Building out your Graphic Design Portfolio

1. Introduction: are you? A graphic designer trying to land that killer job that you've always wanted? Or perhaps you're a freelancer trying to keep your calendar and your schedule busy enough to make enough income that you can pay your bills by the end of the month. Hey, my name is Derek Mitchell. I'm a creative director with over a decade of experience working as a graphic designer and a Web developer. And in this portfolio builder course I want to show you the exact things that employers are looking for to hire you. I'm gonna give you over 20 rial world projects that we can pack your portfolio full of things that's gonna help you stand out way above the competition. On top of that, I'm gonna bring my wife in. Who's the project manager for agency, And she's going to give you really email templates that you can use to help you get that job. When this is all said and done, we're gonna help you build your resume. And on top of that, I'm gonna give you free access to my WordPress portfolio design courses. Well, so not only will you be able to build a print portfolio you also be able to build your online digital presence as well, and we're gonna give you some of the top things to remember when you're interviewing for that job as well. Some of the common pitfalls that you definitely need to avoid this is, of course, it's been on our list for a long time to create. We have over 100,000 students in our graphic design boot camp course, and they always ask us about how to present their work and building their portfolio. So this course is the answer to that, and we're really excited about it. We've been working on this for a really long time, were so pumped that it's finally available for you to join. So don't delay its sign up today. And worst case scenario, you guys has got a 30 day money back guarantee. So for some reason you find out it's not a good fit for you. You can always get your money back, but I think you're gonna love it. And more important than that, I know that these exact steps they're going to get you up and running with amazing, beautiful portfolio that's gonna get you that work that you're looking for 2. Welcome to the Course!: Hey, what's going on? Hey, First of all I want to say thank you so much for joining this course for diving in. If you're watching this welcome video, that means you're on the inside track and I'm first of all, super grateful that you're here. I'm humbled that you want support, of course, is that I'm doing and that you believe in me to be your instructor along the way. More importantly than that, it's not about me. It's about you. And I want to do everything that I can to help you find success in this career path as a graphic designer. So first things I want to point out one is there's the Q and A section. If you have any questions at all, or if anything looks weird in the course, please hit us up. Let us know it's really important to us to have one of the best courses out there for you to build your portfolio. So if you see anything that needs changed or anything, it doesn't make sense. Let us know right away so we can take care of you on that. The next thing I want to point out is that there's different sections along the way. So we're going to start with Cem Theory some best practices as well as just some common tips and tricks to help you wrap your mind around what it takes to build your portfolio. And then we're gonna dive into some of the work. And so what? That part is just gonna be about you doing the work? We're gonna introduce the section as well as the projects, you know what to expect, and then you're gonna dive in, and for you to be the most successful with his course, you just got to do the work. So I encourage you carve out some time. Also, don't get overwhelmed, though, because this is something you're gonna have lifetime access to. And I'm well into my career. I've been using photo shop for over 20 years now. I've been actively employed as a graphic designer for over 12 years now, and it's something that I'm still refining every day. So keep that in mind as you dive in. Use this courses of reference use the community as a way to keep encouraged and motivated, as well as keeping you accountable to do the work and to get help along the way if you ever get stuck. So we're here for you were pumped for you. And I can't wait for you to dive in. So I'm gonna go ahead and shut up the house. You can get into the content. 3. Showing Work That Is Polished (How To Know If Something is good enough to share): How do you know what projects are good enough to share in your portfolio? This is a very common question, and it's something that I get asked all the time. So here's my approach to answering this question for myself. Number one. Use the principles and elements of design as a guide. Art can be so subjective. What one person sees is a masterpiece may look like garbage to somebody else. This was always really difficult for me in my career because I'm the type of personality that wants to do things right, and I want to know the best, most efficient way to do things with art. It's rarely that straightforward, and there could be a 1,000,000 ways to approach the same thing. That's why growing up, I always loved math and science in school because there's usually only one correct answer. Two plus two always equals four. Boom done, problem solved. Moving on with art is just not like that. So again, how do you know what projects are good enough to share? And of these the words good enough on purpose? Because I will always be a moving target and sometimes you just have to get stuff done. We'll talk about that in a bit. But here's my recommendation for you. Use the principles of design paired with some of the basics you probably already know. So, for example, the principle that I most often considered my work our balance, emphasis and unity does it feel balanced? What's being emphasized? And is it conveying the right message? And does it feel unified and tied together nicely with cohesive colors and no more than a couple funds? As far as your work being good enough, like I mentioned earlier, you have to keep in mind that your portfolio is constantly evolving and changing as your skills improve. And as you're able to create newer and better work, filter out the old stuff that's not as appealing anymore or that might not relate to the work you're trying to attract. With that in mind, try not to stress too much first, as you begin to set up your portfolio and fill it with whatever work you have to show. If you keep your portfolio modular and easy to update, this would be something that you look forward to. Instead of dreading number two, consider why the work was made and who had the final say in the design. Most of the work that I have to show was commissioned by somebody else or was created while employed at a company. So with that in mind, a majority of the style of my work was more geared towards solving a client's problem. And, you know, also their personal preferences, and not just something that I felt like I was wanting to create because I was inspired. There are many projects I have where I would have selected a different font or color, but ultimately I wanted to get paid. I had to make sure that it was something that the client were my boss approved off. So with that in mind, what I'm really showing is not how pretty the project is, but how effectively it solved the clients need. Was it to get more sales? Was it a sign inch product that was geared towards helping visitors find their way without getting lost? How effective was the design in meeting its objective? With that in mind, your story about the project becomes almost more important as the piece itself, so show and tell about the project and why your solution was the best. Number three get feedback from peers, but with a grain of salt meaning except the feedback. While maintaining a degree of scepticism about its truth, this one could be tough. Design is meant to be shared and observed and out living in the world for other people to enjoy. So even if you clearly meant one thing in your mind, if everybody else sees it different than how you might have intended for it, then you might need to reconsider your design. However, sometimes you need to hold your ground when you know that you're proud of your work and it reflects your style or solve the problem that you set out to solve. This is something that you get better with overtime, which leads me to my next point Number four. It's gonna take a while, and you have to fight your way through by simply producing a lot of work. I know this is basic and obvious, but the more work you have, the more options you'll have for your portfolio, and you can start getting selective about what to include. When you have more pieces, you could go back to step number three and ask your friends and peers what pieces air the strongest rinse, Repeat, Get in the habit of producing a lot of work. When I was in college, I had an entire semester to finish projects. But for most of the real world, it's about how much you can produce. Get out of the habit of overthinking everything and get toe work, finished things, lots of things, and you and your portfolio will only get better from there. 4. Deciding How Much Work To Showcase and Filtering Content Strategically: in this lesson, we're going to learn how much work to showcase in your portfolio and how to filter your content. Strategically, let's start with an oversimplified answer for those of you who want me to get right to the point. So you should aim to have somewhere between 5 to 10 projects represented in your portfolio . And you should showcase the projects in a straightforward format that begins with something eye catching, then continues to build to your best work, leaving the viewer with the best impression possible at the end there. That's my oversimplified answer. But let's dive into this a little bit deeper, starting with thought process behind having 5 to 10 projects. Actually, I've heard over and over that you want no more than 12 projects. But I think someone just made that up and, to be honest, saying 5 to 10 just sounded good. So I went with that instead. Remember that last video where I mentioned that math and science for my favorite topics? This is one of those times where I wish there was, like, one right answer that I could give you, but there's just not so The main idea is that it's better to have fewer items than to include outdated or subpar work that will bring down your average. You could always include more projects upon request as you go further in any interview process. On the other hand, if you find yourself in a position with not much to show right now, don't worry, because that's where we all start with. Zero. I can remember when I literally had zero projects to put in my portfolio. So the solution is just get to work, create things, even if therefore fictitious clients or as a school assignment. If you're trying to get something together, quickly, use the design prompts at the end of this course as ideas to get you started. But don't include so many pieces that you watered down your portfolio. Ideally, you should have more than a couple projects to show off whatever you're trying to attract. So what I mean by that is, for example, if you want to build websites than show more than just one website project in your portfolio, in fact, your entire portfolio should display mostly websites if that's what you're interested in. In some cases, your best work might not be the most relevant of the job. You're trying to get a quick gut check that I learned to determine. Whether or not I should include something in my portfolio is I'll ask the question. If this is the the only project a potential client or employer saw, would they be seeing my best work? So if you ask yourself the same question, that will help you filter out your work. But you have to be careful when you ask that, because you can quickly get discouraged and know that you know the work that you're doing might not be as good as it could be. But it's as good as your skills are currently. So, like I've mentioned before, your portfolio and your skill set will constantly improve. So don't be too hard on yourself above all else. The most important thing to remember is that you make sure to portray yourself as skilled in the areas for which you're the companies are looking to hire you. The more you create, the better you're going to get and the faster your skills are going to improve 5. Trend Matching Without Being a Copycat: Another question I'm often asked by students is How do I match trends and stay relevant without being a copycat? Were stealing somebody else's ideas. So I've attention Article to this lecture called How to Be Inspired without copping somebody's Work. It's a great article and you should definitely read it. And in fact, this lecture about the teach is a perfect example of how to borrow someone else's ideas in this case on article and make it your own. Sure, I could just rattle off each bullet point from the article and try toe pass this off as my own. But not only will that eventually get you in trouble or I guess me in this case, but as a creative, it's our job to take something that's already been done before and to put a fresh spin on it. So here's how I approach keeping trendy and current with design culture without copying somebody else's work. So number one it's OK to copy. Wait, what? See what I did there If you read the article, that is literally their first point to, and I think it's a good one, so I copied it. However, I didn't try to copy it and pass it off as my own original idea. And that's the difference. When I'm working on a new style, or especially when I'm learning a new skill, I'll copy that style or skill to master the technique. The difference is that I don't try to publish the piece as my own. Instead are find those skills until they become another tool in my toolbox to use when it fits whatever project I might have. So, for example, Scott Kelby has some incredible books about how to cheat in photo shop. They're amazing, and they're full of different techniques that can be applied to all sorts of projects. So here, let me show you, Let me show you this first. Oh, so so this 1st 1 is called Photoshopped Classic Effects, and it's a great resource where you can learn how to copy all of the classic Photoshopped techniques Now. I wouldn't straight up copy the projects exactly as they're in here, but I can follow the steps with different images, fonts and colors to come up with something unique. All right, so here's another one. It's called photo shop CS Down and Dirty Tricks, and it's also full of amazing techniques. So once you learn how to tastefully apply these techniques, you can follow trends, will still having the tools to bend them to your own creative will. All right, so that makes sense now on the point number two, which I've actually taken the time to come up with my own creative solution. And I'm not copying the article, which is stay inspired. Wait, are you kidding me? I'm pretty sure the article said that one, too. But apparently, uh, you know, I didn't take it from memory, which is also something that the article mentions. But I mean by that is find your inspiration and keep up to date on trends. But don't try to immediately start creating your work right after you've seen something inspiring or worse, work on a project with your inspiration literally sitting right in front of you Personally , I like to go to all kinds of stores and I looked packaging and I'll I love especially the alcohol packaging, because those types of products typically have more money to work with, and so they're packaging could be amazing. So when I'm looking for inspiration, I'm typically looking at things like what type of foster they use. What colors? What kind of images? Was there an image of the exact product, like a cut out of it? Or was it just a logo on a box? How did they lay out the copy? What material did they use for the packaging? Was a cardboard glass plastic? There's so much to see with just one package, and walking through aisles and aisles of products can be really inspiring. And sometimes that sensory overload can actually help you blend ideas in a way that helps you come up with something original. And, you know, usually I usually usually I hate to use the word original because I feel like that can create unnecessary mental blocks feeling like you have to create something from scratch to be original. Sometimes what's been done before worked really well, and you don't need to reinvent the wheel, you know what I mean? So, for example, here's some pretty cool there some pretty cool wheels these days. But you know what? All those wheels air still round. I hope that helps help that makes sense and gives you some ideas on ways that you can stay trendy with your design while finding your own original style. 6. Basic Portfolio Examples: So we're gonna have some fun looking at some basic portfolio samples. I actually dug up some of my original portfolios to show you, and I'm really excited about it. So what I want to do in this lecture is basically show you some of the basic portfolio samples, some of the bare bones. Just something to get you started to that we use to get up and running and have something to show. So the first thing that I want to show you now, this isn't the first version of the portfolio ever made. This is just the nicest one that I could ever afford during the time I was a student. And it's this metal box. You you've seen this atomic time than in other videos. So we're to talk about this a little bit. Uh, before I got to this version, though, actually had a plastic box. It looked about the same size of a see through plastic. Felt really cheap, looked really cheap. It was terrible, but I was a poor college kids. So it was all I could afford, and, uh, I couldn't find it to show you today it's in a storage unit somewhere um I also have a version of a portfolio where actually took a briefcase, hollowed it out, made of foam, core like like molded all the different spots for the different artwork to go. It was a ton of work, but at the end of the day, this has been my favorite because it's so simple to keep current and updated. It looks slick. You just got to be careful when you're presenting. I've heard horror stories of other people who actually went to show his artwork to somebody and slid it across the guys wooden desk and just scratched the top of the desk all up. So you got to be careful with that. Obviously, that's not a great first impression. So we're gonna do is I'm gonna I'm gonna show you this and then I've got some other samples . I want you online if you want to go a different route. So this link I'm sorry, this this folio, I'll try and find the link for it and link below if I can. But just anything comparable to this basically all it is is a metal shell. It's got Velcro straps, which is really nice because I tend to throw currently the way that I work because I've got , like, magazines and stuff. So this is everything that I had just piled in this box like postcard said. Upside down, of course, is postcards and magazine covers and stickers and physical prints. And you just all all kinds of just stuff. And it's nice to be able to kind of look through it and handle the pieces, so I just throw it straight in here. Now, the inside of this has a spot where you could put something that was a postcard that we did for a company when it had reached seven. This was a while ago now, but seven years in business, it was a thank you promotion s. I threw that in there just cause it kind of looks cool. But, um, you know, you could put a photo of yourself where you could put, um I don't know, whatever, whatever inspires you, but you can see that it obviously has a special ring. It's not like a traditional three ring binder. What's nice about this? Is there so many rings that no, unlike a three ring binder, right? Usually like rip a hole in your papers. There's only three rings. This keeps everything nice and straight. And then what? You can dio as you can buy by a pack of 10 folded polyester sheets. So basically, these are protective sheet that would go into his portfolio to protect your artwork. And ah, double bonus. When I was looking, I was looking for the sheets and I found I must have already done this forever ago. So this is gonna is the first time I've looked at this. You guys. Oh, my gosh. Um oh, my gosh. So this this thing, this I called my flavor pack. And it was it was my mini portfolio. It's not even folded up. So, uh, having I have seen the orbit gum or like, trident gum. So this folds down trying to focus cameras focusing on my face. There we go anyway. Eso this folds down. I made this an illustrator. I measured everything out and then designed it and photo, photo shop and illustrator. And so, uh, this kind of stems into some packaging design. So basically, if you were to fold this down, I want to do the whole thing right now. And usually I would be using a ruler to fold these, but I'm just kind of going for it here. Why'd score it? So the way you score this, if you're gonna fold, um is I would put a ruler down and then get like, either a ballpoint pen that doesn't work or they actually have, like, little styluses. That'll score. And you just use your ruler, hold your ruler against it and then basically draw like a line, but with something that doesn't right thing here. I could even use the back of the Spence. This ruler and I could just kind of score it. And that will help it to fold without cracking and actually help you fold it in a straight line to. But we're just kind of going for it today. This might have been one of my first. I think I had multiple versions of this because I got better at the packaging design And so this one might not fold up totally correctly. We'll see. Come on, come on. There we go. Oh, my God. There it is, Guys. My flavor pack. Come on, camera focus. Check that out. Ok, so the idea the concept with this piece and this camera really wants to focus on my face. That's good. That's good. Um, so the concept with this says Flavor Pack graphic design of Derek Mitchell, Print Web branding and identity. It says that down here on the side, it says warning, constant exposure to contents may result in heightened visual pleasure. This panel intentionally left blank. I was such a dork. Um, still in its ok. And then this side had a crest. It's got my name on the top. So it's his d m. It's like a family crest looking thing. Come on, now, focus. There we go. So much fun. So this the idea with this was to be a leave behind. So you've got your regular big portfolio piece that I'm not gonna leave with a client or with with you for a job interview. I'm not gonna leave my metal book behind, but you do wanna have something toe leave behind. And so this little things little flavor pack was kind of something just a kind of hand them to remind themselves of me and ah, and to kind of hopefully keep a foot in the door. So on the inside of this What I made were business card sized, basically portfolio pieces. So imagine a business card. And on one side was just be artwork. And on the back was a brief description of what the artwork was, so they could kind of flip through the business cards and check it out. So there's my flavor pack. Oh, my gosh. Uh, naturally flavored. It says so fun. All right, moving on. What else we have in here? Okay, Now the other thing I'm noticing too, Uh, this might have been I might have been making something else, Not my portfolio with it. But you'll notice that these pieces air slipping around and moving. So depending on how you make your portfolio, it's going Teoh, uh, you're gonna need to tack it down or make it in such a way that it doesn't shift on you all the time. And it's a pain and to put away and to keep. So that's why you know, as I was getting all these cool pieces has got a spot. You ve finished to it. All this stuff that is meant to be handled. It's nice just having a case to throw it all in and then people can look at it, so the benefit to that as they can handle it. But the downside is if all your pieces air getting handled over and over. Like, I look at this piece and it's kind of scratched up and it's, you know, the corners air getting dinged up. So you wanna have plenty of samples to show your work? Okay, So the other thing that I started to do is I bought these clear. So that's these air for 25 acid free and archival quality bags and envelopes. Okay, so it looks like this. So the idea was, you know, you could throw your piece in here, kind of keep it protected, but that's I don't know. It's just your stuff meant to be handled, so I don't know that I recommend this. So then what I tried to do is actually take one of these, take a pair of scissors and cut it at an angle, obviously maybe use an Exacto knife and a ruler to get a really straight edge. So then what I can do is I've got this little clear corner pocket and I could glue this down to a piece of paper, which just pretend like this is a logo that we worked on. Um, this is pretty eyes. Ah, like a card stock piece paper. So you could glue this down on your piece of paper, and then that would be a way for you to kind of hold hold something in place. Right? So you got a nice little pocket. It's a little bit big, so maybe I'd cut it down a little bit smaller, right? Glue it down to, um, to a sheet or foam core or something. Right. And then you've got a nice little pocket that your thing sits in and it's glued to the back of a page, but then you hold it still, but you can still look at your stuff. So that's just an idea. Um, you know, obviously, sometimes simpler is better. The further along I get my career, the less that I try to, you know, bundle it quite like that. And another problem you gonna run into is like, here's a package design that I did a long time ago. This thing is huge, and I'm never gonna take this to a meeting to show it off. So what I would probably do. And I'm gonna show you in the next few lessons is how to photograph something, get good photos and then printed up to include in your book if you're gonna go show them something or again if you're gonna post it on your website. So let's see the other thing. I want to show you here. You know, here's a basic, um, this is just a file cabinet envelope thing. This is more for like, you know, paperwork, office stuff. But it's a way it's It's a very inexpensive way here. We pulled it out for you to Teoh, keep your artwork clean and protected at the very least, Like if this stuff was just sitting on my shelf and get ruined so I could throw this in something like this, to keep on my shelf, to keep it clean, to keep it from getting dusty and all that kind of stuff. And then when I needed it, I can either take this whole thing with me or just pull out the couple pieces that represent the job I'm trying to get. So you know, if it's if you have specific artwork, like in this case, Maybe it's a magazine job. I could take just the magazines with me to show, not the logo design. So there is that as an option. All right, so let's go ahead in pivot a little bit. We're gonna take a look at some websites here where you could actually print up a book. So what you would do? Just think in your mind. Think a photo book. You just printing photos. Basically. But the photos happen to be the artwork that you've taken. Either you've exported a J peg of your digital work or you've taken a photo of something. You're gonna put it into a photo book. So what I'm gonna do now is we're gonna jump into some websites. And first thing we did obviously, is go to Google and Google Print Photo book. Okay, so we've got Shutterfly. We've got Walgreens. We have Snapfish. Blurb is somebody that I've used in the past. I can say that I've really appreciated the quality of a blurb book. I've used them a lot in the past, and I can recommend them. It's been a long time. So printed a blur book, but it's one that's worth checking out so you can check out their products. They've got, um you know, magazines, books, no books, e books, all kinds of things that you could use and you could print. You know, either one the penguin your budget is or you can print a handful of them. They even have plug ins for using with light room and in design. So if you already laid out the book in design because maybe you know how to use that instead of using their there, they actually have a builder on their site that you can build these books with. But you can go crazy with it so you could design your book in in design, have it really fleshed out with maybe page numbers in the table of contents and anything you want and have them print it so it looks like a really polished portfolio when it's all said and done. The nice thing about this is because you can just push, print and reprint. You could actually leave this for somebody if you wanted to. Now, depending on like this one, these air $50 for 20 pages, so that's kind of expensive. If you're gonna go to 10 job interviews. All of a sudden, that gets really expensive, so you kind of want to be a little bit picky with it. Something else that will talk about later is you also want to. You don't want just a blanket like you. No one size fits all portfolio. You kind of want to be focused. So if there's a job that you're actually hunting for and you really want to get that job, you might consider making a book specific to that job where maybe you put an introduction letter in the front printed in the book with that company's logo. So it shows that you went above and beyond. Teoh actually, try and get that job. You've done your research, you're familiar with that company and you're handing them a book. You know, Teoh, remind them of you, but also showing that that you want that job specifically, You're not just trying to fish for anything that you can get, so I hope that helps. I hope that makes sense. So here's a couple other Shutterfly. They're pretty good. I haven't use them in a while, either. This is a new one. Ah, menial photos. Donors might pull this up is because it looks like you can use their app in the APP store and it works with apple photos. It seems to be so. That could be a good option for you. There's always Walgreens now with Walgreens. I feel like they're quality isn't quite there, but it's a little less expensive, which is nice. Here we have Snapfish, another good book publishing company, and again, you know, at the end of the day, this is just the medium to present your work. So don't get too hung up on what you're going to do for your basic portfolio. If you have real tangible pieces already printed, then getting a box like mine might be helpful if your brand new and you don't have a lot of things in print. So if you're going through and you're doing the design prompts in this course and you're making a business card for a fictitious client, you're most likely not gonna go have those printed to have real cards. You should. It's good practice, but I realize that sometimes money is tight and so if you're gonna make a digital mock up of it than in that case, something like that would work really well in a book like this, where the book becomes the physical object. But you didn't have to print every piece that you have to show, so I hope that makes sense. Help. It gives you a lot of great ideas for where to start to get a basic print portfolio done. 7. Above and Beyond Portfolio Examples: I hope you got some great ideas on how to at least get started in that last lecture where we talked about the basic portfolio samples. Now, in this lecture, what I want to do is show you some portfolios that are way above and beyond way over the top that will help you give that will help. That, I hope, will help give you some ideas on ways that you can push this and really show your creativity. Now I do want to preface this by saying that you don't always have to go way above and beyond. Stuff like this is really fun, and it's great to show your creativity. It's also great if you have some free time on your hands right now, however, bear in mind, it's not always the most practical, because if you go this far over the top to make your portfolio, it can be difficult to keep it current because if it's a lot of work toe updated all the time, you won't keep it updated. And as somebody who like myself, who is looking to hire other creatives, I don't really want to see what they did 10 years ago. I want to see what they're currently working on, so just keep that in mind as you maybe branch out and explore some. These options, like the creativity, is amazing, and it shows your skills in a great way. Just try and remember, you want to make sure you can update this thing, so let's go and take a look at some of these samples. So here's one that's really creative, and it's got all kinds of hidden elements and lots of cool features. And, you know, I don't know what the pieces look like on the inside of this, but just the presentation alone, the thought and the attention to detail goes a long way. What this shows me is, for one, they've got a cohesive brand. All the fonts match. They've taken the time to sketch out everything and by sketch out, I mean on this left panel here, they've got the drawings of what's actually in the portfolio and just kind of just the full package. Not only does it show me their portfolio, but also as far as like, some kind of packaging design that they're thinking in a three D space, and not just a to D flat space. So, uh, this is a great a great portfolio. Now, I don't know what the pieces look like on the inside, like I said, and I don't know how easy it is to put the pieces back. So one thing you have to be careful of is if I open this up and it's sitting on my desk, how easy is it to look at everything and then also to put it all back together without, you know, basically giving up and thrown in the trash? Or, like, you know, you're walking out with your portfolio in a sack because you can't get it all back together . So something to think about. Here's another one. So this one's kind of cool. It's like a book. Basically, they've They've mocked up a book, but they also have a CD and a sleeve. Now, obviously, this is a little bit older. I wouldn't recommend a CD these days. I would use a USB drive, and even that you know, my current laptop doesn't even have a USB dry are, ah, USB port it. I have to use ah dunkel for everything. Right, so this at this point, if you're gonna leave behind something like this. Um, you know, USB drive might be fine, but depending on when you're watching this lecture, you might even be using something new by now. So whether it's just sending them a link in a pdf for, maybe it's maybe it's ah Q R code or something, I don't know, just something to think about, like, obviously, you don't want to send them a CD that they can't even open. Here's another super cool example. And again, what I love about this is there working with materials. In this case, it's a would thumb drive that's been laser engraved with the photographer's name. Supercool comes in this nice, gorgeous wooden box. So a lot of attention and detail in the and it's almost like a gift, right? So this one is. Actually, if I'm looking at it, says it's it's, um, photography thumb drive. So what? This probably was. This isn't necessarily a portfolio as much as is was maybe for a wedding shoot or senior photo, and the photographer delivers the final photos like this is what I'm guessing this is for, But I hope it gives you an idea of how you can present your work and people love receiving gifts. So if you mail something to somebody and it looks like this, there's a really good chance are actually going to open it and look at it versus if I just show up with, you know, I don't know some a couple pieces of paper to look at it. It's just not the same, right? So especially if you're trying to get your foot in the door where you don't have a meeting and you can't physically present your own work in its best light doing something like this that's pretty over the top. Well, at least hopefully ensure that it at least gets seen and not just shoved in a pile somewhere. So here's another example. And I looks like this is fairly large looking at the size of the CD here on the corkboard. Now, to me, it feels kind of cheap, because corkboard, I don't know, just kind of have a cheap I mean, the first, the first sample I showed you was cardboard right? But the way it was presented just seemed a little classier. This one feels, um, a little cheaper to me just because of the corkboard thing, but it's it's creative. I like how they've hinged it together, and it looks like these pieces that are sticking in with these pins here, Uh, to me, it seems like in transport, by the time actually got to where I was going to show this thing, it would probably fall apart, right? So again, you want to think about the durability of your portfolio. Is it gonna make it to the meeting If you're taking on uber or if you're riding your bike somewhere or whatever you're, however you're getting their driving their whatever and you throw in the back seat, you know, when it gets there, is it going to all be together or kind of like I showed in the last video with my pages, These things right? This is just for example, but, you know, everything was loose and and kind of moving around. So by the time you get to present, it doesn't look like you wanted to. It doesn't look professional and polished. All right, so here's another one. This one's really cool. What I like about this is they took the time to actually build something out, so they got the handle there. I can tell that's screen printed or or maybe laser engraved on the cover there, but that's really cool. It's also consistent so we can see that, uh, they've got the print on the cover on the actual outside of the box, but then the first cover photo that they, you know as you open it up, I see the logo there as well. So that touches on the keeping it consistent, finding ways to make it all feel cohesive, like it belongs together. So that's a really great way to do that is just that consistency by having graphics throughout. I like that. So it looks like this matches up flush with this because I've got a little arrow down here to kind of tell people how to open it up. So that's kind of nice. Don't confuse your viewer. So here's another one, and this is the last piece it'll show you for now. Obviously hand made, they made this pretty extensive envelope system that folds in on itself and and basically guides the viewer. It looks like they've got numbers on there, too, so it guides them through how they want to present the work. So number one, number two, number three, right, in order to basically lead off with something that's super eye catching and then to finish up with strongest piece or a call to action. Or maybe in this case, it's the resume or cover letter. So there's a lot of creative ways, you guys, that you can actually make your portfolio really stand out and be really unique. And that's what you're wanting. You wanted to capture their attention right away and also basically tell your story. So this is a really great option for you if you like to do any woodworking, or if you like to do the paper craft stuff, you like cutting up cards and making stuff or maybe hand lettering. Or if there's there's a there's a piece of what you like to do. Maybe it's photography and use these beautiful photo books, right? So just kind of think about your strength and how you can best present that. And maybe use these examples and ideas on how you can push that further and just make it something that's truly unique. All right, guys, I hope that helps and stay tuned for more in the next lecture 8. Gathering Assets and Items to Include in Your Physical Portfolio: alright, guys, in everything that I do, I like to think with the end in mind. So if it's going to be a really extensive print project, I like to talk to the printer first, to see if they can do the metallic foils and the in boss and de Boss and rounded corners on all the finishing that I like to do on my print projects. If it's going to be a Web project, I like to figure out who's gonna host the the website. Who's gonna be the e commerce platform is gonna be WordPress and move commerce or Shopify or Squarespace like, Where is this thing gonna live when it's all said and done? So we need to do the same thing for your portfolio? Okay, so in this lesson, we're gonna look at how to gather your assets and how to get everything ready to put into this thing. But we want to be constantly thinking about the end goal, which is getting you that job either getting hired or as a freelancer, getting more work and showing off your portfolio. So, uh, you might not be like me yet, but you're going to get there I have hard drives and hard drives and hard drives just filled with stuff I've got. This is this is, like a fraction of them. I've got probably 20 hard drives in my safe. And so, um, with that in mind, I wish my younger self would have kept better file structures because I've got all kinds of artwork that I can't find to save my life. In fact, this drive right here this beautiful little thing came out of my laptop that died. I remember years ago, and it's got most of my design work from, like, 2000 and nine tell like 2016. I don't know. Anyway, I also found all my college work on this drive, and it is backed up by my hard drives in pairs. So I've got I've got two of them, right? Identical. And ah, So anytime I buy a new car driver by two of them and then I always put one artwork are put any files on one, and then I back him up to the next one. So that way, if anything ever happens to one of them, which, actually I think this one got corrupted, but I have all the backups here. So quick, Quick side note to how I work and how we do things. But with that in mind and thinking about how we gonna start gathering our assets, I encourage you to find, um away that as you do things, put everything into a portfolio folder, even if even if you haven't processed it yet or resized it for whether it's your book or website, start gathering everything like I've shown you a ton of times. This pile of stuff that's been in my portfolio Ah, I've gathered everything and just kind of keep it together. So as I need to pull something to show it, I have something in the best example that I can show you like Hands down is this book by Aaron Drop Lynn. Pretty much everything is what it's called to Aaron Droplet. If you don't know he is, check him out. He's a graphic designer based out of Portland, Ore. Again. He's the man whose amazing um, I've actually emailed him before. He emailed me back super great guy, and I only say that because sometimes you feel like you know people are are, um, you know, like Sometimes you feel like you might have a hard time getting hold of him, but he's actually super down to earth. Love his style. This Erin and what I love about this book is he has produced more work than anybody I know or have even heard of, like, unreal, the amount of work that he's produced on the one hand, super inspiring for me to look through and just get ideas as well, as well as ideas on how he's laid out. Just basically like this. Almost like his portfolio, right? It's like everything he's ever done. And so, uh, as I'm looking at this book, though, but I'm thinking about it like Oh my gosh, like how? How did he go through and make this book like It must have been insane to go ahead and try and gather everything and then not only that, but like to put this together and design it like, Oh my gosh, what a feat. So, uh, if you don't have his book, definitely pick it up for inspiration. But what I want to you think about more than anything is as you're gathering your assets, think about this. Think about yourself 10 years down the road wishing that you have that logo that you made that one day or that you have that sample of that really cool thing you did. So any time you can get your hands on multiple pieces, save it, save in a drawer saving file, put it somewhere. Even if it's not in a portfolio yet, just have it to be able to do something like that. And then, as far as your digital assets as you start to gather them, whether it's photos of your work, what we're gonna get to here in a bit or aspires how to take a photo of something and make it look good for your portfolio or whether it's just physically like, let's see, made a logo on Illustrator And it's just, you know, the flat canvas. You just export a screenshot of that right? So just start gathering everything to scraping everything. You can dump it in a folder, whether it's a real folder, you know, or a folder on your computer, and that will help you when it comes time to actually build your portfolio. It'll help you basically put this puzzle together. That's what a portfolio is It's just a puzzle, right? You're trying to figure out how things were gonna fit together. And if you have all the pieces together, then you know what to make space for in your portfolio. And, you know, especially we're gonna build something crazy like those other portfolios we looked at like the wooden one and things like that. If we start building crazy portfolios, you'll know whether it's gonna work or not, because you'll know if you have our work that's gonna fit in it, and if you need to do something different 9. Behance Portfolio: All right, so in this lesson we're gonna do is take a look at B hands specifically. So be hands is something that you get along with your adobe creative cloud subscription. What we're gonna do, we've pulled up some of our favorites and we're gonna walk through so we'll look at it in And how I see it from a design perspective. What I like what I think they've done well, but I think we'll show well, and then we'll have Jenna take a look at it. She's hired a lot of our freelancers and a lot of other artists that have worked with us in the past. So it'll be interesting to see what you see from, like the business perspective from the project manager perspective from a higher for hiring perspective to see what stands out to her as well. So it's going and dive in. So in no particular order, um, I guess for those who aren't familiar, be hands dot net, check it out, kick the tires around. But we've pulled up a few different profiles that we want to just kind of scroll through and take a look at so real quick. I'm going to click through these and just kind of get a quick idea of what we're looking at here. And then, of course, I threw mine in there too. Uh, which needs a lot of love and attention will get there. All right, so first things first. So here on Florian's be hance portfolio. And actually, Jenna sent me a lot of these links. So as I scrolled Thrill Yeah. What do you see as we look at this portfolio. Okay. So what I like about this one if you go to the top, um, write ups about an eye catching header image. Um, and it's not super stylized, but it has that pop of color that really catches your eye. Um, And then the interesting thing about this portfolio is there's not a lot tying it together . It's not super cohesive. She doesn't. I'm assuming it. She he she they do not have a lot of similar pieces being featured. There's not a comprehensive color palette happening that really draws you in. So what catches your eye is their bold use of color. So right here you can see this yellow with the blue lipstick and the red. It's just really, really bold and it ties in with what's happening up here. So your eye automatically goes from here to here. And then you wonder what's further down the page. So this is, I assume, and I'm not a designer's. It's still called the fold. Yeah, I mean, in what design you so kind of call it above the fold. So So it's important. That's what the what happens above before school before they have to scroll is eye catching and also leaves them wanting more. So as I looked at this, I was like, Okay, I like the pop of color. I like what's happening. Um, what's going on? You know, I see some business cards. I see some packaging, what else is there? And then as a scroll down more vibrant colors. But then also some really muted ones, and you can also see it's a very broad portfolio. So instead of featuring just branding or just business cards, this person is wisely decided to showcase a huge wealth of things that they've done as you . However, you can see what they've done. So this is a brand identity. This is packaging. Um, this was for television, right? here, So I'm just curious as you're looking at this. Yeah. What would convince you to contact this person like, Well, there any piece that more than another compels you to contact them. Hire them Well, depends on what I want done. So the benefit to this one. A lot of you had asked the question or have asked the question. How do I know what to include in my portfolio? Right? There's a lot of different perspectives which will get to, but this person included a little bit of everything, so I can see they are very well rounded. They should have done a lot of different things. They're not just a logo designer. They're not just a website designer. They've done rebranding. They've done. You know, this is a huge sign Ege piece that looks like an album cover. So when you're deciding what of your things to put up here? If you don't have aton of beautiful things in one line, like if you don't have 20 gorgeous logo's, let's say you might be better off doing a smattering of things that showcases the breadth of your ability instead of the depth of your ability. This is a great showcase of that. So and what we're looking at right now, we've only looked at the cover of the actual project. So if you're working in B Hance, the way this plays out is each one of these is a cover. You click on it and then it shows the actual project details. Yeah, and there's actually one other that I pulled up that I really enjoyed. I want to talk about. So before we jump over, they just want to take note. We've like she said, Jenna said, We've got the header matches there, uh, there havoc on their avatar. Whatever here's simple to do is matching colors. Yeah, you know, from project Views. Perspective. They've got 21,000 views, depreciations followers following. So this kind of tells you I mean, it doesn't tell you a lot because it's hard to know when, for example, if you look at mine, I only have 7000 views by thinking about on here since, like, 2013. For a long time, we created just one project. Yeah, I just don't use it personally, but I want to use it mawr. But I'm just trying to give you a gauge of project views. I've got 7000. You know, this this person's got 21,000. So plus also has significantly more work posted than I do so also looking. We have some social media profile, some links software. They use some description text. So as we click through these, next ones realizes that doesn't have a header. But it's very clean. Same kind of deal. Lots of different styles of work. All the cover images are very high quality, right? So what caught my eye with this one was just the simplicity. So if you go back to the other one, it's busy. There's a lot going on. There's a lot of different patterns, a lot of different things being featured on this one, the next one that you had clicked on very, very toned down in terms of background. The colors all play nicely. Background on the jumbo like this, for example, a lot of gray. This is a lot of pink, like the background color behind the element is very, very simple, which allows the design itself to speak Yes, which is good. Yeah, again, got some appreciation is, and like some social media channels etcetera. So I want to jump into this. When this backbone branding was interesting, This one, like, they've got almost 100,000 views. So they've clearly, let's see, I'm holding They've been around, but they're doing something right. Okay, so they bet on the platform for, like, eight years now. And obviously, yeah, clearly won some awards, have some really high end work. And when I started stuck out to me, I like you could tell their background and everything. I was like, I like blacks and darks. And then I also like the high contrast oranges common attention. So glad. Sorry. So when you're designing your portfolio and this is what caught my eye about this one, um, anyone could just take a photo of a postcard they made and uploaded. Or anyone can can pull a screenshot of a website page you've designed and throw it up here . These guys have gone above and beyond in that their cover images, if they've won an award, they have this little tap here and the cool. This is a great spot. You could even just do that and put your logo on there, or put your you know, your watermark on their or write a little description about what the project was for. It's just that little extra polish that it just adds this uniform look no matter what it is and that that really come. Now that it's clear as you scroll through, they definitely you know what they're doing. I and something inspired. So when I click into that actual just again right here, click on that. And, uh so now we're looking at the actual project itself within a portfolio, Yes. And so, just as this girl through is gonna just talk about what I see So first and foremost like if you're a graphic designer, you might not think to take a picture of the building. But let's pretend that this 33 was a logo on the door or something. It's really cool to see your work in the environment. In this case, maybe it's part of the brand. You know, The brand colors were these colors, and so they're kind of building the story behind the project so you can actually take a photo of it being used in real time. You're not having Teoh, you know, digitally generate that and yes, and In part of this course, you'll learn about how to do that. If you don't have as an option, it's great. But there's definitely an extra level of polish when I can tell that it's a real photo and it really exists as a real project. You just add so much, right? So and go up with how much information they choose to get its special. I mean, it's difficult to do that if you are filling your portfolio with sample work. But if you have work for an actual client that you're showcasing, give us much information is possible. Little do two things. One is that will help them identify how you contributed to that project, how you solve those problems, but also something that a lot of people probably think about search engine optimization. So if we're looking to hire you and you have an amazing portfolio, but all you have is images of zero text, you're not going to get found like there's just no way that will, you know, we might search for logo design, but if you don't mention that anywhere on your portfolio, it wouldn't There were probably a lot of gorgeous portfolios in B hands that I didn't even see. Sure, because the search terms I was looking forward. So by having text in there and titles that makes sense and even naming your images before you upload them, all those kinds of things will contribute. Do you actually getting found? Because if you're sending this has a link like the way I use it. I sent it as a link to clients. Say, Hey, here's some stuff I've done. So it's a direct link. So I didn't really care about being found, however, and how you want to write If you're not networking, you have a relationship with somebody to, you know, send them. You know you're not You're not trying to to land a contract and yours hoping somebody finds you. You gotta put text in there. Yes, so all right, there we go. All right, some again, beautiful photos really well done in the environment here. Just really creative to like most people would want to show this completely unobstructed by shadows like you want to see the artwork. But in this case, what I love about it is it just feels like it's in the environment, and it's part of the brand as a whole. All the textures and everything super creative. One thing I noticed it did these photos, too. So they're obviously showing that you know, the the whole everything as a brand, how it applies to the artwork on the walls and even how the colors apply to the environment . And what they did was there's a few photos with a show on employee ghosted out what I like about that. There's another one down here that's beautiful photos. Beautiful photos like that makes all the difference in the world does. Dio is really, really don't get the wrong. The design is beautiful, too, but like the photos just add so much detail. So here's another one that I saw a really cool artwork on the wall. You can see just the feel of everything and by putting her in this scene but ghosting her out a little bit. To me it it shows scale. It shows depth without making it the main thing and distracted because as humans, we want to see a photo. We want to look at the person and said the rest of it they took time and care to craft their portfolio PS, you know, And if they're willing to, you know, as as someone who has hired people they have. If they're willing to take that much time and effort to make this look beautiful and it's just showcasing a project that they've already done, how much more are they gonna effort? Are they gonna put Massachusetts? They're getting paid to do, you know, because you don't get you get paid to do the work in. You know, in this case, create this brand. We don't get paid up, put on your farm, But they put a lot of time and effort into it. So something else. I want to point out this project itself if we just deconstruct it. And if we took, if we just graded it out, it's just photos. It's just square, like text square, square, square. You know, I think down here that might have been a couple like they, you know, like there's two up just photos on a white background, Really basic. Let's really speak. Well, I should've thought ahead to have something here. This one's kind of shows that so this is a photo. Um but it is different in that like is the grid, but it's also got some design elements here. This ripped torn paper, right, some clean grid. But you'll notice if you if you poke around, be hands for very long at all, you'll notice. In fact, I think I maybe I might have done it on. Um, remember he was the corporate. He was this one. What I'm trying to say is that sometimes you can over design things. That was a poster I did. It's on a black background. There's some work on the ground, So just sitting on the ground to get some texture and right, you don't have to have a fancy photo studio. You don't have to have fancy backdrops like literally. That photo that you took was on the sidewalk outside of our house, right? Right, right. And so you work with what you have here, Go up and let's click on this that Yep, I'm just so that we can show how this is a very popular way to showcase Web work. I know a lot of you are Web designers, Um, and what it does is it lets you see, because a website is usually more than just sure this much your squirreling. You're scrolling your scrolling, and this gives them an opportunity on opportunity to see how it looks as one fluid piece. That's an interesting option for you as well, instead of just posting sales. Really bummer with this. So I did this years ago, and I should have made it wider, right, because you can't even see the details. So you know, there's obviously I've got a ton of stuff to work on my portfolio as well. But I have been fortunate enough to actually have work, so I've left it alone. I'm touched it in forever. Eso as part of this course, I'll be going back through updating my stuff as well, so hopefully that helps. Now the one thing I do want to point out of is, the more you want to talk about before. Okay, I do have one thing I just want to mention. So if you are planning on creating a B hands portfolio, I would like their ex had spent some time on the platform looking up people that design similar things and similar styles to you. We don't want to rip off what they've already done, but why re invent the wheel. Why start from scratch? Find a few designs you love a few styles of presenting work that that you that speaks to you and then find a way to make it unique to you because there's so many great sources of inspiration on here for sure. And so, speaking of what we're gonna do just to kind of show that we're in here just while you're in any project on the top, we got the search magnifying glass. When you click on that and maybe you want to design business cards, okay? And you want a filter by projects? Sure. Okay. And so this alone will give you hundreds of ideas on even just how to showcase a business card. So for some of you, you might not have a physical print of the card yet. So another way we could play this. I'll put a link in the description below, but if I had a subscription to elements by in Votto. So it's a place where you can download all kinds of stuff. We're doing business cards. So look at business cards and actually do another window to, um Well, he's doing this, no matter what. You end up doing or how you end up showcasing your work. Just do something above and beyond. Do not just upload a plane file. So So this is a two, right? So that's a two edged sword here. So let's look at this. Like if you took the time to actually lay out your business cards and and show them I'm gonna be able to tell the picnic table or something, it's glorious. What I'm saying, that was, If it is just not you there yet for you, skill level is just not there. You can go to something like in Votto Elements or Creative Market, and you can actually download graphic templates where they already have this built into a smart object. So you drop your artwork into it, and then it makes it look like it's a real three d object. It's a great already. Yeah, it's a great stopgap for, you know, if you're not there yet, right here, I search for portfolio, and so there's a lot of default portfolio presentation templates that are already laid out or make it look like a real piece. And the two edged sword to this is on the one hand. Yes, it looks beautiful, but on the other hand, it's been done so much like I know it's a template. So it's like if you're trying to get a creative job, you should be creative enough to be able to do it. But it's like chicken or the egg first. You don't have an imprint yet exactly, So I hope that helps. But, you know, come back in to be handsome, like Jenna said, search for projects where there's logo design or, you know, magazine or, you know, literally any. If it's a creative project, it's on here. So search for what you're going. Get inspired, get inspired CIA people laid it out, and then just do it. Just pick one. Just pick a way to go with it. You know, don't do more than two fonts. Try and pick two or three colors. Max. Keep it simple. Or maybe just on a white background for the artworks stands out. Be sure to check out the video that Derek has laid around in the course that just shows you briefly how to set up be hands, because it's really helpful if you have no idea how to use the platform for sure. Cool. All right, well, I think that's everything I needed to say. Anything else. Now let's move down the link. Awesome. All right. Thanks, guys. In the next lesson, we're gonna talk about linked in and can do the same thing. Give you some ideas for how you can set up your profile and why you'd want to on link. What do you want to? All right, here we go. 10. LinkedIn Portfolio: So in the last lesson, we talked a little bit about be hands and gave you some samples. Also kind of talked about what stuck out to us both, as you know, the creative and me and the hiring manager. And you. So what do the same thing with linked in? We're gonna talk a little bit about how it plays out. We're gonna look at some examples and then also talk a little bit about why you even want to throw a portfolio interlinked in, or if you would or if you would. Yeah, they don't kick it off for sure. So a lot of people hat when we kind of threw out that we were making this course and offered for you guys to give us your questions in your thoughts and what you want it to be included. Ah, lot of you asked the question about how you would set up a portfolio in Lincoln, so I looked into it because that was a new one that I hadn't heard before. Um, and it is a thing. People are doing it. I did this a while ago in mind. You just didn't know it, but yeah. Anyway, Um and I I found there's kind of two different ways people go about. It definitely would recommend one over the other. Um, so let's divert. Yeah. So in the example that we have pulled up right here, um, what he has done that is good and that I would recommend is he has his portfolio just right here in the about section. It's the first thing you see. I don't have to squirrel toe find it. You would be surprised how many profiles I looked out hunting for a portfolio, and I had to just dig to find it, which you don't want. So he hasn't right here in the about area. And not only does he have a wide variety, but he has a good quantity. He has over 30 things listed, So if you click on one, it pulls it up now real quick, though. Yes, just to clarify. It's nice seeing quantity to see a breadth of work. Yes, but quality is always better than quantity. If you've only got five good pieces, don't show that sixth piece that uses papyrus and looks terror. But I would show more than two or three. Sure, I'm just saying like you don't need 30. That's it. That's a good point. But you definitely. If if you're gonna show. Okay, Some green show more than two or three. You know enough that when they, you know, open up one they have a few to click through, because if they're taking the time to look, give them something to look at. So you can see right here he has worked on billboards. Here's a logo. Here's a film festival. Add another logo and see how simply he just hung it and took a picture of it. That's right. You could download that template creative market or you take a screen shot in photo Shop doesn't have to be fancy, but it gives it that little extra polish instead of just tossing it up here. So this is if you are going to utilize lengthen. That's how you should do it. Some people they go all the way down here to the bottom, and under here you can upload projects. I do not recommend mean you could put projects. Are you sure that's what I did with mine? But I do not recommend we can look. We can put on the spot spot. Let's look, actually, I know the pieces that have on there. I'm like, let's set it s o need so much. What he doesn't know is that I went in and at it. Oh, look at that. So I put on my move them up to his about page because I found his down here under project right. And I was like, wolf. But the benefit to having both places is search engine optimization. Because up here, it's just going to be a thumbnail image. And down here you can write about it. So I'm curious in your research, what have you found? Because we were experimenting for students. I have been applying to a lot of jobs, just kind of get back into that. It's demoralizing to get all these. Sorry, we've gone with another candidate, So it happens to me, too. I have applied to like, Well, I'd say applied. I think if they really wanted me, I wouldn't have taken it because they were in other cities. But the point is, they didn't even want seen it out. Eso like I've been there, don't be discouraged is part of the process. But in in that process. Uh, what I've discovered is that it's nice to have the one click option a lot of these places that are looking for for employees, you can apply via LinkedIn, and all of this is looped in with it, which is really right. Well, And there is, ah, plug and or something that allows you to pull in your be hands portfolio into Lincoln, which I would recommend doing so Yeah, as after quite a bit of research and looking into this, my recommendation would be Do not make linked in your soul portfolio. I would recommend going with something much more popular, much more easily searchable, like the hands or even like social media as your primary. The benefit to LinkedIn is there are a lot of people on lengthen. It's going to give you more SC opportunities, and it's just another place to showcase things that you've done. So if you're already on LinkedIn, it takes, you know, 10 minutes to upload a project or, you know, a beautifully ended image. There are few up there and have it what I want. What I want to point out is the end user who's looking at this. If you're looking to get in house design position with a big company, they expect Lee On the flip side, let's say you're you're wanting to be more freelance or you're wanting to show other clients your creativity. Lincoln is not. It's business sterile monkey it? Yeah, yeah. I mean, you can look here, like if we click on this piece, that's beautiful, But that's all the information you can see, and you can still see everything else ghosted in the background. It doesn't do your beautiful photograph justice like right and again hashtag disclaimer. Your portfolio will never be done. I look at this thing's cringe known work, so, like it's just part of the deal, like you just got to get over it. I've got to get over it. Hey, yeah, hands Portfolio was banging like five years ago, said of that. So bad s Oh, you know, I guess, to wrap it up. LinkedIn is awesome. You should flush it out, take the time to keep it current. It's easier to keep it current than it is to have to try and put everything. Yes, at one point, and it's really handy because you can export. We'll talk about this later, but you're going to export, Pdf, with all of your experience listed right there, so you should print it out again. As a graphic designer and graphic design course, I highly recommend against it because you should be more creative than just the sterile bullet list, you know, to stand out again that but is there through the CEO piece, which, you know, it's not going to hurt you. It's just gonna, you know, increase the potential that someone's gonna find your name somewhere on the interwebs. So there you go. Yeah. Awesome. Well, I hope that's helpful to you guys. I would recommend if you don't have one set up yet. Get started. Start. You know, getting everything plugged in, get your social media accounts linked up and sink Tup. And speaking of social media, we're gonna talk next about utilizing instagram and Facebook for your portfolios, which is a really great way to go if you prefer something that's really at your fingertips instead of more intensive like bs. All right, guys, we'll see in the next video 11. Using Social Media Platforms as a Portfolio: Alright, everybody, in this lesson, we want to take a look at using social media profiles as your portfolio. So, for example, but not limited to the current hotness is instagram. I'm sure by the time you're watching this, it's going to be something else that's capable of mind. It'll probably tic TAC videos. How's that Dio? Okay, just trying to gauge gauge my training Talk about Facebook pages. So All right, so let's dive in. So the first thing that I want to mention in any social profile our social media platform, I think one of the best assets to using that or the or the best benefit is the fact that it can show your current work in progress and why that's so valuable is as an as an employer. If I'm looking to hire you, I'd rather see your current projects what you're really working on right now? What are you learning? What do you interested in? What are you doing? Not something that was polished from three years ago. Back when you're in school, right? And so to me, that's where stories like instagram stories, Facebook stories or Well, let's your personality let your personality Yeah, and it's and it doesn't have to be polished. Get your everyday life. So it's actually easier to just take your phone out and, you know, do a quick pan of something laying on your desk. Hey, you know, just finished these brochures or just whatever, and that's that, to me is easy cause it doesn't even have to be lit well, like it's just it's just a raw story, everyday story. Now, however, you can take that as a designer, and you you can really shine by lighting it right by setting it up right and doing it in a way that's just leaps and bounds above everybody else in their stories. Well, there's two different things with social media. There's the quick live, you know, work in progress. And then there's the evergreen posts that are gonna live forever and those you want to be. Well, we can. We went, Oh, yeah. So what's going to dive in and look at some of this just kind of see where we're at with. So this 1st 1 that I pulled up is for, um a what is it an interior design company? Um, and what I liked about what they have done. First of all, beautiful banner. Simple, elegant. It tells their story very, very quickly and easily. Um, And then you scroll up to their posts and you can see. First of all, they've included more than just one image per post, which is huge. It gives me more toe look at like we talked about before, on linked. And if I'm gonna take the time to click on your about, give me a few things to click. Well, I think this follows a nine closely with what be hands is like to you clicked on the thumbnail and more get the whole project and you can see everything that was done. Yeah, they also they mix in videos, which is huge. I think so. There is just and this is very, very simple. Their photos aren't like well, aren't super stylized. I mean, this isn't this hasn't been heavily edited. This is a little bit blurry, to be quite honest with you, but it's really it feels authentic. And it feels intentional. Which is what we liked about that one. This next one. Ah, this is a graphic design, and I picked this one. It's very simple it's a looks like a new page. There's only 150 people that like it, um, the bold use of color. And they're letting color speak for itself, which is awesome. And as you go down again, bold, this is right in the middle, and then you see bold and that's it on the white background. So you don't need to always have it Be busy. It doesn't always need to be an actual photograph. There is a time and place for just a stylized image. Sure. Next, this is a friend of ours, actually, Um, a local videographer. And I love how he mixes in real time photos of him doing his work and then his actual polished videos. You have any thoughts on this you want to add? I totally agree. Yeah, And I think something else to you that I see here that way haven't. Yeah, I was just going to say clout. And so some of his clients include, like, I was like, ESPN and, you know, Discovery Channel, like a bunch, a bunch of big names. It's like, Well, how do you get there? It takes time, but all I'm saying is that um as you get better up to the next in the next thing. Like even the fact that your project was for you know, let's just say somebody that was like, let's say, Netflix or whatever, like Oh my gosh, you worked with Netflix like all you maybe did was like export a photo for a website or something. But you worked with them. And so there's that brand as cloud to Social Media's ago. Please Teoh them on it, or a link to it without it feeling baggy. Yes, awesome. Eso this next one. This is another. That's this is a local design company, fabulous, fabulous people. They do gorgeous work, and what I love about their things is they mix in stories about things that they're working on. The aren't necessarily client related, like they just added a new, beautiful table to their space. And you see that and as whether I know them or not, I think, Oh, like I'm getting a glimpse inside their world inside what's important to them. Well, what it feels, especially especially where we can work remote, we can, freely from all over the world, the more that I feel like I know you the more willing to trust you, which actually goes into Remember which, of course, we talked about that. I feel like it was You can't do. I think it could have been. But basically, if you're sending out an estimate to do work with somebody and you're setting them your portfolio to look at your work if they already feel like you have a relationship together like they like you better than this other person who they don't even know, like chances are, that alone is gonna build so much more trust and trust you. They want to work with you if they like you, etcetera. So things like this are helpful, though, to help them feel like they know you exactly. And a Facebook page. I mean, personally, I prefer instagram. But a lot of people like Facebook because you can fit so much more information in at a glance charges Nice. So here's just some more things that they've worked on. You can see liberal with the hash tags here. They're proud of who they worked with. Sure, there tagging the minute and they're, you know, making the easy for people to search for things that they probably embedding, actually just posted on Instagram If we check the profile and then it auto post Facebook, which is a good point that we were going to make is why not have both. It's so easy to integrate the two, right? Right? Do the work once and it posts automatically to another. So that is that. And let's move to Instagram. Okay, So any thoughts, you'd want me just to go for it? Go for it. Okay. So I pulled up this one. Ah, as kind of an example of what not to do. I know we have been doing what to dio. This isn't one of our students. I doubt it sounds if it is, you're getting free advice right now. Or you can say I don't know what I'm talking about. What? Just possible to what I don't like about what they've done is it just feels very districted . So some of their things have these little a lower third information. Um, and as use girl, you see more of them, but it doesn't feel like there's a rhyme or reason to anything that they're posted. There's nothing tying it together, which is a question a lot of our students have asked is, how do I get a cohesive portfolio? Well, you have to pick something if you're gonna do bottom thirds, Do it on either every other or something, so it looks patterned and intentional. Um, make it so that your backgrounds all carry a similar color scheme. I mean, there's so many different ways you can do it. But this one just feels like this doesn't even look like it's made by the same designer. A lot of their stuff is really geometric, and and what not? And this doesn't feel. Do you know what I mean? Yeah, I'm this kind of damage. Not this dances on that. Well, how do we know what's good design? Because, like earlier in the B hand section, we talked about how we had a wide variety of samples. So now we're saying, but keep it together, and then the difference being this is now we're looking at a social media presence where you if you wanted it to be cohesive, like if you just If it's just like you would say, a smattering of all kinds of stuff, well, then that's great, too. But it's just I guess from our perspective. Just make it intentional. Whatever it is, whatever you like. I look at this set of nine things, and I think, man, they missed a big opportunity. These two are beautiful with this dark background and the really simple we could have done that here. We could have done that here and it would have felt sure, like they belong together. All right. So enough with what? Not do. Let's move on. All right. So I love this guys, and I don't know why. Sometimes you can't put your finger on what you think is good. Um, but I like that he how he aligns everything. He gives space space around the murder, another everything. It's beautiful. So another thing he's doing well here, looking at this pumpkin, or is that a peach? I think it's a peach. My bad. Sorry. Anyway, the point is, ah, it looks like a work in progress, right? It looks like it's showing a couple samples of something he's done right on. And, uh, to me, the work in progress or showing compass like Version one version to version three. I feel like that really helps build the story like it shows your work full. It's like school in math. We had to show our work. We couldn't just put the answer was whatever. We had to show how we arrived at that answer, right? So I want to see people like well and knowing how you could just download a template now from creative market or involved two elements or whatever. Like I said, like, it makes it feel How much of that did you really do? Right? And so, by showing your your progress in your process, it helps me see how you think about creatively solving problems, which is even more important than just seeing a beautiful finished piece, because I want to know like, Well, great, But are you able to repeat that? If I hire you, can you exactly created exactly right? Another thing before we move on to a different one is the scale. Um, there's a lot of different colors and stuff happening, but the scale feels appropriate, you know, everything is centered with a certain amount of margin, and it just feels good. Toe. Look at your eyes. Happy when you look at this. This is a photographer page. Yeah, So this is the beautiful thing about this is the color tone. Just feels so this is This is an example, especially for photographer and I have worked with Hayley. She's great. Um, special shout Haley, What's up? So anyway, all ah, majority of her photos and granted what she delivers to our clients could be different with us. Black and wider are on, you know, with the color not applied to about on her instagram page. Specifically, they all get a filter. So it looks like, like literally anyone of these photos. On the one hand, you have the content that stands out, whether it's a wedding or an engagement or pregnancy or whatever. It kind of falls within that theme. And you know the landscape. We live in Montana, it's beautiful here. And so those are all great seem like, but they're all the same color grade, and so that way it makes it cohesive. Even though it didn't. I said, you got field. You've got nature wedding, you know, couples, things like that. And so even even the content doesn't vary that far. Like I don't see muscle cars in here, right? I don't see right, you know. Here's here's canoes and here's a close up shot of people. It still feels like it belongs and using a filter. I mean, she's done a lot more than just like a blanket filter, I'm sure. But using a filter, which is like what I do for our family Instagram. It's an easy way to just make everything feel like it at least belongs. And that's that intentionality piece that comes back to whatever portfolio format you choose. If it looks like you've been intentional with how you're presenting it, it goes along, so back at the top, do your research study, be hand study all these kinds of things that we've been mentioning figure out what's gonna fit with where you want to go. Maybe not where you're at right now, but where you want to go. So that way, As you spend the next couple of years building up your portfolio, you have to go back and fix things like I have to go to you because I didn't think ahead. And so every time I want to update apart from that, everything so anyone else helps guys, thanks for listening to us in some ways ramble. But we're really excited about this. We hope that you can see our thought processes be approached looking at this and maybe that clear some things up for you. If you have any questions or comments definitely coming below and let us know. And what's next? We got coming up next? Coming up next is personal website. So utilizing things like Wicks square space. Ah wordpress to create your portfolio. Awesome. All right, here we owe 12. Personal Website Portfolio: Alright, guys, in this video, what we're gonna do is take a look at some websites. I do think about that. Almost that WordPress. We're gonna look at some WordPress websites and Squarespace websites, some Wix websites and a bunch stuff in between and basically just kind of look at them and evaluate what is the most effective as well as again artistically what I like and from somebody who might be actually hiring somebody. What General likes exactly. All right, non designers. Perspective. Perfect. What? He's trying to kindly say it's true. All right. 1st 1 on the docket, this one is just dropped it gorgeous. Um, the color is beautiful. It draws you in. She looks happy. I mean, what's not to love about this as the is the home page image, So Okay, however, and this is squarespace. So something to think about, though literally. The only thing you're looking at is a giant beautiful photo. Navigation is hidden at the bottom. Yeah, I'm not a fan of that. I don't like making people have to think or look for it, but I like that it gets out of the way and you can see the artwork Oh, you don't just notice. So So this is twofold. So this is both a what to do and what not To dio dio capture attention with a gorgeous photo. Don't make it difficult for someone to find more of your work and potentially contact and hire you. And I mean depending on the image size and the screen size. In this case, we've got this full screen on a huge screen so I can see this little navigation arrow. But I think when it was a smaller size, it was hidden, and I didn't even know that I was there. To go to the next image or it, like right now is an example I can't, which is a design element. But if she's no Web designer, she probably doesn't know how to change it. That's true. I'm just saying that's true. So Okay, okay, so if we go to she has several things down here. She hasn't about Paige and really, really quickly before. We get too deep into this, So why do a personal website for your portfolio? In my perspective, there's a lot of great things to it, much like a vanity plate on a car license plate. You can customize your you are l you know so that it's your name or it's something catchy or it's your business. So it's not just instagram slash whatever. It's unique to you, which I think is huge. It's an SCL opportunity. Sure, what else? When you said vanity nameplate, I got way square out. So we're in Montana here, and a lot of people here, like to instead of just getting the default numbers, you're getting your license plate glass You'd like, for example, our truck. The license plates is old gray instead of like a bunch of numbers and stuff because that's the name it has way Neymar cars. Anyway, total side note. Okay, but back to the portfolio, your portfolio ultimately serves to showcase not just the breath of work you're capable of and the depth of worker capable of, and the style of worker capable of. It's also showing you, because if you've taken other courses, you've heard us say it. You're not just selling a service, you're selling who you are, you're selling your story. You're selling a relationship with a potential employer or future clients. So the more that you can let them get to know you the better. And in some ways a personal website gives you the biggest blank canvas to create exactly that story that you want to tell in her case here, she hasn't about Page. She has multiple other tabs down here. What? What do you think, honey, when you look at this so again? I think now that I know how to navigate it, it's got some really great things. It's it's what I like the most is that it really lets the artwork speak. It's got a lot of white. She's linking to her other social profiles, which is great. I'm kind of curious what yes ends for That is a definite do. If you have a personal website, you should also have other places where your work is showcased. So so one thing here is I look at this. I clicked on our on our instagram page, beautiful colors, bright red, bright pinks, but none of them speak to a design portfolio. This looks like all personal stuff, so you know, and I'm guilty of this, too. If I go to my own Instagram page like it's it's D Mitchell design, but I mix in personal with it like it's a mess. So I did something I should work on. It's a choice, so sure it's a choice. If it's your only portfolio, it should be 100% portfolio. But if it's if you have multiple, it just shares more of your story. So all right, what we learned from that Squarespace website WAAS pops of color, beautiful photography and raise your navigation easy. And if we go this next one, let's go back to the home page here on the site. It looks like being a squarespace templates that we've got the exact same template here in use. So this one, Yeah, And so you know, obviously, simply by changing the size of your navigation makes a little more obvious If you're gonna do it here at the bottom. This gal, definitely I would assume, has someone helping her with her site. It's pretty involved. Very intense in the back end. Um, and you can see you can approach squarespace from either a d i y perspective or you've hired a team to customize it for you. And that's the beauty of using WordPress or squarespace. Do you agree? I mean, whatever your level of knowledge and ability, you can make it look good. So it's nice about, like squarespace or wigs is You can actually call somebody Help. Yes, you can. So that's helpful to yes. So what I like about this one as as a portfolio site when you click on work here, Okay. She's got this beautiful slider that gives you information and an image, which is a great way to go. Um, and then where did you find that gallery? Oh, I click them before down here. Help. Thank you very much. Okay. So again, beautiful images and you'll notice there are some really defining elements throughout. She's got these lines E no. But so you're under a category Meuron backstage. It was That's OK. It's fine. He's throwing me off. We can talk about it here to defining elements like she has at least three images in each thumbnail here, right? It's clearly a collection. These things belong together. Um, going back to the one that I was on. Here s a rudely interrupted. Um, all of these have a cohesive. They have this horizontal line, this little band, and it's either orange or yellow as you can see it curies throughout, and that just makes your I happy. And it goes back. That intentional piece that we've been talking about it makes it look like sheep put together this portfolio in a way that was very, very purposeful, which, as a non designer, I don't necessarily understand why it looks good to me and why I like it. Um, and the same may go with the person who is looking to hire you, but they know that it looks polished. This is our last squarespace one. It's a differently out. You want to talk about this layout? What I like about it is that, Ah, airy on. Okay, so we've got It's just clean, you know. It's just cleanest, simple scales beautifully, and it's just like it is basically a landing page. So instead of you know, an involved navigation, we better social media channels and then we've got the portfolio for You are, Yeah, so that's what I do like about that in. And the other thing that we haven't really talked about yet is getting specific with your work. Instead of just showing like a bunch of random stuff, she's focusing very specific on user interface, so that makes me think that she's really good at this. Instead of being like a beginner and everything, it's like she this is her expertise and she's really good at it because she has lots of samples to show. And it works for her because the samples that she has to show our top notch their varied you know, they're not, they don't know. Look the same. They're not all the same style. Um, and I love what she's done here and again. This is a think, a stock template where you can put sure the image on the on the computer screen. But she has a video in the 1st 1 which is just that little extra, um, a bit of polish, and she does not have an about page on her site. So she uses this space, especially on the last sample that we showed to kind of tell her story a little more talk about the project. So if you choose not to have an about page on your portfolio website, make sure that you really, really go in depth and explaining your perspectives and your reason for making design traces for each project because otherwise the client doesn't really have much to go on in terms of why you make the decisions that you make and what your personality is and how you approach project. So you have to give them something somewhere, because I'm not gonna hire someone without knowing how they approach their work. And I think from a design perspective, I really like how clean this pages. I like the simplicity or it's not overdone. There's not a ton of textures in the background. It really lets you just enjoy the graphic that was made in the user interface that she's trying to show off. So very well done. Very all right, beautiful. Next. All rights is a WordPress. I'm not sure which, um, theme they're working off of, But the gorgeous thing about this is we're going back to those full with photos, and then they use. It's not parallax, but where they're fading in as you go down the images air fading in yeah, which can either be good or bad, depending on the size of your photos. It can bog down the load times, But as far as the photography website goes, if you're a photographer, you want a showcase, You're beautiful. And this type of layout really, really does it. So what we want to look for in something like this is their navigation. So looking on the sidebar look how far we have to scroll to get to the bottom. If I get most of the way through our part of the way through, I either have to scroll like mad to get back to the top or get all the way back to the bottom. So I would caution against something this involved or, at the very least, at strategic points. You know, three or breaking up with text and give your whoever is, you know, viewing this of the ability to get out of it and look at something else. What's your thought? I guess. Good. It's good to be back. Sorry, I don't see that. We're getting long winded here. It's one of the kind of keep going. Now, this site has a lot of stuff to explore. And not only that, like, so you want to be careful. And this is where press also. Yeah. So obviously the theme has some cool interactivity here, which is which is fun. You have to really be careful because a little bit goes a long way. I think they've done this tastefully. I think it works well. But on top of that, they've got some beautiful pieces and back to some of the other things we've said in some previous lessons as I click on this, um, the first time I loaded this, it took a while the load because as a graphic designer who maybe doesn't know how to do Web design, when you upload an image that's huge, it'll make the user experience difficult. Yes, or compress your images. But, you know, look at you. What I really appreciate about this just the attention to detail. Like just It's a clean background but rather troubled beautiful packaging. And they don't just do a straight on shot. They get creative. They show you all of these elements in these details. What's cool about it is I wouldn't okay, I could Photoshopped. I could photoshopped this but would take a lot of work. But what this tells me is that that's a real photo of a real product that really exists versus a template that we just had stuff dropped in. So this is just amazing. Like I love it now. One thing here. Okay, Now, you maybe didn't notice this, but if you look at the wrinkles there on the same spot So this is obviously a template, you know, poster thing. But I don't mind it because it still shows the artwork in the brand, which is cool. And I think it adds value. They're using it more as a divider than a style for sure. And here's another example of incredible photography that really shows the details. So you can see, you know, based on our response on this portfolio compared to the others, why we like this and just, you know, the above and beyond. And the amazing thing about this is, I think on their home page they showcased what, three products? Yeah, I mean, it's not They're not necessarily showing us depth or breath, you know, they're not showing us 12 different packaging designs. They're showing us, I think to. But the way that it's displayed has such, um, attention to detail in such a hair that even if you only have three or four total projects that you're super proud of, you can find a way to showcase them colorfully, playfully on your portfolio That will catch a client's attention for sure. Yeah, I'm really impressed by this. So there you go, guys. Just do that. All right, All right. This is the last word, press one. We have this and then one more site to show. So this one, this one also has some really hidden gems. It does. Just So this one works because the thumbnail images that they're using our big they're big . And they are, um, they're not. It's not a street grid, does that. I don't know if this is a theme or something custom, but there's a ton of animation built into this thing and, you know, overlay just way the heck over the top. So if you can do this kind of stuff, I mean props to you for doing it. Um, really Right. Really cool stuff. But again, you know, more than anything as, ah, hiring person, though, I'm like, I want to find your work right. I want to find the information about you. So there is something to be said about too much of a good thing, right? So because I'm a non tech person. So Derek navigating this. When I first sent this to him, I had no idea it even did this on. I'm the one that found There's so I think that, like simplicity one and out simple. And let your work speak for itself and showcase it creatively. Awesome. Okay. All right. Last one, Wicks, Wicks. One final. OK, so this one I chose, um it's an architecture I chose just because it's kind of that both and what to do. What? Not to dio, right? Um, it's simple. And it has your navigation is right here. So from a hiring perspective, it makes it super easy for nontechnical people like me to find exactly what I'm looking for , which is what you want. However, this is overwhelming. Orlins. Very. It's very square. It feels very engineer like you guys doesn't treat its more creative by having one big image. Two small ones, one long, skinny image, you know, so that the grid feels a little bit more organic and not so just Oh, my goodness. I'm in a honey comb. It's true. So yeah, So final thoughts you wanna leave them with? Yes. So when it comes to designing your web site, I think many of you in this course, probably on his Web savvy, as you like to be shameless plug. I do have a wordpress course out that you can check out that should help get the ball rolling for you. But even then what? That's why we're showing you this because most of these are just except for that one that was crazy most of their basic right. So don't overthink it. I guess I was trying to say And then also, uh, you know, I started off in WordPress because I like being able to arm wrestle it because I had a Web developers background. But you, if you have no blood background, I would probably guide you towards either your adobe portfolio of your portfolio dot adobe dot com. I'd explore that probably first and then a very close second. And the reason I say first because you get it as part of your family are here to do is buy domain name. If you want that custom domain name a very close second, in my opinion, would be squarespace. I agree. I built web from with that. Yeah, so I mean, it wasn't amazing by any means, But I could do it, and I have literally zero technical background. And if you're gonna use WordPress, my personal website is on the salient WordPress theme, and I and I love it. I think it's great, especially especially for portfolios. So if you have any inclination at all to try and learn WordPress or use that as part of your services, you know, maybe give it a try because then you can explore and kick the tires on your own stuff and then learn how to use it and and use it for a client. So that's my thought on the whole Web side of things. I hope that's helpful. Uh, if you had to boil it down to like a quick hit, it's just keep it simple and make it over the gate. And I have literally, like, 10 versions of my portfolio or more. I don't know. I changed its well, evolved. We'll change. And that's okay because you as a designer or a photographer or whatever type of creative you are, will evolve and change and girl fell. So I guess don't overthink it. Just get started. Yeah, right on. All right, these guys 13. How to Work With the Project Prompts in This Course: Alright, everybody in this section, that's where the rubber meets the road. This is where you get to actually build stuff for your portfolio is where the whole portfolio builder side of this course comes into play. So what we're gonna do is in each section, we're going to give you really project prompts. Some of them are going to be very specific. Some of them are going to be a little bit vague. But the whole purpose is to get you experience designing riel projects that you can put into your portfolio. Where this really comes into play is for those of you who maybe don't have any job experience yet and you're just kind of getting your big toe into this whole career side of things. This is what I had to do when I was in college. We had to build stuff for, you know, school projects. That's essentially what you're doing right here. So everything from visual identity and branding to package design, web design, traditional art, non traditional art hand lettering is a whole bunch of stuff in here really excited. It's gonna be awesome. And the thing that I want to keep in mind is feel free to pick and choose, right? If you don't have any intention to become a packaging designer and you wanna do Web design will then follow the web and mobile prompts. Right? Right. Exactly. Right. If you've got the time right now, do everything. Because that will make you more employer Mawr employable later on in your career. Yeah. So over the years mean Derek and I have been doing this for almost 12 13 years. Now, um, I have seen hundreds probably of project prompts come our way, whether it's a client brief or it's a request for proposal that I'm responding to on our company's behalf. And you would be surprised these things can run the gamut from literally a two sentence description of what they want all the way to ah 100 page document outlining exactly what they what they want to have done. And so your job for these project prompts and you know, when you are taking on pain, work is to be able to read between the lines of a vague description and run with it and also learn how to work within the confines of a project description that maybe is really overbearing eso. I have carefully constructed all of these prompts to evoke something a little bit different . A lot of them are based on loosely on riel project descriptions that we've had in the past , Um, and so some will require you to work within an existing brand. For example, you'll be designing things for Starbucks and things like that, and then others will require you to completely come up with everything. Whether it's, you know, you're using Laura MIPs, Um, or you're using placeholders images because the client doesn't have them yet or whatever it may be, and that is part of it. So don't get frustrated if you read a project prompted. It doesn't make sense. UH, reach out to us if you have questions or just run with it. Let's say you don't want to design it for Starbucks, but you want to design it for a local coffee shop in your town. Go for it again. This is for your portfolio. You're the one is gonna be using these end products. So have fun with that now something you wouldn't want to consider. As you go through this, there's there's basically there's two approaches one is, every project is handed like a different project or you take one brand, maybe it yourself. Or maybe you pretend that you're working for standing could apply that private everything. Like here's the business card. Here is the logo. Here's a Web banner. Here's a email template like everything to see how you could take one brand and make it cohesive across everything. So and you might want to do both. That's going to show really strong, and it just is up to you what kind of work you're trying to land. What makes sense for you in the time you have to achieve all of this? But that's just as you approach these design problems. Be thinking about that. Is this something that I want to take one brand way through, or don't want to try and have the opportunity to have by doing it different? What that's also gonna let you to do? You might have. For example, Starbucks is green, right? So you might have ah green color palette, for one thing, but maybe want to branch out into jewel tones or something totally different. Another project. Depending on your approach, you'll have that option so again not to belabor the point, but just think about that before you dive in, because it will let you kind of choose your own adventure as you get into this thing. Yeah, and you'll see So each, um prompt is given to different things down below. So there's Ah, lecture set up for and then there's also an assignment set up for it. Ah, the goal being just to make it as easy as possible for you to find the project. Prompt information. So don't feel like you have to complete every assignment like Derek said. But if you're the type of person that likes to check boxes, then that is why the assignments air there. So you can go through and upload your work and mark the miss complete. I mean, this is your choose your own adventure learning. Honestly, Something else to think about two is aspires. Checking boxes. Do all the work. Have all the samples you might as well, but don't feel like you have to do it. All right. Now you'll have access you lifetime access to this course. You always circle back to it, but definitely now, more than ever. If you're trying to get up and running. You might as well take the time to just do as much work as you can while you have the time and hopefully the freedom to kind of pursue this as a side hustle. If you probably have another job or your you know, taking other classes right now are like us. We've got kids now. It's very difficult to find extra time. So if you find yourself in a position now where you have a lot of time, I encourage you just to get after it. And just to use this time to really flesh out your portfolio while you can. Yeah, we're super excited to see what you guys create. Awesome guys. Well, again, last wrapping up these thoughts, you've got the lectures, right? And then those assignments. And so, like you said, we're excited to see what you create. So posters assignment so we can see those things. Yeah, All right. I have tons of fine. Will you old see in the next video 14. Portfolio Design Prompts Introduction: Alright, everybody in this section, we have some really special things for you. So when I was first in college, one of the very first projects that did was in an identity brand package. So we did everything from logos to letterhead and an envelope, basically the whole identity system for a company. So that's what you gonna start with here? This prompt is designed to get you up and running and give you something to create that kind of shows. Um, how you would take an idea from beginning to end. And this is geared towards those of you who probably don't have anything to show yet. And you're just trying to build something for your portfolio. You've got some scales, but you're not really sure what to do with them yet. Right? So this is gonna be a really great section. We've got a lot of resource. Is so they're not all video. Some of them are linked. Some of them are download. So definitely make sure you check it all out. You don't miss anything. Anything else for the section that you got for us? Yeah. I would just take your time reading the creative briefs for each project, whether its for the logo or it's for the business card or it's for the T shirt design. Um, we have intentionally crafted the language in each creative brief. Teoh either give you a ton of information or maybe not as much information, because in the real world, you never know what you're gonna get from a client, and you still have to be able to run with it. So the challenge is to create something for each of these prompts that you are proud of and that you would be happy to feature in your portfolio. Absolutely. And now some of them we've mentioned in some other lessons would be like, for example, I got to work with some pretty big companies, and they have such tight brand guidelines that at that point, I'm not really a graphic designer anymore. I'm a graphic assembler. I'm basically taking your logo on dropping it into something that's already been told me how to how to make. So for those, the value and something like that is, you could say, Hey, I worked with this huge client right now with the other stuff. That's maybe a mom and pop shop or in this case, it's a design prompt where you can do whatever you want. That's where you can really show your creative freedom and just go nuts with it. So that's what we're hoping you easy to do with these design prompts and really do have fun with it. And if you have any questions or comments suddenly coming below anything else before we let him go, No, have fun making me thinks. Alright, guys. 15. Visual Identity and Branding Design Tips and Best Practices: All right, everybody, I'm really excited for the section this. This, honestly I was in college is one of my favorite things that I did. I loved designing logos and creating a brand for a new company. So in this video, what I want to talk about real quick is just some quick tips and best practices to kind of help guide you along before you dive in. Because the rest of the section is just text and prompts and and, you know, following along kind of choosing your own adventure. I guess you could say so. I wanted to kind of gear you up for that before you just dive in. So first I want to talk about is when you're designing a logo, think about the Nike logo or think about literally any, just about any big brand logo. They keep it really simple, right? So you're creating a visual identity, and if you, if you're not sure where to begin, may be doing for yourself, that's what we did when I was in college was we just made one for ourselves. Actually, we did to get one for ourselves, and we did one for a fictitious company and I made one about a skateboard company. It was actually really cool. 01 step further. I am. I I should have thought of this before we started dove in, but we actually had. How did that work out? They either had a random word generator or they had a friend. We had to trade words with people to design. That was the name of the company. And the word I got was a voluptuous the lap shoe. In it was the voluptuous skateboarding brand Voluptuous Skateboard Co. I wish I could find it. We've moved like 10 times. A lot of fine is to be awesome. If I could find it, I'll post it. But anyway, that's what you're gonna do. Okay, so some best tips practices things like that. Keep it simple. Choose one you know to fonts, Max. You guys know this. Choose, you know, no more than maybe three or four colors. Try to keep it down. The two colors keep it basic, and that goes for everything. Like a local. But like the T shirt design, the business card like keeping it simple. And I would say, and I kind of cut you off but, um I'm gonna keep going. Keep going. Um, show your process. Don't just get to the finished product and then upload that to your portfolio. Like, make sure that you save things along the way. Like if you are a hand, you know, drawing artist. And that's how you think. And that's how you're gonna be coming up with concepts. Take a picture of your of your progress for sure. You know how that works And show how you got from concept to finish creation, because that makes for a really, really strong folio piece. Yeah, even if it looks like garbage when you first begin cause you're just trying to get things going like take a picture. But you don't have to post it, but then you have it. You can never go back if you build over the top of it and don't save it or whatever. Ah, lot of times when I start my projects for this specific section, I would recommend you started illustrator to keep it vector, at least for the logo. Once you dive into letterhead or envelopes envelopes, I don't think yeah or anyway, you know, maybe branch out into the photo shop or something else, but at least for the logo version of this starting vector starting illustrator, even if you don't know it, shameless plug. You can pick up the graphic design boot camp course and, uh, get more proficient, illustrator. But the point is, start there, get your get your basics going create. What I would do is create a I would name in the file, you know, whatever it is, underscore art board. And literally, I just threw all my art boards in my move or whatever your color palette option, right? And then once you kind of get closer to a final version, copying pesos into a clean, fresh document. And that way you can keep your progress like Jenna said. But you can also have, you know, a clean file moving forward so you don't accidentally wrong font, or sometimes they get corrupted. I had problems if I was getting corrupted by work for a long time in and out of them, so you never know. You may be designing one logo, but if in your process you come up with four different concepts, you may love more than one of them. Perfect. You have now multiple things that you can get to a finished product and show in your portfolio. Because again, these aren't for real clients. This is just a beef up so you can show what you can do for sure. Awesome guys again, if you have questions or comments, hit us up below and good luck. Have fun, yeah. 16. Packaging Design Tips and Best Practices: All right, everybody. I hope you enjoyed the identity design section. You killed it. You had tons of fun doing it. Made some cool stuff. Yeah, Eso This section is about packaging design. Now, we've had a ton of student questions asking about packaging and designing and how to go about that. So we wanted to include that as a section in this course that what you would have the opportunity to design some of that I'll be posting, though actually be. I want to show you how I would do a three d mock up of your packaging because to print packaging can be really expensive as far as having a real sample in your portfolio. So this might be a new area where you want to use. There's some awesome adobe tools that I'll show you how to actually render a three d mock up of your packaging at least as a first step to show that so don't feel like you have to physically produce something. But if you're feeling brave and ambitious, you totally can, and we'll talk about that in a little bit here. But before we do that, we wanted to introduce a section to you and again remind you that it would be all kinds of pdf downloads and and assets to help you to going. Don't forget about that creative brief for the section as well. And then any other thoughts on this Jen Yeah, just make sure to check out all of the links and stuff that we've included as part of the section because when you're doing packaging, it's It's different than just designing a digital asset like a logo. You have to take into consideration print specifications and whatnot for exactly what you're creating, whether it's a shipping box or a coffee, you know, package. If you're using labels, they have to be a certain size dependent where you're ordering them from. If you are actually physically printing on, you know a box that's going to be folded, you have to know exactly what that's gonna be, and you have to lay out your file in such a way so that you don't have to go back and redo everything later. So make sure that you check out the general specifications information that we've included and be prepared to do some research on your own as well. So what they want to add to that to some of you might be going well, how do I know what size to do or how does gold Thanks for myself? I do. Okay, so I have a really great book called Forms, Folds and Sizes. Okay, so it's filled with to most people useless information like where the folds are in the sizing for common in this case is air pocket folders and envelopes and even generic milk crates. And they look at this. This is from a VHS video cassette tape. That's how old this book is. You guys behave some, you know? Yeah. So I guess I'm trying to say is, uh, there's there's assets like this. When when I start a new project, typically what I'll end up doing is calling the printer. And the printer will already have the temple file for me, and they will be sending it to me. So that's usually how I approach a project like this. Now, now that I'm a little more advanced and I understand how they do it, I can actually pull out my own ruler and start going from scratch. But in this case, follow the design prompts And, you know, for those of you who want to learn how to push further, you can get books like this and because these problems are a little bit open ended. Of course, you have some freedom. So, for example, the shipping box prompt whether you find something online or finds, you know, does the specifications for certain box size that you like. There's no client telling you exactly what they want. So pick one, go with it and just know that knowing how to find that information is half the battle. Awesome. All right, guys, have fun. 17. Page Layout Design Tips and Best Practices: Alright, everybody in this section, we're going to be doing some page layout design. I'm super pumped about it. I'm actually probably more pumped because I get to show off my work role. Quick, give you some ideas. So we're gonna be doing some magazine covers. Some table of contents will be else. Advertisement. I think this is a magazine I got to be a part of And design while ago toe Very cool local magazines here. And I got Teoh Photoshopped this cover. So this photo looks basically nothing like it. When I started, there was a whole different background. The colors were all different. We had to stop a ton of fun with this one. Uh, so that's an example of a cover design where we can have the masthead. In this case, the A is creeping above table of contents. That was going to say is that the propeller on the plane is ah, Photoshopped behind the masthead, the title here and just playing with depth and playing with everything there. And you'll notice that this one I only had one cover story on here like most people would never do that because they have a chock full of, you know, all the different. If you go to the grocery store to go to the Isles, you'll see that story's all over the place. And so I really wanted to kind of experiment. Covers are a fun way for sure to really sleigh with type and play with scale, and there's so many different ways you can do the same cover. So here is the table of contents, and it's gonna be difficult to see so, well, real simple. Yeah, arrestable. But down here, the pages Can you hold that side? Okay, so the page numbers on the side here and there's old school places, a photo from Mike the seventies and what's cool about it, as I have that old cool Chevy pickup that you might have seen some of the videos and I photoshopped it in there as kind of an Easter egg that really been to print is just the coolest thing. Like having fun with things and sending part of a busier table of contents. Note. That's an ad. That's an ad. There we go. Busier, busier photo. It's got some stuff going on here. So Floral. Remember when that was true? Point is. Yeah. Go crazy. How fun. Have fun. Get creative. Make sure that you check out all of the example assets that we've linked to this section and do some research for yourself. Hit up your local bookstore. Check out what's popular so that you know what you like. What, You don't like what you might want to try out? Awesome. Any Any thoughts on ads on ads? Same kind of deal. So as you flip through a magazine, a lot of these ads I came with a newspaper or India print publications. So when I was designing this book, um, I was given a lot of the ads to place. So, like, No, I didn't make any of these ads at that point. I was just doing page layout, literally dropping in artwork that was given to me. Yeah, so I didn't have any creative control over that book. But what I would say is, go ahead and walk through the grocery store. Walmart target. You know, wherever you live and just look just literally pick up and get your hands on You don't think about it when you're looking at ad. You don't really think about. Okay? How big was the logo. Did they put the phone number in? There are just a website. Did they put the address? Did they have a special link that went to a promotional links? They could track it. Did they put the product itself? You know, Photoshopped the actual product, or was it just like a title or or sentence of? I'm not gonna of like the problem. They're solving like like have cleaner teeth. So is it toothpaste, you know, Is the actual image of the product of the toothpaste or is it a picture of somebody smiling with my teeth? They're showing the end results, right? So looking at an ad and trying to figure out how to approach that we don't think about it anymore because we're hit every day with so many abs. So I would I would start paying attention. Maybe even Pinterest is a great place to look at some creative ads and how people go about that. But this is a section you should be able to have, especially advertising. You should have a ton of fun with the section and similar to the packaging section. There are industry standard sizing, especially for ads so make sure that when you're setting up your file, you're doing it right the first time, Um, I had another thought, and now Oh, my thought came back. It did come as as you're going through and creating this, you may find that you get inspired for something totally different. That's maybe not a part of the prompt. Maybe you're working on the table of contents and you're like, Man, I really would love just to dio like an interior spread, Leo, go for it and create a fictitious magazine like thes prompts are to get your creative juices going. It's not for a real client, anyway. So if you start out designing an ad and you end up designing, you know of a Web banner advertisement is that of a print one who cares at the at the end of the day, you just want something to be able to put in your portfolio that you're super super proud of So an example of something crazy This they let me go nuts on this had a ton of fun. So, you know, the book opens this way, but they had a section called Hot Stuff and I decided to design it like this had to turn the book and, you know, definitely remember that we had a ton of fun with it. So, like there's so many ways you can push this and make it creative and not just, you know, here's a simple This was a simple article. Actually. Think you wrote this one You did by Jenna Mitchell. Look at that. Um, it's It's I don't know. It's just not a white page with, like, square images on it. So that's what I like about being able to go nuts with this. There's so many beautiful things out there for you to get inspiration. Still hit up your local bookstore, check out things online, get inspired. Makes him awesome stuff. Sweet. All right. 18. Digital Design Tips and Best Practices: our everybody in this section. We get to play with digital assets here instead of printing things. So we're gonna talk real quick about some best practices in some tips as you prepare these for your portfolio. So because of that, I've got two different things I want to talk about. We've got the digital side of this. So if you're creating in an email template or instagram grid layout or something digital, how are you displaying this? Is it on Lee going toe live on your website, or are you going to try and print out a sample of this into a printed portfolio? Like I've got this printed portfolio here? I've got a bunch of loose leaf stuff in here, and I actually have some websites that I've taken screen grabs and printed and put in my book. And so when you do that, one thing I want you to think about is yes. You're setting up your files for the Web, but you might want to consider making your artwork in such a way that you can print it in high quality. So, for example, back to that identity design. If you designed it in Illustrator, it'll scale Oppa's Bigas you want. So now maybe you've made something for the grid and it's a vector artwork, and you can scale it up now. If not, don't worry about it's not a big deal. I'm just saying, Thinking forward. How are you going? Yes, begin with the end in mind how you want to display this Because, for example, when I designed for male chimp, the images typically or no wider than 600 pixels lately have been making it 1200 pixels because of the U HD displays and retina displays and stuff. And so that's still not that big when it comes time, if I want to print it or show it in other places, so just something to think about. If you're trying to build a piece that's two to display, you might consider making it bigger than you're actually needing it to. Just so it prints really crisp and clear to something. Think about So we're going to be designing some email templates, some instagram grid stuff, some ive ites. What else we got going on? Um, lots, I would say, from a consumer non designer audience perspective, you want to make sure that you are giving opportunity for the most important information to be featured nearest the top of your designs. So if you're designing an email template for, um, let's say, a shoe store, you want to make sure that if they are trying to advertise hey, we have a big sale coming up that that's above the fold. So as soon as that email pops up, the the shoppers, the audience, they're gonna have the opportunity to click to shop or click to visit or click to redeem they don't want. You don't want to have to have them scroll all the way to the bottom to get to that vital information. So just making sure that you are not just designing with beauty and mind, but also with functionality. That idea is gold, right? That case study, so something we're gonna be talking about is crafting that case study. So it's not just a Hey, here's a pretty thing I made, but here was the problem We approached. Here's how we solved it. Here's how this worked out for the customer. And if this is a fictitious thing again, you could make it up like, Hey, this is for a fictitious client. The design prompt was X, Y and Z. It was for a school thing. You can call this a school thing or whatever, and and here's how I approached solving that problem that's going to be really important. The other thing I wanted to add to this is that you you have an opportunity to really flesh this out with the identity, branding the packaging we've already done. So let's just say you wanted to stick with that voluptuous skateboard company brand. Remember that I talked about just because the prompt says may say it's for a such and such company or what not if you want to develop something consistent throughout all of this, for one, companies go for You have that creative freedom. Yes, and now I'm wondering if anybody skipped the signal. Wonder what the heck I was talking about. You have to go back and watch the other videos catch up about that skateboarding company. Cool. I think that's pretty much it. Any final thoughts? Nobody analyst tied coffee, excited to see what you guys come up with? A what you create. Have fun with those guys 19. Nontraditional Design Tips and Best Practices: everybody in this section, we're going to be talking about non traditional design elements. Things such as, but not limited to stickers. Copy my patterns, vehicle wraps, all kinds of stuff. It's gonna be fun. It's almost like a practice that But we didn't, uh, so So for example, I have a sticker here, right? It's so pretty. I have a whole bunch of these stickers and sometimes if I'm throwing them into my actual print portfolio, I'll just set them in there and you can see it. You can feel that you can handle it. Or you could also put it on something like this today and take a picture of it or show in relating this to the meeting if I wanted to show it off like that. But we're going to be looking at ways up. Didn't plan that ahead. Okay, we're gonna be looking at ways that you can take nontraditional items and both create them for your portfolio. So if you don't have stickers to show our patterns or whatever, you can do that but also talking about ways that you can actually display that in your portfolio. Yeah, exactly a lot of times, things that a client may ask you to do, or that they may want to see if you're capable of doesn't fit into a traditional box. You know it's not. It's not part of their branding or it's not part of their their digital assets, but it's still something that needs created. I mean, look around you. Everything that you see, someone had to make it so Those non traditional design elements are key to include toe a well rounded portfolio to show that you're capable of thinking outside the box. And I would also say, and I mentioned this in previous lessons to that. If you want to be a nontraditional designer in doing thes by by having them a samples, you show that you're capable for one. But for two, if you have no desire to do this, skip this section like you don't have to do make every one of these things you know you're gonna be a Web developer. I don't feel like you've got to design a sticker on the flip side, if you're going to be a print designer or if you're going to be, you know, mawr of a designer in general. Yeah, it's great to show that you do Like Jen said, You do have that and really to do a little bit of everything. And as far as something tangible to like, hold on to in present to someone, let's say you are in an in person meeting. Difficult to maybe show off a vehicle RAB or a shipping box or something like that. But stickers, coffee mugs, things like that are really cheap Toe one off printed and make So yeah, awesome. Have fun with the section We can't wait to see what you make, Yeah. 20. Hand Made Art Design Tips and Best Practices: everybody in this section, we're gonna be taking a look at more of the handcrafted side of design such as illustration , maybe even painting. What else we have in this section? Some of handmade hand lettering hand lettering is a big one right now for yeah, it's basically for those of you who either already are more of a handcrafted artist or those of you that want to be able to showcase some of those things in your portfolio and just haven't done any of that kind of stuff yet. So if that's if you're one or the other, don't be afraid of this section. Embrace it and try something new. Well, I think this is just part of especially the hand letter inside of things, even if if you don't feel like you're a good illustrator artist at all, I would say Try it and dabble in it because this will help stretch and grow your skills and abilities. And again, it's great to show that you're able to work off of a computer and do some more non sure ice . That would be more traditional artwork as well. Exactly. And I think for for clients, you know in some of the other sections. We talked about the importance of showing your process from start to finish, how you solve problems, how you approach the project as a whole. And this is a really great section for you to document whether you're photographing it or importing it, um, to a digital version throughout to show. Like maybe you're making, um, you know, hand lettered sign ege for a coffee shop, which I think is one of the prompts, Um, you could show. Okay, here's here's a few different scripts that I tried and here's one that I landed on. And then here's kind of my rough outline of how this sign itches is taking place because, I mean, really, anybody could just show a finished, polished product. But each individual person is so unique and how they approach it. I mean, you and I would be very, very different in how we would I would probably just go right at it with a permanent marker , and so it ended out and you would take of much more calculated approach. Neither is right or wrong. It's unique to who we are, and that's part of when someone is looking to hire you and they're looking at your portfolio. They're not just looking at your work. They want to know who you are as a person, and so it will help showcase that. That's huge. All right, guys have tons of fun and good luck. 21. Resume Design: Alright, everybody, In this lesson, what we're gonna do is take a look at some common resume styles just to give you an idea of what's possible. Talk about the president cons as well as just again. This is the tip of the iceberg. Obviously, as a designer, it's your job to simplify the presentation of information. That's all it is. You're sending your information of who you are, the skills you have in a way that would look beautiful and is easy to read for somebody. So this is really important, as simple as it sounds. And for me, I hate designing resumes. I just they just feel so dry and boring to me. But that's part of that's part of it, like that's the point, like they are dry and boring and everybody hates him. And if you can take this and make it look amazing, then that really speaks to your skill as a designer and as a problem solver, a blame everything else in its your It's your shot to get your design style and aesthetic across also kind of at a glance. Awesome. All right, so let's take a look at these. Here we go OK, so we have six examples here. And, of course, there's more than six design styles to work with. It's a big world, lots of creative options, but these six are some of the more common styles, and so that's why we have chosen them. So let's dive in with this one on the top left here. This is a text heavy design option so you can see there's a lot going on. She has chosen to make it very, very simply outline. I mean, everything's in a grid formation. Everything is very clearly left. Aligned. Um, what are your thoughts? Initially, when you see this, it's, you know, it's it's doing exactly what it needs to do. It's very straightforward. What I like is that from a typography perspective, it's got a very clear structure. There's on Lee, a couple fonts, and everything is very well laid out, not confusing. There's not just a bunch of stuff screaming at me as faras. Lots of things that you know, we're all bold, and everything is the same size, like there's a very clear top down structure like we talked about in the last lecture. Contact information very clearly. Top left the name of the top. Very straightforward. Now, one thing I would suggest on this one. You guys probably potentially are pretty new to notice this, but at the top, you see that it doesn't will be called Bleed. It doesn't go past the edges. There's a little margin, which is really nice. You can play this one of two ways. If you're going to send in your resume, it's nice to actually, what you would do is you would print this on either. A special printer like my are printable printed the edge. But if you don't have one of those you'd printed on a larger piece of paper goto like staples or OfficeMax or something and print, unlike like 12 by 18 or led by 17 and then you physically trim it back so that it goes to the edges. On the flip side, if you're sending a pdf to an office, that's gonna get lost on them. So that's where you know, in this case, she's got that space. So this is a little bit more of a technical thing that I'm just I'm just thinking out loud as I look at this. Well, it's important you need to think about how your resume is going to be delivered. And you may need to make two different styles. You mean you mean you may want to make one that is for you to print and physically handed people and then an actual digital version. They may be slightly different. So looking at the things that we have up here, we've got these down here that are also a white. That might be great stuff to see, and it's like, Well, but it does have a white margin around it, and I'm kind of jumping around here, but basically, I'm just trying to talk about that bleed things. You've got these the red, the red one that would you would clearly have to do a full bleed and trim it back. So sorry not to derail us a little bit, but I just kind of thinking that way on the design. So one final thing with the text heavy option. Um, depending on the type of work you're trying toe land, this isn't of super creative or heavily designed style. But if if you have a lot of information that you're trying to pack in, this may be a good route to go. Yeah, I think is great now. Won't want one last thought to this style is even though, so I don't have an example of a bad resume on here per se, but this is kind of the bare bones for designer. This is almost Microsoft Word template for a designer. Yes, right. Like it's one of those things where it's like times New Roman for a fund like it's pretty, Don't get me wrong, but I would expect this at, like the bare bones level, right? Like I would. At the very least, it needs to look this good to me. Yep, and you'll notice that I mean, she doesn't include. It's just a template, but she doesn't include a space for accomplishments or recent projects, things that we recommended that you do include your previous video. But again, it's as far as just a straightforward design. It's It's clean, all right, so it's when you're looking all right, let's look at this beautiful red one in the middle. This is an example of outside the box design circle outside the it. It might be a little much for some people, I would say very much depends on what kind of job that you're trying to land. But let's let's go through this. So I mean, honestly, if your graphic designer, I feel like you should it should look like something like this. Different? Different than the last one. We just looked. So where this goes off the rails for me is what size font do you think that is in the middle? Probably tiny. Okay, Yeah. Okay. But my I wish you've never seen my very first resume that actually got me hired as an intern where I get to work like Nintendo in Netflix. Like it was kind of like this. Everything was smashed on the bottom, and there's a ton of white space at the top. It was it was really forward thinking at the time, but yes, I hear what you're saying. Um, but this kind of goes back to the point is fine line between nobody cares or not going to read everything. Yes, but doesn't look pretty. But on the flip side, like does it? Actually, just But you're right. So, like the other issue with this, especially with this small site you from a production standpoint, if you're doing Reverse doubts, Your printing basically reading all the way around the page up the letters. What's gonna happen? You're gonna get bleed. Your is going to creep in on it. So even though you might be doing size six fonts, which is the smallest you'd want to go in print, that's what you typically see on a business card. Uh, it's gonna be tiny and depend the paper you print on. It's going to be very difficult to read. So if you're gonna go the small, you might consider a different approach with the design. Yes. And that goes back to maybe having multiple versions. Sure. One for print, one for digital. What I love about this one is, um, he does a great job of drawing your eye exactly where he wants it to go. So as you look at this, his name is front and center. Okay, um, actually talk. Okay? You know what I mean from his name is just boom right there. And then you go right to this blue stripe right here. That that is right next to where his top skills lie so we can see right away. Web graphics, vector graphics, print you know, three d modeling. Awesome. And then you're I naturally goes then to the middle, where you can see kind of his his thought process here. How he thinks which is a creative thing to include. Yeah, I like that. There's three colors. We have the blue, the red and the white. Yeah, OK, we've got a couple of textural elements that don't quite like I love. Okay, so what I mean by that is we've got the blue stripe. You've got lines like dividing here. Which school? We have icons. We have more lines here, but then at the bottom. And it's kind of tough to see off to move my mouse for second. But we've got these diagonal lines now on the side. And if I pause for a second at the bottom, you see these little dots and so I like that. On the one hand, it's not just straight. There are some design elements. I definitely space. Yeah, I know, but I feel like there should be So, for example, those like these diagonal lines, like maybe have them appear somewhere just to kind of make it look like right? I don't know. Just a little more consistency with that, um, Rollins overall, Straight creative. And you can clear you can clearly get a feel for his thought process and his design aesthetic, which I think is hugely important. So all right, the next candidate here, this guy right up on the right. So she ah, Marianne has created a beautiful example of an infographic style. So she has graphs, bar graphs, pie charts, a little thing down here, showing her magical powers. So she's gotten creative not just with the design elements, but also the verb ege that she's using up up here, you know, a graphic designer and superhero. And she's seeking an establishment where my creativity and relevant experience will be utilized to create beautiful assets. And I think, including something like that. Like what? Like a quick introduction? Yeah. Yeah, it's It's a great play. It iss, and it lets people know your personality a little bit. So I I like up here where she's talking through. Um, she used, like, a timeline with an arrow, taking you through what she's done. Um, what is your thoughts about all of this? So she actually doesn't backwards, though. So, typically on a resume, you would show your most current at the very top, right? So it's a little bit of the arrow going up. I get that. Like, she's kind of going top down approach. But again, like we talked about this puts her oldest information top center. You know, we read, write top to bottom left, right? And so this makes her her school become more important than, like, her current, uh, work experience. So I you know, I get why she did it this way from an infographic perspective. Like I totally get it. It makes sense, but it really should be flipped the other way for a reason. All right, let's and I don't see any contact information. Oh, snap. You're right. So how do we go? I want to hire this person. But day, I don't know how to get ahold of her. Wow, that's a big oversight. It is. I I will say that what she has done here, though with using using color and this Infographic style, it can be a great way to guide a non creative person, which not that all hiring managers air like me and aren't super creative. But we don't always think that way, and so guiding us through your information, um, is important. This is a great way to do that. So as we dive into this a bit further, some inconsistencies. All right, so So super Marianne. Okay, we're running with superhero theme, but this font is not a superhero fund. Like, if you were things like the Marvel Comics air like, you know, Superman, Spiderman, Batman, like any of that kind of stuff like this does not have any of that kind of feel to it. These pink, you know, these these letter jewel tone colors that doesn't speak to super hero to me down here, she's talking about power ups, which feels more like a video game than a superhero. And these icons don't reflect like I seen so that as I if I, you know, as we dive into this further, there's some inconsistencies here that I think she could have easily made this in over the top resume. And so it's it's pretty good, but those are just again that consistency is really important to think about, so all right, let's go ahead and keep going here. Three more. I don't want you to all of them in this video. But way will do this bottom left. This is my favorite of all of them. This is the what I've called the heavily designed resume. Um, so it's it's on the right, not on the left. The left is just kind of a little descriptor, um, of how they made it. But literally every part of this resume has been designed, right? It has been tweaked, its got thes custom icons. And what I love about this is it's very simple. I am not overwhelmed by information. I can clearly see their education, their work experience, their contact information and a little bit about their illustrative design style. I think that one thing you'd want to be careful of what this So that example in the last video where we talked about, If you are trying to get a job at a sports store where I, Mom Blawg or for somebody like yeah, you know, I think I've been watched a lot of stuff on social media, see a lot of Gary Vaynerchuk stuff now, like I was trying to get in with somebody like that. And like a top and marketing agency design agency This is a little bit cute sea. It's great. It's really well done. But to me it speaks more like to somebody who's It's just right. I'm just saying, like, you gotta be careful of how the connotations portrayed right first year. But what I love about this is you could easily adjust it over sure to be so that it fits with whatever you're trying to apply for. And I like that it doesn't overwhelm with information, right? Like it kind of speaks for itself, etcetera. Perfect. So there's that one. Next. This is the colorful option. They're utilizing color and, um, a really, really simple grid pattern toe walk you through exactly what they have done. So starts with the name um And then the only downside is where is contact information? Right? And it's hard to know cause this could be a template and not a riel. Exactly. Well, it's right here. It's all here, the email, all that stuff. But it is it just it's busy enough that, like you kind of have to study it. And what I like about this, though, are the colors and how it it walks you through. I mean, there's a ton of information happening on this. And so if you argon include a lot of info, color is a great way to design it without making it feel over designed. Because if you try to fit all of this information into the previous resumes style, it's just gonna feel way too busy. And you're not gonna sure you're not gonna do it. So you have a lot of info that you want to include. That's the best way to do it. All right. Lastly the asymmetrical. So basically, he took a straightforward like, You could turn that and have it being straight up and down, tweak it just a little. Gives a little bit of a visual from what's going on here. Um, so it feels designed, but he's also got a ton of information here, and he has his stuff in the right order. Work experience. First education later, right Like that. That's true. That's something that we haven't really talked about yet. There is definitely an order, and this would be the way you'd want to do that presented, uh, the other thing you would do this is just a sample. Clearly. Yeah, Well, this is it. you. It looks like psd freebies dot com Plug to them obviously is a template, but again, this rules back in the nothing to you're gonna have a couple of issues going on if you're going to a full flood with black on paper. If you physically printed that, you'd want a printed on a heavier paper stock or or some advanced printing techniques to make it not get all wrinkly and, you know, just totally flooded as a digital. Pdf, this is great. It's gonna look great as the same deal you're gonna run into where that black ink is just gonna flood in on that light text. You gotta be real careful with that, right? What's interesting about this? Soon as there's a spot for a photo which know the others included. And I mean, if you were getting if I were getting you know, 30 50 80 resume just crossed my desk. That one would say, you know, So I know this is wrong this day and age, you're not supposed to judge people by how they look or judge a book by its cover. But if you're somebody that's been blessed with, you know, maybe whiter teeth in the very symmetrical face here, go ahead and show it like you know what I mean. Like is much as we you know, you're not supposed to discriminate in the work force. That can still happen. And so, um, I have heard both way. I like for me. I don't really care like it's not what is about for me. I'm just saying, I've heard I've heard this on different podcast that I've listened to and some different things. Just people talking about that. So I find it an interesting It's just interesting. It just interesting something. Think about, like, even simple cues like, How are you dressed? So for him, he's got a T shirt on. He's probably, you know, super chill developer, graphic designer dude, right? You know, Is he wearing a button up? We have a tie on, You know what I mean? Like is he can as he shaved or is he, like, got like some serious scruff for the baseball hat on? You know, I mean, like, it's not how you it's all about. I guess I'm trying to get to Yes, it's all about your brand, right? You know, your spinal teeth Are you kind of frowning? This is all part of it is a serious photo. Is that a candidate? Is it a Yeah, I'm not saying you know what? Maybe I should read. I'm not saying like, if you're ugly, don't show your photo. What I'm saying is purpose toe to show yourself in the best light. Yes, exactly. Right. Because that is, at the end of the day, what your resume is. Your resume is putting the foot forward that you want them to see. Yeah. So that's good. Yeah. Awesome. Guys. I hope that helped you get some ideas on how to present your resume and what to include. What? Not to include. And some ideas for the layout. Yeah. All right, guys. Thanks. 22. The Art of the Humble Brag: All right. So, in true spirit of the humble brag, Yes, I'm gonna let my wife talk about me, huh? All right, well, let me on the spot here. Um, so Derek is fabulous at letting his joy for everything shine through into his work. So everything he's ever designed feels authentic. It feels true, Teoh the clients vision on but also has a vibrancy to it that I think is due in large part just to the fact that he loves what he does and that really shines through, um and so that right there, in a nutshell, is an example. That was amazing. I didn't even Wow. I mean, I was mostly kidding, but you were going to keep going, so I'm just going to see where you're going. Thank you. That means a lot. Which leads us to the first point of this little video lecture. Um, the best way to humble brag is to not humble brag it's toe. Have someone else do your talking for you. So another. That was amazing, cause if I said that, you'd be like what you are. I don't know what kinds of ways I could have gone, so we we If you've been a student of our string length of time, you know that we read and promote a lot of Brennan Bouchard's stuff we love. It s O. A great example of the humble brag written by someone else is found in his back cover of this book. So someone has written, and it might be him that has written this just in that third person, and it says, Brendan Bouchard is the world's leading high performance coach and one of the most watch quoted and followed personal development. Trainers in history like Wow, Success Magazine and The Oprah Magazine have both named in one of the most influential leaders in personal growth and achievement. Name. Drop Munch, you know. So if this were to be first person, it would come across as awkward. Oh, it will be a lot of I will be a lot of I have. I know I've seen I've done, which feels yucky, Um, but when it's written in this third person and she's we home school, you've been teaching our kids haven't you anyway? So when it's written in this third person format, whether it's your bio on your personal portfolio, so are your, um, if it's your description of a project that you've worked on, if you change it from I to that third person, it it shifts everything, and it feels less brag e and just more informational for sure. So here's another example of that. So if you go to my website derek Mitchell dot com ford slash about this is my current bio. And so actually, Jenna wrote this for me because I didn't have to say about myself. And so it came across that way. Uh, but yeah, you were right if you were to trade. So it says, you know, Derek has spent It's on my own website, But it says Derrick has spent his entire career in the creative arts marketing sector. Right? So versus if I said I have spent my entire life and I have done this and I've worked with these brands like You're right, it does. It totally changes how it's received. So that's amazing. Good. So that's point number one. I think, for this video, if we're if you're taking notes, um is one and out to sea turn into that first person or that from the first person to third persons. So you're talking about yourself instead of saying I, um the second thing in terms of the art of the humble brag is to make it about like if you're talking about a project that you created for a client and you're using in your portfolio talking about the product as ah whole instead of just this one amazing thing you did. So, for example, let's say that I designed this book cover. I did not. But let's just say that I did, and I'm telling a client, either in person or in writing about this process. If I just say this is a beautiful cover and the typography is spot on and the color palette is amazing, that doesn't really give them any information about this project. Other than that, I think it's really cool. Um, so of better approach would be to say the client came to me and wanted an eye catching but covered that would stand out on the shelf from other you know, books in it's genre. So how I approach that is I did some research. I saw what a lot of other book covers were like. I developed a unique color palette in an eye catching color based on what the client wanted , right? You're always hearkening back to the client. Putting them were in the driver's seat with us to execute er of what they want and then, you know, blah, blah, blah. Finished product, Um, telling the whole story instead of just saying my thing is awesome. That's amazing. That's good feedback. Thank you. Yeah, yeah. Um, So I think then the final thing is, don't be afraid to talk yourself up and to know when to toot your own horn. This is especially true if you're looking to land a job and not just, you know, get a one off gig. Do you have any thoughts? That's actually all you know, That's actually a really good point. So what we just suggested is great in print or on a website when you're using the third person. But if you're actually in the interview, I'm not going to like Well, Derek is, you know, worked for some pretty big brands, and Derek has done this and like that right now, we're trying to land a job. Yes. Now, if you're if you're talking about the humble brag, actually at the desk trying to get the job. That's a really good question. So when I approach that, I think it's trying with the work. Speak for me. And so right back to what you said in that example was perfect. I would I would follow that guideline with each piece. I could be like, you know, this was a sticker that I designed. It was, um it was something that I wanted to represent a brand I was working on, and I wanted some that would fit in water bottles as well as the back of a cell phone case . And so this is just one of the compass that I came up with and it actually worked really well, you know, I could go along that road, but I'm never I would never be like, Yeah, I'm really amazing. And I'm really fast and proficient. Um, I might say something like, you know, you know, worked really hard. I have been using photo shopped for gash about 21 years now, and I've learned a lot. I still know there's a lot left to learn, But in those 21 years of using voter shop in about 12 years, of using it professionally. I've got really good at print design and Web design, you know, I don't know how it had pivot that, but I would. I'm not coming across like you're. I know everything. I'm amazed. Or you you're providing ups and downs because no one person is incredible at everything. No one person is incredible. Even just one thing. To be quite honest, there's always something we can do better, Um, which, if you are in a job interview situation where you're trying to use your portfolio to land like a full time gig somewhere, chances are high that either in the written application or in your in person interview that the hiring manager is gonna ask you a question like Why are you a good fit for this job? Or what skills do you bring to the table that you know would make you a clear yes for us? And when those questions are asked, those are direct invitations for you to not so humbly brag. So if you have won an award, if you have, let's say you're fresh out of college and you graduated at the top of your class, or let's say that you have specific experience in that industry. Um, that's the time Teoh let those things come to the forefront and really own and be proud. Um, so, for example, let's say that Derek was interviewing to be the creative director for, like, Wired magazine or something like that, You could say, because you've designed many a magazine in your time, you could say, You know, this isn't my first rodeo. Like I've redesigned magazines from the ground up. They've had publication of, you know, x amount. You know, this many people have have seen that, you know, really give them concrete information. And don't be afraid of of sharing your achievements if there's been a question like that asked of you, because sometimes people want to know specifically what you have done and what you have accomplished, and I think when in doubt, you could always turn it back to them. So if, like, let's say, Derek's been talking about his magazine experience for a while, and he's starting to feel you can get that check in your spirit about like who have been getting a little draggy, you could always end by saying, but you know, I am so excited to learn more about the culture and the vision here at Wired. And I can't wait on board more and t to see how I could bring your vision to fruition, you know, really, just bringing it back to them. I think that's amazing. That's great feedback and something I probably should've prefaced before. We get too far into this video, you know, now to kind of do it on her a little bit. Jenna is amazing and has achieved a lot in her own right, and especially with the language arts side of things, as far as how things were said and how they're written now, remind me your degrees, your secondary education and English. So yeah, so as far as, like, somebody who knows the English language and how it's supposed to be written in, what the connotations of how you say something like she knows what she's talking about. So that's something that definitely take that the heart, you know, definitely apply what she said. And I think you go a long ways. Yeah, really, really excited for you guys as you wrap up this course and hopefully have a a nicely fleshed out portfolio excited for you to go share that with the world and see what kind of work it can land. You awesome. Alright, guys, that's all we have. Go land. Cool jobs. My brain melted. I was still thinking about my wife over here. All right, Good luck to stuff. 23. Recommendations for Remote Virtual Hands Off Portfolio Presentations: Hey, guys. So now we're going to talk about how to share your portfolio with a prospective client or employer and how to kind of get your foot in the door when it is not a face to face conversation when it's something virtual, whether you're submitting it through an online job board or via email. So if writing or uh, sending an email or composing your thoughts or promoting yourself like that isn't something that you're naturally comfortable with, don't worry. Ah, we've included a few email templates for you to get you started to make sure that you download those, um and then right off the bat, I would just say, Make sure that when you're sending an email to somebody, whether you're applying to ah, job posting or what Not that you include some of the information that's already on your resume. Don't just say hello. My name is Jenna. Check out my resume. Thank you. Goodbye. We need to give Thank you. Goodbye. You need to give a little more information because again going back Teoh the resume builder lecture. You only have a few seconds to get their attention. And so don't assume that they are going to automatically click and open and read and look at all of the attachments that you are including. So you need to make sure that your email text or your job portal text or whatever it is that you're sending out, that it is succinct and to the point, but also shares a little bit about you. So you have any thoughts on that? That's a thoughts. Let's hear them. Oh, just in general, as far as is Okay, so here's the deal. Like, um, I am a people person in a big way. Like so Shame means aspires, like not being she started. Like sending out that email, right? But if it comes time to, like, read the room or, like, read somebody's responses like, that's where I'm really good at it. So that's where it's nice that we work well together, where she can get all the ones that are in print. I can, you know, go meet the people. I like to bring her along, too, because it's just always nice having that second person who can always here, um, what somebody's actually really saying. But when you're on your own interviewing, you don't have that luxury, so it is really important. And in today's age of remote work, it's getting less and less common that you will have that face to face interaction as your very first point of contact. So setting yourself up for success, increasing your chances that they're going to want to book that second step of the hiring process with you is huge. So make sure that in your email that you link your resume that you link to your portfolio and possibly even just links in pdf images to like your top two or three portfolio items, just in case they don't want to visit your full portfolio site because they may not. They may be weeding through, ah, 100 different emails, and they wanted us quick click on a thumbnail. So speaking 300 different emails. How did they even get them to open that subject line becomes very important, very important. What what advice do you have for us on that? Okay, so you want to keep it short and snappy. Um, don't use cute little emojis like you can do now. Um, don't lead off with the standard to whom it may concern. That's just going right in the trash pile. I would say things like, um, I, you know, respectfully requesting your assistance. Or I would say, though no, sometimes it works. Sometimes it works. Yes, it's not really Clickbait, though I'd be like this, I'd feel do I'm I'm like, Wait, What? Like I'm just saying, Oh, don't listen to the O. Says the guy doesn't write any of our emails. Oh, my goodness. No. Um, it all depends on if you're sending a cold email or not sure, like if you're if you're just reaching out to someone, that's what I'm saying to a job. Yeah, if you're If you're responding, Teoh, a job that's been posted Let's say on you just they were regarding the creative director job or what I usually invite include Yuning. Yeah, include your names that they can easily see in the subject line. So let's see that you're playing to a creative director role at I hop, I don't know and and a Red Bull at Rebel Parade. Red Bull. Great. And so you're entering your subject line. You could say, um, Derek Mitchell's application for the creative director role, because then add iCal and state where they can see your name. They conceive the job that you're applying for, because chances are they have more than one job opening. Depend on where you're applying. Eso. Yeah, just keep it catchy, not Spammy And no emojis. There you go, guys, for the subject line. But yeah, um, make sure again that you download the templates that we've included for you. If you're not comfortable with drafting things from scratch, the still kind of get you up and running quickly and make sure to display Put your best foot forward, Use professional language. Don't get too conversational right off the bat. That also reminds me. Make sure you have a friend proof. Read it. Yes, I always have Jenna proof. Read my stuff before I send it. Always because we see what we meant to say Yes. And so it's very difficult to proof. Read our own and you might say the word to. And instead of spelling it, t o. You might have spelled t w o r. Instead of spelling. Maybe Teoh, like spellcheck, will not catch grammatical errors like that. Yes, So you have to have to have to If I see a type of like that. If I see it's almost an immediate like it is. Because while we're human, we can make mistakes. To me, that shows a lack of attention to detail. So it's the most important thing you can do is you're sending out these emails. Make sure that, you know, even these templates. If you're gonna rinse and repeat, make sure we spell that, right. Maybe we maybe we goofed up. I don't know. Makes you put your name. And I noticed in one of our other videos that I had a typo on one of the sites, so we're gonna have to go back and fix that. But the important thing is, read through it, read through it, find someone else to help you read through it. Um, this is your chance Seen? Yeah. And you, especially if you're coming up against 30 40 5100 of the people. You get three seconds. Yeah, exactly. And you want else's qualified? Like I'm not gonna mess around with somebody who didn't pay attention, dispelling things, right? Right. And what you want is to get to that next step to that face to face or that phone or that Skype interview because that is where who you are shines. Otherwise, it's just words on a page that anyone could have written, and it's very difficult for your true personality and what you bring to the table to shine through. So the goal is that second level, that second step, the callback, the callback Yet