How should I send my portfolio in for an agency job? You have to expect that all candidates are going to have a degree, or a certain amount of experience, and a good portfolio. I was told after my interview at an advertising agency in 2014 that one of the reasons I was hired was because of a specific blog post that I had recently written. Having a blog is also a really good part of telling your story as a designer as it shows that you can speak about design and that you are a good writer. It also adds to context to what you are interested in, or any creative endeavors that you have experimented with. Things like Instagram or Twitter show a depth of work as well as an evolution over time. I think that when you are marketing yourself as a designer, social media is simply a part of the story. Quality over quantity every time.Ĭan I use my Social Media pages, like Instagram, as a portfolio? If I receive a portfolio with 15 projects, and 8 are amazing but 7 range between OK and not that good, I would overlook that designer for a candidate that shows 5 projects and all 5 projects are amazing. I’ve hired designers already, so I’ve seen my fair share of portfolios. I personally cull jobs from my portfolio every few months as I add new work that I think better represents me as a designer. This should be evolving and changing as time goes by. Add what you think is the best representation of your abilities as a designer. I have a lot of work to put in my portfolio, should I add all? You just need to do the work and get it done. Point is, there are a lot of ways to get actual, produced work to show in your portfolio. If no one is willing to pay you to do the work – find a friend that needs design work find a client with no budget that might be willing to do a service/goods exchange get an internship or a junior position do some work for a charitable organization. The most typical follow up to the first question is that, “yes I want to do brand identities (or whatever other design niche) but I’ve never done any work in that niche so I have nothing to show.” Simple solution…go do it.
I want to design (insert any design niche here) but I don’t have any experience, so have no examples to include in my portfolio. If your dream is to create album art for clients, you need to show a portfolio that has album cover designs (or at the very least, work that shows that you have the capabilities to design album covers.) The billboard that you designed, no matter how great of a billboard it is, will not add credence to your quest in becoming a brand identity designer. If you want to be hired to create brand identities, then you need to show in your portfolio that you can create brand identities. The simple answer is to only include work that you want to be hired to do. This is one of the more common questions that I see being asked. Here are some questions that I have received in the past about portfolios: I get a lot of questions from designers looking for advice or tips on how to put together the perfect portfolio to get hired (either by agencies or by potential clients.) Creating a good portfolio can pose a challenge to designers of all levels and figuring out what you should and shouldn’t include can be a painstaking process. It is the visual representation of what you have done and achieved in your design career. You can have a good resumé or a degree from a top art school, but if your portfolio falls flat you will most likely miss out on a lot of jobs. A designer’s portfolio is basically the “proof in the pudding” that both clients and agencies look at before deciding if to hire you or not.