Portfolio PDFs

FCB

Member
Hi all,


I'm looking for a jnr. design role & I was just wondering if anyone has any advice on how to present samples of your work to employers.

For example, how many pages should it be? How many samples should be added? Should it have a front & back cover? Should it be cmyk? etc.

Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks.
 
Oh, I just thought if it's worth considering making the sample portfolio and interactive pdf.
 
A few basic tips based on my own experience/opinions:

Photograph your work if you can
Well-shot photographs of printed work are much better than digital mock ups. They need to be shot well, with decent lighting and a half-decent camera though. Crappy, flat digicam shots probably won't do.

One page for each project
Avoid multiple pages for projects, unless it's a large, impressive project and you can perhaps can split it into a section of it's own.

12 – 15 projects in total
This is debatable, different people have different opinions, but you probably need to include more work than you think. Potential employers want to see that you're capable of working in a range of mediums and capacities. Avoid boring people though. Keep you work short and snappy.

Provide context
Give a short (and I stress SHORT) description of the project. What is it, what does it do, how is it portfolio worthy? Just give enough for someone who's seeing it for the first time understands what it is.

Only include your best work
Goes without saying. If you're not happy with it, get rid.

Include personal work too
Not everything you do has to be clean, brief-driven work for clients. Include personal projects and messy experiments to show some of you personality and creative thinking. From my own experience, the weird stuff I produce in a couple of hours is the stuff that creative directors have been most taken by because it's so loose and different.

Only include recent work
That project you did three years ago might be pretty impressive, but a lot changes in 3 years. Your work should be just as impressive now as it was back then (even more so!)

Keep the file size small
When you're emailing a PDF, keep it under 4mb to ensure it gets through.

Include contact details
The number of people who forget this is incredible.

I'll add more when I'm not in a hurry!
 
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