How do you create an effective brand identity and design portfolio?

Your portfolio features carefully selected design examples demonstrating your ability to concept and apply your knowledge and skills to solving visual communication challenges. When developing any type of self-promotion, there are different components to your brand identity and portfolio you need to consider. You will utilize numerous points of contact and each serves a distinct function and purpose. This post is packed full of advice, arming you with the tools needed to create a first-rate brand identity and portfolio presentation.

Consistency of visual voice

I must start this conversation highlighting what I talked about in my previous post “Develop a personal branding experience” (http://dezignrogue.blogspot.com/2011/11/develop-personal-branding-experience.html) A consistent use of your brand elements allows others to get to know your brand and personally relate to it. If you're not consistent when promoting yourself, how can your clients or potential employers trust you to be able to do it for them? As you send out your marketing materials, keep in mind hiring managers and clients don't know you personally. They rely on your effective use of design elements to get a sense of who you are. All points of contact: your cover letter, resume, business card, website, promotional materials, etc. should visually relate and project a strong and steady message. If one piece of communication is conservative, another aggressive and yet another demure and soft-spoken, your visual voice can present as splintered or having multiple personalities. This will confuse anyone who doesn’t know you personally and is relying on your use of design elements to become familiar and comfortable with your brand. The end result: a consumer or client who doesn’t know what to expect each time they see a message from you, leaving them feeling uncomfortable and uneasy.

Different components to your brand identity and portfolio

As stated above, when developing any type of self-promotion, there are different components to your brand identity and portfolio you need to consider. You will utilize numerous points of contact and each serves a distinct function and purpose.

Traditional book portfolio

Whether you opt for a flipbook or a box portfolio, the traditional book portfolio consists of your work being printed out and bound or mounted onto boards. In most cases, this version of your portfolio comes into play after you’ve made some sort of initial contact and have been invited to meet with the company/client.

Attention to detail in design is a must in all aspect of design really, but extremely so when constructing this version of your portfolio. Make sure you aren’t using low-res imagery. Working as a creative director, I can tell you this is one surefire way to lose creditability. Using low-res imagery in a traditional book portfolio tells me you don’t know the difference between high-res (300pdi) and low-res (72dpi) equating to your portfolio being skipped and me moving onto the next potential candidate.

If you choose a box portfolio, I strongly suggest purchasing all of your boards at the same time. The colors of the boards can vary slightly depending on when they were produced and purchasing them from the same die-lot ensures they’re the same shade. Think beyond your immediate need and order extra boards too. You’ll be adding additional work at some point and you want to ensure the board shades remain consistent throughout the entire book. Also, the boards vary in color from front to back so take note what side you’re mounting the work on.

Watch those corners! You don’t want any dinged corners on any of the boards. It looks sloppy. When presenting using boards, I try my best to handle the boards myself to prevent any dinging. I find most creatives are respectful of what goes into creating a portfolio and do their best to be careful when handling them.

Absolutely no pencil marks on your boards. I know what you’re thinking, “Why not? I can erase them.” The eraser leaves smudges on the boards and alters the color of the board. Here’s a trick I use when mounting work onto boards: use a stickpin to mark where you want to position the paper. The tiny dot left from the pin is easy enough to see when you’re mounting the work, but also nicely disappears once the work is mounted to the board.

More and more I find the traditional book portfolio taking a less active role in design. Time and time again, I find myself showing work on screen as opposed to using my traditional book portfolio. In fact, it hasn’t been taken off the shelf in about 4 years?!

You need a web presence

Every designer needs to have a web presence. Did you catch that? Here’s a repeat: every designer needs to have a web presence. This can be as simple as uploading examples of your work to professional websites (I cover this below) or building a website for yourself.

While I hope you design your web presence (it’s another opportunity to showcase your design abilities) you can go the route of a website builder that uses a drag and drop platform as opposed to designing and coding the site yourself. These types of portfolio building sites allow you some sort of web-based portfolio without the coding issues.

Some drag and drop platform sites you can reference:

• www.wix.com

• www.editor.circlepad.com

• www.carbonmade.com

• www.webs.com

• www.homestead.com

• www.weebly.com

The point is to get your work out there and viewed by potential employers/clients. Even if your design focus isn’t interactive, your web presence helps get the conversation started. Creative directors are busy and in most cases don’t have the time to call you in to talk to you without seeing your work first.

A low-res pdf version of your portfolio

There’ll be times when you’re requested to send a pdf version of your portfolio via email or upload a pdf to a potential employer/client’s server. Please don’t email a 60MB file! You’ll certainly cause your intended recipient frustration and run the risk of taking yourself out of contention. Again, from a creative director perspective, I’d think to myself “this designer doesn’t even know what type of file is appropriate to send via email” and quickly put them into the “no thank you” pile. Creating a 72dpi document is more than adequate for on screen viewing. When sending out a low-res pdf, I include 72dpi in the name of the document so the recipient knows I know it’s low res. I also state in my written communication it’s a low-res file. A naming convention example for you: “DeanJamesBallas_INDUSTRY_WORK_72DPI.pdf”

Include a rationale for each featured project

These suggested guidelines should be applied to your traditional book, web-based and pdf portfolios.

We interact with designs differently depending on the medium. You surely don’t engage with a direct mail piece the same way you do a billboard. In direct mail, the viewer has a chance to sit and relax in the comfort of his/her own home and read through the materials at their leisure. An outdoor advertisement however, has to communicate its message in about 3 seconds. It’s all about exclamation not explanation. Don’t you think it would benefit the viewer of your portfolio to understand the context of the design?

Including headers and short, to the point descriptive texts for each portfolio piece serves to help the viewer better understand details about your design. They also act as reminder points for you when you’re presenting the work. What is the design medium? What is the concept? What is the goal of the design? Answering these types of questions for the viewer in your rationale helps cement why your design solution is a valid one in the viewer’s mind.

Formatting your header/descriptive text in the look and feel of your cover letter, resume, business card, website, promotional materials, etc. is a great way to allow these different pieces of graphic communication to connect. Remember, you’re branding yourself here with every piece of communication. Do not splinter your voice!

These helpful points should take a secondary role to the design piece being featured. Let the individual portfolio design piece take prominence and allow the headlines and copy to be there for clarification if it’s needed. Also, keep this header and descriptive text the same size and in the same position on each portfolio page. The viewer will begin to understand this is the area to refer to if clarification is needed.

Number of pieces

There is no set standard for how many pieces you need to include in your portfolio. Speaking generally, any number between 10-15 pieces is more than adequate to get a sense of your concepting, digital manipulation, effective use of type and image skills. I consider multiple-part projects (identity system for example) as one project. You’re showcasing your best of the best here. I’d much rather see ten exceptional pieces of visual communication than twenty safe, average, expected pieces.

Choosing an order: start strong and end strong

You know the saying: you only get one chance to make a first impression. You better make it count! Choose your strongest pieces to go first and last in your portfolio in a bookend type fashion. Doing so enables you to make a great first impression, drawing them into your portfolio. This also allows you to leave them with a great last impression.

Showcase your knowledge of designing for different mediums

The current trend in our industry places emphasis on the "jack of all trades" approach to design as opposed to a "master of one." A designer is required and expected to be proficient and competent in many skills not necessarily outstanding in any particular one. Your portfolio and use of different marketing platforms need to showcase this mindset. Featuring a variety of design media and showing how a concept is executed across different communication platforms is crucial to a successful portfolio. You may not be that confident in back end coding, but you can certainly highlight you understand user interface and how the end user interacts with online content. Featuring interactive design examples such as websites, eblasts, kiosks and iPad screens can accomplish this goal.

Include at least one set of thumbnails

A creative director is interested in learning how you create. Including the entire creative process, from concept through fruition, for one project is strongly advised. Feature research, initial concepts, thumbnails, roughs, marker comps… all development really. Simply scan them in, write a rationale for each stage of the process and place them in the back of your book.

Create an identity package

Your cover letter, resume, envelope, business card etc. need to visually relate and connect to your portfolio presentation. This statement reaffirms what I was talking about in the consistency of visual voice section above.

A Microsoft Word version of your resume and cover letter

There’ll be occasions when a potential employer asks you to submit a .doc version of your resume and cover letter. I’m a firm believer designers should “design” everything they come in contact with. While Microsoft Word limits what can be done in regards to design, you still have opportunities to work with layout and formatting to capture a streamlined version of your established brand. Perhaps you’re using a san serif font in your other marketing materials. Why not choose one for the .doc versions of your resume and cover letter? How about formatting each section header using the same color you use in your other materials’ headers? Catch my drift?!

Design a self-promotion piece

This is another way to get your creative foot in the door and stand out from the crowd. It could be a booklet featuring what you can contribute to the creative team, a cool pop up card or any type of communication that showcases who you are as a visual thinker and why you’re the best designer for the job. It’s that little something extra that keeps you on the potential employer/client’s mind. A friend of mine would bake cookies, package them in a design that connected to his brand and have them delivered to the office where he interviewed. Now who doesn’t like cookies or the guy who sent them?

Stock imagery

I’m a huge proponent of integrating your own photography and illustration into your visual solutions. This is especially true when it comes to the work featured in your portfolio. My suggestion: showcase as many of your abilities as you can. Stating in a presentation you not only concepted and executed a high-level design, but also took the photographs or illustrated the imagery is bound to get the creative director’s attention. This demonstrates you bring more to the creative table than just effective type and image. This added skill set can place you ahead of the other candidates. The purpose of effective design is to develop unique, stand out ideas right? How unique can you really be if you use stock imagery, imagery that everyone else has access to?

If you’ve used stock imagery and haven’t purchased the rights to the image, you can’t use it on the web. If you’ve paid for it then you’re OK.

Spell Check

Do I REALLY need to state this?!

Network, network, network!

There are many different design related websites you can join, post your work and interact with other designers. Below are some I use quite often:

• www.commarts.com

• www.www.aiga.org

• www.coroflot.com

• www.creativehotlist.com

• www.behance.net

• www.dribbble.com/session/new

In conclusion

Your portfolio and all of your marketing materials are representations of you. I’m certain as you work your way through school or work with clients; you receive numerous opinions about your work. Remember, you’re the captain of your own ship. When designing, follow your gut instinct. Doing so will help you find your own voice! You make the final decision as to how you want to present yourself and your work. You’re the one who must defend it after all!

I’ll leave you with a quote from graphic designer and writer Adrian Shaughnessy “You should never consider your portfolio finished, and you should always be dissatisfied with it. The day you sit back and say, “My portfolio is great,” is the day you are dead in the water. Your portfolio requires endless work and few things are more important than it. This never changes no matter how successful you have become. That’s really the only thing I’ve learned about portfolios.”

Some helpful resources as you develop your portfolio:

Preparing and Talking About Your Graphic Design Portfolio

http://psd.tutsplus.com/articles/techniques/preparing-and-talking-about-your-graphic-design-portfolio/