This is the final session of Alex’s workshops, where advice is provided with regards to building a portfolio, and how to present yourself in industry.

Part 1 – Visual Identity:

“Visual identity is the visual elements of a brand such as logo, typography, colour, illustration, photography”, and more. In order to create a successful brand identity, the general stylisation of each of these visual components must be considered and sustained throughout. Additionally, the general inferable nature must reflect a sense of how the brand intends to be associated and transcribed visually.

“A brand refers to the perceived image or emotional response to a company, its products and services. A brand is the set of expectations, memories, stories and relationships that, taken together, account for a consumer’s decision to choose one product or service over another” – Seth Godin, TypePad Design.

For this reason, it is important to capture a well-rounded brand image, where each aspect of the brand meets or exceeds expected standards. This can be subconsciously transcribed to a consumer through brand essence. The term brand essence refers to the way in which the brand develops character, and is interpreted and understood by the consumer market.

Brand essence can be captured through consideration of the following four principles-

1.  Values. What does the brand stand for?
2. Personality. How does the brand act?
3. Tone of Voice. What language is used?
4. Target Audience. Who is being targeted?

Combined, correct usage and application of the above guidelines entails for brand essence to come together and provide an image that looks transparent, professional and trustworthy. This also provides the brand with a sense of maintained harmony, as though purpose is considered with every contextual decision, and therefore, nothing appears random or ‘out of place.’

Key piece of advice: Set out brand values from the beginning. This immediately provides purpose, and provides an idea of brand essence to the consumer market, while providing personal direction. In the process of creating brand values, numerous rules and guides will become apparent, which can be applied to anything throughout the brand. This provides structure, as well as consistency, striving to maintain brand essence and visual identity.

To conclude, the brand essence informs the visual identity, which then informs the design.

Part 2 – Portfolio Essentials

A portfolio should be a personal reflection of you. Brand essence and visual identity should be considered in order to provide an accurate, transparent and well-rounded reflection of personal character, as well as highlighting certain skillsets and visual talents.

A successful method of achieving this is to let personal character fuel creativity, marking a powerful stance of individuality. This will make you stand out.

Be inventive with the way in which you put yourself out there, and don’t be scared to embrace creative personality.

Create a memorable and consistent visual brand. Consider each asset on a personal level, but don’t get too wound up with the detail of it.

The example logo and business card above was created by graphic designer, Alex Gillott, who ran this portfolio session. This shows how simple the design aspects can be while still being creating successful graphic image. The creation of these brand assets portrays essential ideologies, providing a reflection of personal character, while drawing attention towards yourself as a designer, potentially drawing in work and job opportunities.

Create a website with a sustained graphic approach to that of your visual identity. This generally improves professionalism, and makes you appear as an organised and dedicated designer.

Never put in work or projects that you are not fully satisfied with, or anything unfinished. It is better to view less content but of a high standard, than more content of a lesser quality.

At interviews, don’t overstay your welcome. Be polite and welcoming, yet concise and to the point. Show your best works and know when to leave. Leave the potential employer with a great impression where they want you to come back.

When organising the layout of an interview portfolio, always begin and end with the better projects; this makes the potential client or works company form a strong initial impression, and end with a good impression. Don’t overdo it. Aim for a portfolio composed of your 6 strongest projects.

Show progress and try tell a story in the first few slides which builds up to the final piece. This makes them more interested in the project intent. Also, use mock-ups to provide a sense of reality, inform context and really bring them to life.

Portfolio options: print, PDF and online website.

Consider the effect each of these would have, and how the company I’m delivering too would be most interested in viewing my work. Applying for a print company, it may be good to deliver in print so that they can see you are experienced with key principles. If applying for a digital company, a digital portfolio delivers more flexibility and general relevance.

Social Media platforms provide another great way of delivering an overview of design work in a less strict and more informal way.

This screenshot shows my design profile on Instagram, which can include links to a professional website/ portfolio. I personally like instagram as it is a free strategy of reaching out to people within our community. Additionally, many small and independent brands use Instagram, where this is a great way of potentially securing some freelance work opportunities.

Portfolio Creation

I have studied and considered my options for creating a portfolio, where I have looked at SquareSpace, Wix, and WordPress, as well as Adobe Portfolio.

I particularly liked SquareSpace, however the price aspect was a major drawback, where alongside paying for the Adobe software package, their prices were almost unaffordable as a student.

In the end I settled for Adobe Portfolio, which I am currently assembling.

This screenshot embedded above displays my current online portfolio, which I am currently in the process of updating. Each different project appears on the left hand side when viewing a specific project, entailing for easy navigation between pages.

The main home page currently looks like this, where a thumbnail is selected to provide an overview of the visual content of that specific project.