PDF PORTFOLIO RESEARCH
My Pinterest board!
I created this board to gather some initial images and collections of art and design portfolios that caught my eye. I am particularly drawn to portfolios with prominent colour schemes.
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This is a portfolio/look book template created by Flowless in 2019. As pointed out in our brief, our portfolios should be quite simplistic or minimalistic. The focus should be the images, not too much text (if any at all). I like this template in particular because of the creative us of white space and the fluid colour theme. If you took the colour away, it wouldn’t look anywhere near as professional and well thought out. I’d like to incorporate something along these lines into my portfolio to perhaps stand out a little and show my personality without having to say much!
“An important part of marketing yourself as an artist is going to involve compiling a professional portfolio of your work. Whether you are trying to secure a spot in art school, seeking an art related job, trying to get a show at a gallery or seeking gallery representation, the quality and effectiveness of your portfolio can make a huge difference in your success or failure.” How to tutorials, 2017. “A portfolio is a presentation of one’s work—the result of countless hours invested, dollars spent, and decisions made. It’s a book. It’s a gallery. It’s a key to doors of opportunity. It’s proof of our existence as artists. So it’s no surprise that building a portfolio is an illustrator’s biggest challenge.” Giuseppe Castellano. “It’s better to only have five incredible pieces, than five incredible pieces and ten mediocre ones.”Neil Swaab, 2014. “In regards to style, it’s best to have one defined look rather than a bunch of different ones. However, if you do have multiple aesthetic solutions, that can be alright so long as each one is a clearly realised, individual identity.” Neil Swaab, 2014. “…definitely consider the markets you’re trying to work in and examine whether or not what you put online will help get you closer to them or drive your intended audiences away.” Neil Swaab, 2014.
Zeke, New York film academy, 2015.
Not too much work, you want to impress quickly Be selective Adaptable design/layout
Show diversity in skill but still with a sense of visual fluidity
Make sure it reflects you and your style
What makes a good portfolio?
Your best work Start strong! Capture the viewers intrigue Cater your portfolio for the purpose necessary, maybe have multiple? Zeke, New York film academy, 2015.
Work I want to include in my portfolio: My alien characters, including the ones I have begun to work on for my FMP
These alien-type figures are characters I have been working on and developing for a good few years now. I’m excited I’m getting to use them for my FMP, it’s a bit of a shame there are no finished pieces yet to display in my portfolio- but that just means I will have to update it! These 2 are from my FMP progress. I will most likely start with one of these in my portfolio as my “strongest” image.
Collage work •
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I have built a collection of collage’s up since 2017, this being one of them. Although Zeke advises not to put in old work, it’s quite hard not when it’s your first portfolio! And in my opinion this is still one of the strongest collages I’ve made and one of my personal favourites of all my art works. I think collage will be a good way to convey I have interests in a diverse selection of techniques and ways of working, whilst still putting my personality and sense of humour across which I hope will marry up well with my other works. Collage is definitely something I have time periods of forgetting about, but I would love to start creating more to build up my portfolio and unlock new opportunities. I also think collage will look quite striking on a simplistic layout and will help reinforce the impact of white space.
Year 2 Exhibition project “A Town made of brick” •
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Another diverse medium. This is bit of tricky one as I’m not sure they entirely go together as a collective , but I want to display my most important and best work. I will have to play around with placement, perhaps this project could go at the end… shock factor? I do have other textiles and craft based works but they will completely distract away from the illustrative side. Making a few portfolios may be something to consider when actually displaying my work to employers and clients.
Work to consider making a separate portfolio for in future? • These are personal
projects and ventures of mine that are inspired and assisted by my illustration but perhaps not helpful to use when applying for a purely illustrative role or opportunity.
Dream house, 3D mixed media structure, 2020
• Now we are in a global
pandemic too, it’s really difficult to get professional looking photographs of any of my crafts as I don’t have the right facilities, but I will definitely be making a separate (or maybe a few) creative portfolio displaying my other interests and creations.
Collection of handmade jewellery, 2019-2020
Collection of crocheted & embroidered accessories, 2019-2020