Perfecting your Portfolio

I Attended a talk put on by AIGA Called “Perfecting your Portfolio.” I have been working on my portfolio for over a year and this talk was a great motivator to get my portfolio finished and stop being such a baby about it.
The three panelists were Eric Heiman of Volume Inc, Liz Mullally from Apple and Henrik Olsen of Hot Studio. Here are some highlights from the talk, and a few added comments by yours truly. . .

JOB SEARCHING NOW
-People are less specialized in their skill sets
-Most jobs are looking for a well-rounded designer

HOW TO PERPARE FOR A JOB SEARCH
-Research the companies you want to work for, make sure they are right for you. Don’t send an interactive portfolio to a greeting card company, that will just make you look stupid.
-Think about the type of work you do and how it relates to the company you are applying to
-Don’t waste your time applying to companies that you really don’t want to work for
-Have good core design skills, and an open attitude
-Have good people skills and business skills

HOW SHOULD PEOPLE CONTACT YOU?
-e-mail
-snail mail (make it cool or you are just wasting time and money)
-network!
-DO NOT CALL.
-Don’t send large attachments or any attachments if avoidable, they are annoying as hell.
-In your e-mail include a link to your URL, and resume
-If contacting an in-house operation go through the right channels (ie. Recruters, staff)

PORTFOLIOS
-You should have your portfolio in 4 formats: web site, PDF, interview portfolio, and a leave behind portfolio. All should carry the same look and feel. The interview portfolio will be an interactive portfolio with you and the interviewer. The leave behind portfolio needs to have more descriptions about your work because you won’t be there., doi!
-Your portfolio has 10 seconds to make an impression: GO!
-Relate your projects to their projects
-Make sure to include your perspective about your work
-Judge your portfolio by the worst piece in it, if one piece looks like crap, your whole portfolio is going to be crappy
-Self Edit, show 5 Totally Fuckin’ awesome pieces vs. 15 not so awesome pieces.
-Don’t put in boring garbage just because it got printed, nobody really gives a crap about that.
-Your Portfolio is about your potential
-Don’t let the design of your portfolio book or website be so cool that people stop giving a shit about your work. Keep It Simple Stupid (KISS).
-Don’t let the writing in your portfolio be corny, good god real people have to read this crap.
-Be clear on what parts of a group project you worked on. Don’t take credit for other people’s work because that makes you a liar, and nobody likes a liar.

RESUME
-You are a designer so make your resume clear and well designed
-Name-dropping is actually cool on your resume, unlike anywhere else where it makes you look like a real douche bag.
-Just give the facts, no body cares if you like to hike, or that you have 3 cats all named fluffy
-How should we send our resume? E-mail is probably the best way. Include a link where they can download a PDF from your site, nobody likes dealing with attachments.
-Tailor your resume to each firm
-Use common keywords in the descriptors of your resume, if you don’t know any keywords: google it dummy.
-You really don’t need objectives on your resume, they usually just make you sound stupid.
-As a new grad should you include other non design jobs? No, it’s not really needed and nobody cares that you worked at Starbucks or folded tee shirts at the Gap. The only exception would be if design is a second career and you were a rocket scientist in your former job, because that’s just awesome.
-Put your experience section before your education section.

INTERVIEW
-Don’t show up late for your interview unless you don’t want to work there.
-The interview is about getting to know the interviewee. If someone has to sit next to you for 40 hours a week, they want to make sure you don’t smell like Doritos, or have a weird tick. So let the interviewer know who you are, be confident!
-How do you talk about your work? Can you communicate effectively?
-An interview is a two way street. Ask questions about the company, show you know about the company.
-Let the interviewer drive the interview, they don’t have all day.

FOLLOW UP
-Send a awesome e-mail
-Mail a cool note
-Bribe the interviewer with cookies, beer, or cash
-Keep following up, about once a month

Hope this was helpful.

National Student Leadership Conference Poster

I designed this poster for the NSLC. High school students interested in a career in science sign up and visit many scientific institutions. I volunteer to be a tour guide for this event. I was asked to design a "cool" poster that would attract high school students attention. And this is what I came up with.

New Work

So I haven't Bolgged in a while. . .

Mostly because I've been too busy.

Work at Gladstone has been insane for the last few months and will continue to be nuts until the end of March. I am in the middle of trying to move to San Francisco (from San Mateo) which is like having another full time job. No really, I'm seeing 4 places tonight after work. I also have 2 rather time consuming freelance jobs right now. To top it all off, I started a new series of paintings. I am doing acrylic paintings with graphite on wood panels. The wood panels are recycled scraps from a few different furniture shops in San Francisco, along with a few dumpsters, I won't mention the location of.
The series is called "The Birds and the Bees." It is about dating, mating, and breaking up.

enjoy.

Cell

My cover design has been accepted to Cell, Stem Cell Magazine! My first cover. Awesome!

Hang Up

AIGA San Francisco presents its Annual Fall Gala: “Hung Up.” Hosted at The Galleria at the San Francisco Design Center, the event attracts 700 attendees and will feature custom-designed skateboard decks. Not only is the Gala an opportunity for the design community to come together and appreciate our creative spirit, but it is also a special evening for our sponsorship partners.

AIGA San Francisco is celebrating the art of skateboarding and are inviting artists and designers to contribute custom skate decks, which will be auctioned off at the end of the night. In addition to the silent auction, there will be a raffle — ranging from posters, restaurant vouchers and magazine subscriptions to a copy of Adobe CS4 — and a live art component.

I took home this lovely Caterpillar skateboard that I won in the auction, and this black and white deck that I won in the raffle. There were some cool boards at the event, cool people, and cool sponsors. Yesterday was a good day.

Halloween

I love Halloween, that is all.

East Bay Licensing Meeting

I joined the East Bay licensing group and went to my first meeting last Saturday. Cheryl Phelps gave a talk about licensing and answered many questions. My goal is to get an agent by the end of 2010. After things in my life calm down in January, I am going to focus my extra time on getting my licensing act together and revamping my entire web site.