, most of us only stay at a job a few years before moving on to a new position. A portfolio is a perfect way to showcase the multitude of projects you have worked on in your job experiences.

How Might an Employer Want to See in Your Freelance Portfolio

(1) Online Portfolio
(2) Drop-off Portfolio
(3) Portfolio Review
(4) Mailing Portfolio

All clients are different, so you should be ready for all scenarios when you are applying for a graphic design job. I will now summarize each scenario, and later on I will go into each option with much more detail.
(1) Online Freelance Portfolio

An online portfolio is a must these days, especially if you are preparing for an online job hunt. An online portfolio is very similar to a traditional portfolio, except with many perks. (For example, images can’t get wet and damaged when they are stored in an online portfolio.)

The ease of viewing an online portfolio, in comparison to traditional methods, makes this a preferred method in most cases. Employers are always in a hurry these days, and waiting around for a mailed portfolio usually doesn’t cut it anymore. So I suggest placing samples online somewhere, even if it is just through a free service.

In some cases, employers might search through potential candidates on freelance or portfolio sites. You should try to get yourself on as many online directories as you can. The more sites that you are listed on, the more likely that you will be found. At the end of this portfolio series, we will list sites that you should try to get listed on. (Try allfreelance.com for a large list of freelance jobboards.)

(2) Drop-off Freelance Portfolio

Yes, I am talking about dropping off your precious baby. Dropping off my portfolio has never been my favorite thing to do, but some companies insist on doing business this way. Additionally, some art directors will only look at books on certain days of the week and specific hours of the day. You might also have a scheduled hour that you need to pick up your portfolio.

If the art director is impressed with your portfolio, an interview might be arranged. Otherwise, you might have inserts within your portfolio with critiques of your work. Use the critiques as a learning experience. Most likely, the art director knows what he or she is talking about. You might even land a job with this company at a later time if you take advice from the hiring hand. Later on in this series I will go over with you how to set up your portfolio for drop-off.
(3) Freelance Portfolio Review

A portfolio review is essentially an interview where you present your portfolio. Unlike the “drop-off” scenario, here you will need to present not only your talents but your social skills.
Make sure that you are confident of your talents and leave behind a good first impression. Take these suggestions with you:

- Rehearse First.
- Be on Time.
- Dress for the occasion.
- Shake interviewer’s hand firmly with the opposite hand that you are holding your portfolio case.
- Don’t sit until a chair is offered.
- Address interviewer formally.
- Look employer directly in eyes when speaking (not in a creepy way).
- Try to weed out the “ums”.
- Bring all materials that are needed, such as your portfolio, extra resumes, references, business cards, pen, paper, etc.
- Pass out business cards at the end of the interview.
- Thank the interviewer.
- Stand out from other candidates and send a “Thank-you” card.
(4) Mailing Freelance Portfolio

“Ahh!! This is even worse than dropping off my portfolio!!” Don’t worry, everything will be okay. You won’t be mailing original artwork. Instead, you should duplicate original artwork. There are many ways to do this:

- Tearsheets
- Photostats
- C-prints
- Photocopies or Printing
- Transparencies
- Photography
- CD or Disk

I will go over all of the above later.
What should you do if you have no professional examples to place in your portfolio?

If you are in a situation where you don’t have any professional samples to place into your portfolio, then you obviously have a lot of work to do. You might be able to get away with placing classroom projects into your “book”, but you would have a much better chance with “real world” samples. Below, please find suggestions on building your graphic design sample-base.
Have No Previous Graphic Design Experience or Portfolio Pieces? There are several ways that you can build up your portfolio:
**Get a Great Portfolio Piece : First Time Give Away -

Offer your graphic design services for free first-time orders. Seek out small business owners and offer your services for free. Explain that if they like your services the next consultation will come with a fee. If the client likes your work, you might have found yourself steady work or better yet, he might refer people to you. Remember to always finish a project by asking the client if they know of any potential clients that you could contact.

Volunteer your design services for free to local community organizations where you live. This is a great way to build up your portfolio. Look in your phone book for religious, educational, social, and political organizations. You can also try Volunteer Match. Most nonprofit organizations would be thrilled to get something for free considering their budget is probably pretty tight. Try to negotiate into the deal that as payment you would like to have your business name and phone number on the finished piece (and if you have a website url, this should be printed on the finished product too). This is very fair. This might be a great way to drum up business and get a great sample for your portfolio at the same time.

For example, if you offer your design services to a church. There are probably a dozen small business owners in the congregation. Maybe one or two will take notice and ask about you.

**Get a Great Portfolio Piece : Hire Yourself First

Surely your own business could use your services so hire yourself. If you are a designer, you can create promotional materials for your business such as business cards, promotional brochures, letterhead, etc. If you are a writer, maybe you can write up promotional literature for your business. Of course, I don’t know what your profession is, but try to find a way to put yourself to work.

**Get a Great Portfolio Piece : Dummy Samples / Mockups
As a last resort, you can create fictitious examples of your work. This could work for all professionals, but I am more familiar with this in the design industry. Create dummy brochures, newsletters, logos, and other pieces to demonstrate your range of skills. If you can show a potential client with mockups that you have the talent that they are looking for, then go for it. (For Designers) Even though this seems such a waste of your time, you can use these documents as templates for real projects that you will have in the future.

**Get a Great Portfolio Sample : Web Search

Do a search on the web for websites that you feel could use your service. Look for bad design layouts. If you consider yourself a web designer offer to redesign the website for free. If you are a graphic designer, offer to design this company’s brochure or flyers. If you are a web marketer, look for nice sites that are hard to find in the search engines. Look for bad copy if you are a copywriter. Don’t offer your free services out to everyone until you get a “yes” or “no” response; otherwise you might get ten “yes” answers.

**Introduce Yourself

Search and find other professional’s websites and email them. Introduce yourself and your services to them. Let them know that you are available for work if they ever need to outsource. Ask questions. How long have you been freelancing? Where do you find clients? What is your specialty? Would they want extra work you have in the future? Etc.
Put Together Graphic Design Samples for Your Portfolio

Once you are more aware of what the hiring company wants from you, you will be able to put together samples that you can be confident displaying to the interviewer. Remember to only choose 10 - 15 samples. You don’t want to overwhelm the interviewer with too many samples.

Research Employer / Client for More Information

Each time that you apply for a position and you are called in for a portfolio review or drop-off, you should research the hiring company for more information. Normally a job ad isn’t enough information to find out what the employer is really looking for in a good portfolio. At the minimum, you will need to get the phone number, company’s name, and address. From this information, you can hopefully gain access to verifiable details about this business. From this information, you should do research on the Internet. If you are a web designer, You will need to find out if the business in question has a web site. What colors and style form do they use? Does this business have sample brochures online to download or have mailed to you? Does this company have any other job listings online? Take a look at all of their job ads, you might be able to see more of what this company is about.

** Tearsheets

- Tearsheets are pages torn from a magazine, newspaper, or other published material. If something of yours is published in a publication, purchase many of them so you can keep them for your portfolio.

** C-Prints

- Color Prints (also called c-prints) need to be produced professionally by a custom lab. Take a color negative or interneg to a custom lab and tell the rep that you want a full page C-Print. The quality of the C-print will not be so great because you are enlarging from slide size to full page size. I don’t recommend using this method, but if it is your last resort, go for it.

** Printouts

Go to your local service bureau and bring your digital files there to have printed out. Printouts from a quality service bureau are very similar to printouts from a quality printing press.


** Photographs

- If your original design is unable to go into your portfolio than you can take a quality photograph and place it in your portfolio. However, there is nothing more unprofessional than a shoddy photography, so you will want to do it right. We will cover photographing your work later in this series.

**Slide transparencies in plastic sheets

(20 per sheet, or loaded tray ready for showing) - This is a good way to display your portfolio if you are a photographer. Otherwise, unless the interviewer says it is okay beforehand, don’t assume that you can display your portfolio with

[joolifinaa]

Its really nice information to Create a Traditional Graphic Design Portfolio.The graphic designers fall prey to the instinct to innovate when they create their first graphic design portfolios.Although it is natural to put together the most innovative designs that we can, many young graphic designers often confused their portfolios as places to innovate and show off new designs.