Computer Arts

improving your design portfolio

throughout your career. The good

news is that you don’t necessarily

have to do a radical redesign.

Simply adding new work will often

be enough to get you a long way.

“As a hirer the thing you really

notice with a more experienced

designer’s portfolio is how stuff ’s

photographed” says St John.

“That’s often because most of it’s

been done at an agency level where

they’ve spent a few thousand on

great photography. So it is usually

quite easy to see the quality over

the student-level work.”

But there is another greater

challenge. Now you have more

work to choose from you need

to put more effort into curating it.

While at student level curation

just means choosing your best

work it’s now time to think more

seriously about what direction you

want to go in future and start

gearing your selection towards that

choice. Doing so will help hirers

have a much better understanding

of where your interests lie and as

a result where you might best fit

in an organisation. Not doing so

in turn may convey a lack of

purpose or direction.

“One of my biggest bugbears is

when people include everything;

try to cover all angles all bases”

says Fortescue. “A portfolio should

demonstrate why you’re a match

for the role you’re looking to fill.

It needs to say: ‘This is why I’m

really the best person for this look

at the work I’ve done.’ Rather than

‘Hey look I do a bit of everything.’”

At this stage recruiters aren’t

just looking for high-quality work

from candidates they’re usually

looking for something specific.

“What really gets me excited is

fit and relevance” says Smith. “Not

just in the kind of work that you’ve

been doing but also in the way you

carry yourself the way you talk

about yourself the personality you

portray. It’s nice to see a portfolio

from someone that seems to have

very similar personality to us as a

company. I can imagine other

agencies that are a bit more serious

might be put off by the portfolios

we get and vice versa. Because it’s

important to fit into the company

culture as well as the sort of work

we do” he explains.

Moving on up

You’ve finally become a senior

designer. With widespread

respect for your work and good

relationships in the industry

putting together a winning

portfolio will be a doddle surely?

Sadly it’s not always that simple.

For a start the more responsibility

you take on within your studio the

more confidentiality agreements

you have to sign and the more

difficult it can be to actually show

what you’ve been working on.

In this case at least peers will

empathise. “It’s often the case that

more experienced designers will be

reluctant to email over confidential

work or have it on their website”

says Smith. “So we’re very aware of

that.” And depending on the client

there are various strategies you can

take to circumvent restrictions

such as showing the work in the

more confidential circumstances

of an interview setting or maybe

restricting it to a password-

protected area of your website.

Perhaps a trickier problem is

that the more senior you become

the less hands-on and the more

strategic and managerial your

involvement in projects gets.

And this can be difficult to convey

in a portfolio. “With senior

candidates it can sometimes

difficult to tangibly distil what they

were responsible for what value

they brought to the project” says

Smith. “And so you find that more

senior people’s portfolios tend to

be less visual as a result.”

Rather than relying on large-

scale images then you may now

need to present your projects more

like a blog or a case study with

concise but careful text explaining

the brief how it was met and the

specific part you played. Again it’s

important to avoid overstating your

blue. And the principle of ‘last

in first out’ normally applies so

as a fresh hire you’re unfortunately

particularly vulnerable.

On a more positive note

perhaps the powers that be have

noticed your great work and are

thinking about promoting you. But

be honest: if a superior suddenly

asked you into their office and

asked to see your latest portfolio

would it be ready for viewing?

Would you be ready to show it?

In short if you want to continue

advancing you’re going to need

to keep updating refining and

“a curated clear concise

bold portfolio is really

the only thing we’re

looking for”

Madeleine FOrte Scue recruitMent

Manager MOving B randS

computerarts.creativebloq.com

indusTry issues spring 2017