iPad as a graphics portfolio? Am I crazy?

G

garrison

New Member
Hey guys,

I have recently moved to London in search of green graphics pastures and find myself living out of a box (god bless London rent prices). This means that I have next to no space for mounting, printing, etc so constructing a full sized A3 portfolio is going to be tricky.

I do in fact have a lovely matt black screw bound portfolio, I am simply concerned about space. I had a flash of inspiration while brousing the blogs the other day that an iPad could actually make a brillient portfolio. Touch screen, easily updated, no need for printing and very portable. Simply hand it to the interviewers and let their fingers do the rest.

Does anyone think this idea has merrit or will it simply come across as jumping on the back of the new fa and seem tacky?

Thoughts anyone?

Thank in advance for your time.

g
 
Good to know I am not the only one who thinks so. I have considered the cost though when you take into consideration printing costs, paper, ink etc it does become more cost effective. Coupled with the convenience I think it might just be a winner.
 
I think it's a great idea. And you might be surprised to hear you're not the first to have it :)

Only downside I can see is some people you show work to might dislike the 'fad' aspect, might prefer to see things on paper due to being 'old school', and the size may limit you in some ways.

Let us know how you get on!

/Doug
 
Sounds like a great idea and in the ever-growing technological world we live in seems like it could be the way forward :icon_wink:
 
I was thinking the same, my only concern is with the iPad being such a new device, if you are presenting your portfolio to a prospective client, the emphasis could shift to the iPad itself rather than the artwork you are showing off. But at the same time, I guess as a talking point it could serve as a good icebreaker.

Once the iPad is a little more widespread and more people have them, I see it as the perfect portfolio.
 
The more I think about it the more i like the idea. I really dont have the space to construct an A3 portfolio right now and im not sure what other options I have available to me. If anyone has any thoughts on that one I would be thrilled to hear them.

Thanks for all the replies.

g
 
If I could afford it, I'd be doing it. I think that it's another way of people warming to you in a way. Like someone said, big ice-breaker and they might have you round again so they can have another go :icon_tongue_smilie:
 
I think this kind of portfolio depends on who you're pitching to - I think it'd be great for a media/digital agency. But those in print/branding etc may prefer the old touchy-feely approach with nice papers etc.
 
There's nothing quite as nice as a printed visual. I've done the A3, A4, A0 (student days) folios and the plastic sleeve thing, but for the past 5+ years I've simply printed projects onto 170-210gsm paper and when I've needed to present I've chosen relevent project pages and simply had them loose in a nice polyprop folder. The client gets to handle the work, you can pick and choose depending on the way the meeting goes, you've chosen your best bits and not struggled with a hefty folio to get there. And if the page gets tatty, then you can print another one!

Save your money on the iPad if this is the sole reason for buying one.

:)
 
@pcbranding

That is something I have been debating for some time actually. A nice A4 box with prints in archive sleeves would still work nicely wouldnt it?
 
Why bother with the sleeves? They look like what they are and they are far too plasticky in my opinion.
Let the client handle the paper/card itself - print out another one when it gets tatty.

Spend the money from the sleeves on some nice paper.
 
I actually think the iPad portfolio is brilliant..in fact so brilliant I'm considering it myself! It will show you're 'in' with the current trends an so on.
It's portable, easy to use and you can store umpteen images on it. I do think it's wise to have a printed version though, as like mentioned before, it would depend who you're presenting to.
I think the biggest issue with the iPad is indeed the cost, by the time I've managed to save up enough for one, they'll be out of date, proper old news!
 
Pinkdot Creative said:
I actually think the iPad portfolio is brilliant..in fact so brilliant I'm considering it myself! It will show you're 'in' with the current trends an so on.
It's portable, easy to use and you can store umpteen images on it. I do think it's wise to have a printed version though, as like mentioned before, it would depend who you're presenting to.
I think the biggest issue with the iPad is indeed the cost, by the time I've managed to save up enough for one, they'll be out of date, proper old news!
Click to expand...

Having seen one, I think the biggest problem would be size - if you're showing to more than one person, they aren't going to be able to see the work.
 
Nice idea, but are you buying an ipad just for that reason? I just use the laptop, yes its not as nice as an ipad but does the job and I don't have to fork out £500.
 
Haven't had a chance to look at the iPad's colour management credentials yet. If it handles colour the same way the iPhone4 does, then using it for a portfolio might be very frustrating. If it handles it the same way Safari does on a Mac... then no probs.

In case it's of interest, here's an article that compares how Safari, IE, Firefox and the iPhone4 handle colour management. I don't run an iPad but if you browse to the first link in the article on an iPad I'd be interested to know what you see!
 
iPad mini handles colour the same way as iPhone 4S, so pretty bad.(no idea about the big/original iPad as I don't have one). I still think an iPad is a great idea of presenting work though, but may be not to potential employers. However, if you don't work on big projects in a team, then where else would you present it, if not to employers/clients?
 
I presented my work to a potential client on an iPad a while back and they were impressed by how good it looked. I opted to do this because I didn't have physical samples of the work which I wanted to show him. I knew a photographer who started to show his potential clients his work on an iPad - he said it helped him to get clients signing up to his services by the time he got back to his studio.
 
I think the idea has some good merits, I'm not a big Apple fan but sometimes I wish I had a digital portfolio to fall back on, sometimes with print work you only get one copy of a piece from your client and if it becomes damaged then it's a goner. Having a digital version of all your work on and Ipad or other tablet would be cool.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top