Research? Why would I need a thing like that?

Designing A Digital Portfolio by Cynthia Baron

Chapter 3 –

In this chapter Barron emphasizes the importance of research. When I thought about being a designer I totally let this aspect fly right over my head. Yet, now when I am told about its application it makes perfect sense. When you are sending your portfolio to different companies it is important to look at the companies and what kind of work they do. They are already established, so it should be easy to find things they are connected with. This is key to find out what kind of work they do so you can tailor your portfolio around those types of pieces. You also want to be sure that you are doing the work that you like and are good at. It is pointless to get a job you are going to hate or make you look bad. It is important to find a company that you will fit in with. You also can look at company statistics to see if they hold any opportunity for you. How the company operates and what kind of people work there may have an affect on which jobs you will wish to cater your portfolio to.

There are many places that you can look to find information on various companies and employment opportunities. Magazines have is a great resource to flip through and gather information about various companies and their mode of operations. Quinnipiac University has their hands in a lot of places. At the very least, it has countless graduates that are already working in the field. Along with teachers who stay in contact, gathering a group of contacts from my college career could prove to be very useful down the road. You can speak with fellow designers in different areas to get feedback on your portfolio or information about up and coming jobs. Tie that in with smart web searching (using Boolean operations) and I have valuable resources that will help steer me to the right company that works for me.

Chapter 4 –
In chapter 4 Barron beings to discuss the different kinds of portfolio formats and how employers view each type. It is juggling formats for what situation your in to get the best quality image. CDs are good for portfolios because it is a very common medium. The ability of a CD-RW to rewrite information as your portfolio changes is a huge plus. A DVD and DVD-RW is good to show high quality animations or demo reels. This is due to their huge capacity and ability to be changed easily. Your very own laptop might be one of the safest ways to ensure a smooth presentation but it is not the safest. It is dangerous to be carrying around your livelihood from place to place. If anything happened to your computer, like dropped it in a puddle while it was raining, could really hinder the growth or your career. On the other hand, you know how your machine works. You are able to test and rehearse the presentation so you know it will work flawlessly. You have to take into consideration if you will be presenting on your laptop screen or a project of sorts, because viewing it on your screen may not do your work justice. If you can eliminate potential issues with using other peoples machines and use your own machine to display your work, then it is a plus in my eyes.

Emailing your portfolio to a potential client or employer says a few different things. First off, it shows your initiative. It sets up an intimate setting where just you and your potential employer/client can go back and forth. It lets them know that you want to work with them and that you took the time to figure out who they are and what they stand for. A personal website is another online medium that will allow you to use more self-expression. This way, the viewer can get a feel for your style and personality through the way you decided to package yourself. You can also add all of your portfolios from other parts of the field easily so they can see in one swoop all the skills you have.

One of the comments in the chapter saved me a lot of heartache. I have been learning photographer since freshman year in high school. I have compounded a fairly large bank of digital photos that I have taken over the years. It is something that has strengthened my design eye and allows me to be expressive in a medium besides the Adobe Suite. The comment reiterated the fact that you must be precise with your portfolio, and if need be, make multiple portfolios for different areas of work. Layla Keramat made the point that just adding photos to a design portfolio isn’t going to aid you in convincing your potential employer that your good at design. It doesn’t do your photography justice or your design work. Rather, make two that specialize and show off your strengths in each area. This is definitely the route that I am going to take. I will have a separate photography portfolio that I can update and use when needed instead of confusing people with unrelated material.

This chapter also brings up good points about making multiple portfolios of work that looks best on each medium. After you conceptualize a theme and get a cohesive feel to your body of work you can create the same material in different mediums. This way you ensure all mediums are cohesive in relation to one another and you can select what one would be the most useful for what type of presentation you will be conducting. This also leaves the ability to redefine your identity as a designer through developing your previous work to fit a new portfolio. You might be on a job where you learn a skill or ability that allows you to go back and make previous work better or change the feel to a more concrete concept. This is good to keep in mind if you hit a crossroad in your career and decide to switch areas of design. This way, you will be able to redefine some of your work and add it with new material for a new portfolio.