Final Portfolios

After taking into account the comments and suggestions made at my various portfolio reviews, I have chosen my final portfolio pieces and reached a way of organizing and arranging them on each spread. I started with the presentation portfolio and adapted the project arrangement to the email portfolio (which also takes my stationary system into account) and by Behance site. With the way my portfolios and stationary system turned out, I have more confidence that I will be able to impress future employers.

You can see all of my final documents and portfolio pages on the "Final Documents" tab featured at the top.

Final Portfolio Reviews

I had a few of my coworkers review my portfolio today. I wanted to get as many people to look at it as possible so I know what I need to do to make it better. In addition to receiving a lot of good feedback, presenting my portfolio to them also gave me some insight into what it is like to be in an interview with a group of people. I'm not sure how my interviews will be in the future, so learning how to show my portfolio to a table of people is good practice in case I am in that situation in the future. Much of the feedback I received from them was similar to what I have heard from other people, so I know what I need to fix. The main thing being that I need to make my images larger. I also heard some new feedback about other items I could include from work I have done during my internship. I learned that it is probably a good idea to include other work I have helped on, but not necessarily designed myself to show that I know how to be detail-oriented and know how the process of updating other designs works.

In addition to printing new print-outs for my portfolio, I am also going to be printing all of my stationary system items. I finished designing each of the pieces including some additional pieces (like a reference sheet and a sample bid sheet). Other than that, I also need to print my design statement and project briefs on my stationary system, and I should be just about done.

In-Class Portfolio Review

During the portfolio review I had in class, I learned that I needed to change quite a bit of my portfolio. All in all, the pieces presented were good, but the way they were presented could've been better. The main thing I am going to do is reprint everything and make the images larger. I had a lot of blank space on each of the pages, so this could be better used if the images and pieces filled more of the space. It was also mentioned that I should include some sort of website design. I have the mobile app design, but my portfolio would be more well-rounded if I included some web work. I am in the process of designing a website for my graphic design project, so I will include that website design along with the other pieces of that project. I also realized that there are some pieces that would be better replaced with others. I know for sure that one piece has to go to make room for the graphic design independent project. I haven't decided yet if including the Ad Capstone Plans Book is a good replacement for something or not. When presenting it, I could easily talk about the leadership role I had while working on the project (which I'm not sure I talk about with any other piece in my portfolio). I plan on enlarging all of the photos and various pieces today, and will hopefully have the final version ready to go early on this week.

Job Application

Over last weekend, I put in my first job application! Since I will be going back home to Illinois soon after graduation, I have been job searching for jobs around the area I will be living. More specifically, I have been looking into various advertising agencies. I found one agency I really liked, so I did some research on them. The size of the agency seems just right (not to big, but not completely small), and their list of clients seems interesting to me, so I would enjoy working with each of them. One other part that interested me was that they mentioned on their website that they were hiring! I applied for one of the open positions, so hopefully I'll be hearing back from them soon. Even if I don't get an interview, I think I will still like to keep in contact with them, so once I get into town, I'll set up some portfolio review with them. By then, I will have had several portfolio reviews already, so I will feel comfortable talking about each of my pieces. I am also in the process of developing some sort of leave-behind for when I do interviews and portfolio reviews. I have a couple ideas of various pieces I could make, but I haven't settled on anything yet.

Portfolio and Critiques

Over the weekend, I worked a lot on getting my portfolio done and ready for this week because I have scheduled to have several portfolio reviews before the one for class next Tuesday. I actually started with my email portfolio first since I have solidified my stationary system. Once I had arranged what I wanted in the email portfolio, I knew which images I wanted to include in my presentation portfolio. Before I arranged everything, I also took some new photographs of my projects so I could keep the style of them consistent. Along with arranging my portfolio and email portfolio, I have also spent the last few weeks putting together my online Behance portfolio. I feel good about how each of them turned out, although I might make some changes before next Tuesday once I get some feedback from a few people. Although I chose to use Behance as my online portfolio, I am also in the process of purchasing a domain name and working on creating my own website. I will also continue on working on the extra pieces for my stationary system such as the reference sheet and bid sheet, but for now I am in a good place.

Link to my Behance site: http://www.behance.net/elizabeth_wood

Spread from my email portfolio

Revised Stationary System

Getting some feedback from class last week was really helpful in moving forward with my stationary system and logo. Since I had multiple options on a few of my pieces, it was nice to have other people look at them and let me know their opinions on which were best. I'm pretty much set on all of the pieces (cover letter, resume, business card, thank you letter), so I only need to get some more information and do a little tweaking for the extra pieces such as the reference sheet and bid sheet. Now that I've solidified my logo and stationary system, I've started to piece together my email portfolio using the same theme. I need to take a few more pictures of my projects this weekend, but after that, everything should be done. I'm planning on doing my portfolio reviews next week so I have time to make a few tweaks before the final portfolio review on the 24th. Overall, things are finally starting to come together!

cover letter

resume

business card (front and back)

thank you letter (front and back)

Speaker Notes | Phil McCollam

Listening to Phil speak about his career process and seeing some of his work was really entertaining. What he was saying was relevant to everyone in our class, but it was also just fun to listen to him because he was so excited about what he was talking about. I thought that the various "tips" that he gave throughout the presentation were helpful as well. The first tip of "be clear, concise, and have a goal" is something that I try to make sure I keep in mind when I am designing, especially since I try to keep things simple in each of my designs. The fifth tip he mentioned was also good to hear because he said that we should "have a hobby that isn't design." People who know about other things outside of design are better designers overall since they know more about the world and what they're designing for. I thought it was interesting how he showed some of his work that he wasn't necessarily proud of, but showed them anyway because there was a good story behind it. I think that just shows that even if a design isn't perfect, it can still show your ability as a designer if there was another situation involved while designing it that can showcase other skills.