Sorry about the incomplete post. My computer glitched and posted the topic before I was done typing. So anyway, my plan is to email my portfolio and resume to firms over the summer to see if they would consider hiring me for an internship during the fall. I know more and more schools are starting to except websites submissions instead of digital of physical portfolios as well. So it seems that this would certainly be worth my time to create a portfolio and resume website but the problem is I don't really know how. Any suggestions?

1. get adobe dreamweaver
2. buy a domain name (godaddy.com)
3. purchase host server space (www.3ix.org)
4. register your domain name to the host server
5. follow these instructions

http://www.thesitewizard.com/gettingstarted/dreamweaver1.shtml

6: learn flash

but don't steer away from hardcopy portfolios completely. A lot of firms will not review anything if it is not lying on their desk and they can touch it, flip through it and put it on a pile for later review. The problem with digital/on-line is if it is not reviewed immediately and liked you are screwed. but good luck with the website anyway.

flash is horrid.

i would recomend you send pdfs and not bother with a website. it takes some time to learn to do a website half decently and frankly that time would probably be better spent making a good portfolio in the traditional way.

Yea, I agree with Jump. And I would say do steer away from hardcopy portfolios completely. I've interned three quarters of my undergrad so far and it's all been by sending my stuff via email.

a website will not hurt you, but it should be supplement to an actual portfolio.

i would disagree with jump though, you can make a half decent website in a day. dreamweaver is super-easy.

Flash is wonderful. But that's a discussion for another day (90% of the websites we design are done if Flash, but this is what we do professionally).

If you want no headaches, go to something like Krop.

Simple and works, plenty of top graphic artists using it.


Spend the time making your work look good. If you can make the PDFs look good, not just page to page (designed like a printed portfolio would be) that would be helpful too.


Website are like anything design wise. Designing a website in a day is like saying you can design a building in a day. Possible, but the quality will be suspect.


Oh, you could also pay me and we could design and build it for you! ;-)

just buy a domain name.... start a blog but just use the setup for sheets.... host the images in photobucket and maybe have a yousend account for a full download of your portfolio

or just look into coroflot.com

why would you say steer away from hard copy portfolios altogether?
you expect to sit in an interview and have the interviewer scroll through your website?

you need a hard copy to bring with you to any interview

sending samples out over email is great, and will help get the interview, but 99% of the firms out there will want a hard copy at the interview to discuss with you

sorry trace. you are of course correct. more properly, flash is horrid in the hands of the un-trained.

it took me a month to learn to make a bad website, and a bit longer to make one that is just ok...there is a lot of depth involved in making a good one, and i just don't have the time to learn. someday when we have money we will hire a proper web designer...

based on the portfolios we get in the office personally i prefer a pdf to a website. it is great because i can put the files into a folder for possible future staff, and because i can easily print out the file to show my partner. a website is cool, but for me not as appealing, even if it is done nicely, because i can't do those things. if you have a brilliant pdf then the website would be great as extra, but not so happy-making for me if it is a substitute.

Sure, if he's applying to local firms for internships then they'll probably have him out for an interview and a hard copy of your portfolio would be necessary.

The two places I've interned at were both out of state, and hired me after a phone interview with both of us viewing a .pdf on the computer.

ok you didnt say that
you just said hard copy portfolios were not necessary anymore

if you are not meeting face to face, yes, digital portfolio would be the way to go and a hard copy would be useless

why not combine the two? Similar to crizz suggestion (he's on a roll today) about using a blog.

You could set up your portfolio as you would a printed one, save to pdf.
Upload the pdf to a web site that allows med resolution viewing but also allows the users to download them. This gives you the added benefit of sending it to firms (which I believe should never be done unsolicited) or if you want to burn to a cd or flash drive. Same layout multiple outputs

Well, my plan was to email firms my portfolio different cities (in state and out of state, because I am applying to schools instate and out of state) with a message saying:

"I am interested in interviewing for an internship at your firm the fall, and I was wondering if you would be able to take a brief moment of your to look at my resume and portfolio and let me know if you would be interested in hiring me in September.

My resume and portfolio can be found at this link:

www.______.com"

If I am able get an internship for a top notch firm, this could help determine were I will transferring this fall.

I have tried emailing my portfolio as a pdf to a professor for him to review it and it was a complete mess. In order to be able to send the portfolio, I had to divided it into six different attachments. To me, it would seem very unprofessional send six different attachments, and i would also think that I would be able to get more architects to look at my portfolio with one web link than several pdf attachments.

If I were to have a face-to-face interview, I would most certainly provide a physical portfolio.

I've never been intimidated by computer programs. If I have the time, I can usually figure out how to use them fairly quick. I did learn how to use flash for a class back in high school, but that was about three years ago. However, I really was looking for something fairly simple that I would be able to quickly learn how to create a quality website and email it to different firms during May and June. So, for now, I think I would rather try something fairly simple. And I am a poor college student, so sorry trace, I don't think I will be able to hire a web designer.

Oh by the way, that like goes no were. I was implying "fill-in-the-blank" website.

Thanks for the links. I'm looking through then right now.

I think Krop and coroflot might be fine for the time being, but I would like to create very professional and well designed portfolio website in the near future. I think it would be more impressive to firms, and I also the be able to design a good website would be a good skill to acquires. So any other suggestions besides flash for designing a quality website?

architectophlia- Why do you think sending a resume and portfolio to a firm with out being asked is in appropriate? How else am I going to get an internship with a good firm unless I bug them about a job?

we get portfolios unsolicited all the time. i don't mind at all. some of them are quite good and if things go well this summer we may even have need for them (fingers crossed)...

most pdfs we get are about 5 mb. up to 10 is ok as far as we are concerned, though smaller is better.

i couldn't say why but i probably would look at a pdf before looking at website.

You should be able to send your portfolio via email without sending in 3 emails. The only reason I could think why you couldn't would be #1 portfolio is too large (as in pages) or #2 you aren't compressing things correctly. I'd guess the latter.

You might think you learned flash, but I can tell you it is more than that. When we design a website in Flash it is always assembled by my full time programmers (this is just Actionscript 3, a little xml, no database). This is something that takes years to master, at the very least. Just be careful about over generalizing the simplicity of things you aren't that familiar with, that's all.


PDF is the easiest route. You can make one and work on exporting to email and one for print. You should have something designed taht you can print quickly, if you need to.


A nice website would be good, but I can't see how it'd be crucial or even a tipping point. A very, very simple site that clearly shows your work would be good, though.

But be careful. 99% of the architect's out there think they can design anything or that they have a good website. That's simply not the case, most suck.



Oh, and I am with jump, I'd look at a PDF before a website, unless it was something like Krop or Coroflot. I just know that most of the resumes taht people send me, even ones that are looking for web design positions, suck, and I don't want to look at anything. A PDF is at least safe and easily viewed however I want.

Just be careful I think is the big message - don't get carried away with making something more complex than it has to be. Simple and clear is best.

i agree about the website design
if you have to learn Flash just for this, chances are your website will not be anything impressive and it may be a waste of your time and still look amateurish


now if you already had website design experience, by all means, go for it
but if your first website is your portfolio, i would make it as simple as possible

I think what alot of you are forgetting is that there's a big difference in the way a digital portfolio and a hard copy portfolio should be formatted.

Viewing something on a screen that's meant to be printed will look unnatural - you're better off taking advantage of the dimensional flexibility and full-bleed nature of a .pdf, than trying to kill two birds with one stone.

Wpmeads, for the longest time I was concerned about making a portfolio website - but truth is, the amount of time you'd have to invest in making a website that will a) make a good impression, and b) inform your prospective employer about your design skills/aesthetic, would be extremely large considering your lack of any web design experience. And really, a website isn't ultimately important for architecture students. For graphic/digital design? Yes.

Spend that time in your portfolio. I think as I redo my portfolio over the coming months I'm going to format my digital version to 8.5x11 single continuous, simply because a) alot of firms after initially viewing your portfolio on the screen, print out B/W or color copies on 8.5x11 to review (and any other size would make it print nastily), and b) formatting your digital portfolio to two-page spreads is more difficult/cumbersome to view.

Ask yourself where you're appling for internships - if you go local then make your portfolio in such a way so that it prints well, and go hand them hard copies. If you're applying out of state or long-distance, go purely digital.

exactly, that is what i was saying

which is why i think if the first time you attempt to create a website is for your portfolio, it is not a good idea


anyone can learn to make a website
but if you want to make a good website that will help you get a job, you cant do that overnight


if you have web design experience, that can be a PART of your portfolio
you can showcase those skills with your website

but if it is nothing more than what a pdf of your portfolio shows, why would you waste the time making the website?

I'd highly recommend setting up a coroflot account and putting at least a few projects in there even if you are working on your own domain name. I've gotten several interview contacts based on my coroflot portfolio, and at least one of those I would have been very sad to miss.

After that, maybe consider using some free base code? I know that we all like to personalize everything as much as possible, but I ended up going with the Indexhibit.com platform for mine, and it was a relief to know that everything will work absolutely right, no code bugs, and my work will be displayed in a clean, professional way. I know a couple of people who have used it with varying degrees of customization: the more you know about coding, the more you can make it your own.

I have gotten several calls from my Coroflot pics, too, and I haven't looked at that account in at least 8 years!

Recruiters will look at those large portfolio sites first.