Planning and Assembling a Print Portfolio
Over the last few weeks, I have spent nearly every free moment sweating the details of my print portfolio. Besides deciding on a format and size, I had to develop a general format for the pages and repeatedly revise the selection of pieces to include.
While designing a print portfolio is a requirement for me to graduate, it’s a great thing to have on-hand as a designer whether you’re in school or not. Pointing to your work on a computer screen during an interview doesn’t have the same effect as a person being able to flip through printed pages of your work at their own pace!
Size and Format
I chose the 11 x 17 inch landscape size for my portfolio because I wanted the printouts to be large enough to show off the details. Much of my work is related to branding and publication design (many have multiple items showcased across a page) so the long, horizontal space in the landscape format worked perfectly. Other common portfolio options are 8.5 x 11 inches and 11 x 14 inches.
There are a number of options when assembling a portfolio. You can mount your work on archival quality matboard, use a carrying case-style portfolio with handles, and even design a book (bind it by hand or use an on-demand print service like Lulu.com). Or, you can choose from a variety of cover options. I picked a screwpost cover that can easily be expanded.
Page Design
Personally, I tend to shy away from flashy, multi-diminsional graphics in favor of clean, classic layouts that let my work breathe. Because of this, I placed pieces on white backgrounds with simple descriptions in the lower right corner. I did add one burst of color with the corresponding project numbers in a bold, 80s gradient; it adds a unifying sense to the 16 pages of work and the colors match my personal brand identity (not the Nubby Twiglet grays and blacks!)
Page Examples:
Fountains of Wayne CD packaging (Virgin records)
Kiss Me Deadly movie poster (Supertrash Fest / Fantagraphic Books)
2008 double-sided calendar (Nubbytwiglet.com)
T-shirt and tote graphic (GalaDarling.com)
Choosing Work
When choosing work to showcase in your portfolio, consider the following guidelines:
1. Make sure it’s your best work:
If you’re not confident about a piece, it’s probably not a good idea to include it. The last thing you need to do during an interview is to defend a piece or talk about what you would have done differently.
2. Quality over Qualtity:
It’s better to show 10 fantastic pieces instead of 20 mediocre ones. Enough said.
3. Variety:
Even if you have a favorite area of design, including 15 similar pieces showcasing the same skills will probably bore the interviewer beyond belief. Though I love developing brand identities, I stopped after adding in four very different examples. Mix it up and showcase a good cross-section of your talents in the process.
4. Start with your Best / End With your Best:
Start the portfolio with your strongest piece. This will grab the interviewer’s interest and hopefully engage them enough to continue through the rest of your work. The final piece should seal their impression that you’re a talented, class-act.
Additional Resources:
1. An amazing hand-bound portfolio that resembles a glossy design book takes some serious dedication!
2. Presenting Your Portfolio is an inspiring story about a recent graduate who walks into a lobby to meet the head of a famous design department for an interview…when his portfolio collapses and all of his original work gets strewn across the ground. The story has a good ending: he still got the job!
3. Hugely successful designer Michael Beirut takes us down memory lane and shows us the actual contents of his portfolio, circa 1978!
4. A.I. Friedman in New York has a fantastic selection of presentation and storage options, including Pina Zangaro portfolios and is a favorite destination of mine!
It's all about the ears. Nubby Mouse in full effect.
18 People have left comments on this post
Looks amazing! Thanks for sharing this. Good luck with graduation!
Jami: Thanks, this has been one of the most stressful months of my life, but I’m so close! Ahhh, freedom awaits.
Honestly, the big numbers detract from you work and if feels a bit crowded on the page. I think you’d be better off making your pieces bigger, giving them more room to breathe, and retain the focus on them. You can always explain your pieces in person further. But again, I am a minimalist.
Just some constructive criticism =)
Amanda: Thanks for the feedback.
I see your point, but when in print on 11 x 17 sheets, the work is already quite large. Also, we were required to have descriptions for each piece because it’s not always possible to be present when it’s being viewed.
For the colors, I wanted to do something fun to differentiate if from the blacks and grays in the Nubby Twiglet branding (it matches my personal logo).
hello. i was just building my portfolio over the weekend and surfed on here from gala’s website. i really want to customize my own portfolio cover. but that seems really expensive and i need to save a little for it. yours looks really cool though.
gilda: Customizing your portfolio cover seems so cool, but oh so permanent! I’m sorta digging the pure, unmarked glossy white at the monent.
I’m a bit late commenting on this, but I wanted to say it looks incredible.
I was a bit unsure about the numbers as well but remembering your personal logo and going back and viewing it, it all ties in really nicely. I really like the descriptions too.
I agree with the pure looking cover, I think it should stay that way. I just hope the people viewing your portfolio are respectful enough to make sure their fingers are clean!
Bex: Yeah, I never posted my full personal branding experiment with matching logo and a link to the matching website with this article, so people didn’t see the full set of things the portfolio tied into.
My goal was to differentiate my personality from the starkness of the ‘Nubby’ brand, if that makes sense.
Greetings, the images of your work look quite lovely. I have a question about the actual pages…specifically the image of your cd design. Did you take a photo of the cd and then use that image in your book? Probably seems like a stupid question but I’ve never put a portfolio together and the concept of creating a design, putting it on a physical object and then making that object 2d by taking a photo, and then using that image is unraveling my brain. I know it’s not that difficult of a concept, but just for a moment it was. Thanks for sharing your thoughts.
raq: From the small image on the screen, it’s hard to tell! I scanned the actual CD packaging, then edited the images in Photoshop & added drop shadows.
And I can understand how it would seem confusing if you weren’t personally part of the process! There were many, many steps involved.
Great Article.. I just bought a screw post cover by pina zangaro. What are you going to use as a carrying case????
graphix: I don’t have a carrying case at the moment, I just use the thick plastic sleeve that the cover came in.
wow. those look great. That’s a real help. I’ve been scrambling all week to put together my first physical portfolio. I don’t know why, but as a web designer, I just didn’t think I’d need one. wrong.
Do you think it’s cool to put your own identity branding as an item in your portfolio. I spent some quality time on my own logo and I’d like to feature it as a portfolio piece, but I’m not sure if it’s appropriate.
This post is immensely helpful! One question: approximately how many of the sheet protectors does this book hold before requiring the set of screw posts (or should those be bought along with the book)?
Sarah: I would say that it comfortably holds 15 to 20 pages. The screw posts come with the book.
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