Real Life Portfolio, how should it look?
polycounter lvl 10
So just recently I went on my "first interview" in a local minor media company and I was told to bring along my work to show them. At first I didn't bother thinking about it until the last day, when it suddenly came to me. How the hell does a portfolio really look like? My idea was just to print some paper and that's it, I thought that this would look really bad just coming with a stack of paper in one hand.
So my question is, how does a portfolio look like? Does it matter what type of paper is used? Does it matter how the portfolio look? Do you have a portfolio, if so how does it look? Would love if you guys could share some pictures.
The idea I have at the moment is to use photo paper and your own designed portfolio.
So my question is, how does a portfolio look like? Does it matter what type of paper is used? Does it matter how the portfolio look? Do you have a portfolio, if so how does it look? Would love if you guys could share some pictures.
The idea I have at the moment is to use photo paper and your own designed portfolio.
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Thought about getting a laptop, but seems like a physical portfolio is still a good thing to keep around.
Awesome link, pretty much answered all my questions. Thanks mate.
Is there any particular reason you don't have an online portfolio?
In any case printed should be fine, but Ipad IMHO might be better.
(as an artist you might be aware of how your art degrades when being printed)
When we do interviews we normally have one set up in the conference room and pull up the persons site and pump it through the projector onto the whiteboard wall so everyone can see but we still end up ordering whoever is "driving" to "go back", "go forward", "look at the next gallery", "no no the other one!"
It also saved the person from having to setup a bunch of cords and mess with wi-fi and network settings. Our IT guy doesn't like a bunch of unchecked machines jumping on and off our network, especially a bunch of out of work artists who have been portfolio building with who knows what from who knows where...
A ipad would be cool, decent viewing angle, wireless and not dependent on their network, although you might have to worry about getting a signal. It can be placed on the table for everyone to interact with. The screen might be a bit small, and if you don't have one it can be an expensive toy when you're out of work. But I might bring that up the next time we do interviews.
In a pinch you might be able to pull it up on your smart phone?
As someone walking into an interview I would feel better having some nice quality prints in a black case. It helps to have a few copies of your resume and references to pass out.
Having a nice printed portfolio is a great back up and gets the message across with as little fuss as possible and won't ever leave you without something to show. So while all the tech is great and can be pretty slick, so is being prepared for anything.
Bottom line this is all pretty minor stuff and it shouldn't distract you from putting the great art in your portfolio because all the flashy crap in the world can't make bad art look good...
I used to have one legitimate reason, the name I wanted used to be taken. But is available now. And then there is always that "my art is not good enough" thinking.
Yeah I noticed that when I printed, the colors were all wrong and really washed out. Don't know if I just had weird settings or a bad printer but it looked really bad.
I see, well then I better get on creating an online portfolio. I thought about getting an Ipad instead of getting a laptop. Since it would be easier to carry around and friendlier to use then a laptop.
At the moment I'm using my phone when asked about my stuff. But since I bought a cheap one my screen is really small and I wouldn't really want to pop that up in an interview. But I think an Ipad would be better and make more sense. Just have it as a extra tool in case they would want to see more and does not have an computer with them.
But bottom line, a simple case is perfectly fine. Thanks for all the helpful information.