Hello, I'm currently thinking of moving to a different office, and wondering about my portfolio contents.
I have about 4 years of experience after graduation, and my portfolio still looks like a recent graduate (I know that 4 years could arguably be pretty recent as well) focused on pretty diagrams / renderings mostly from my academic work, and some added pages of professional work that primarily show similar content.
Is this format of portfolio still valid for a designer with my level of experience? I see portfolio's of people who have 7~8 years of experience, and most of the time, it's just one or two final renderings / photographs per project, with a brief project description and their roles in the projects.
Can't decide which is a better option. It seems like the latter version is more suitable for people who have at least 15+ meaningful projects that could be represented, and is that true? I feel like I have less than five projects that I can say I've actually contributed to... so should I stick to my original format?
Any advice would be greatly appreciated, thanks in advance!
randomised
Sep 18, 17 3:50 am
It's not the amount of years that matter, but what you've been doing all those years. If you've been stuck making diagrams and renderings all this time, you'll still be considered a recent graduate when you apply for a job. Just put in your portfolio the stuff you worked on and make the folio look awesome and professional.
thompson's gazelle
Sep 18, 17 5:08 am
@randomised
Thanks for the input. What I'm concerned about is that due to the lack of labor at my current office, I've been taking on managerial roles from which I learned and grew a lot, but not necessarily visually representable in a portfolio format. Would this portion of my experience be expressed through interviews perhaps?
randomised
Sep 18, 17 5:36 am
That's what you mention and highlight in your CV and motivation letters to the offices you apply to.
thatsthat
Sep 18, 17 10:16 am
Thank you so much for asking this question, @ thompson's gazelle. I'm in the same boat, where an opportunity has presented itself, and I'm having to put together a portfolio, but NO IDEA what to put in it. I'm at 4 years experience, but what I've done is such a mixed bag because I work for a small boutique firm. (I've done some reception stuff all the way through managing projects through design through construction.) We have beautiful drawings, but we don't do any renderings (we have someone in house that does presentation drawings by hand) and we're just getting started with Revit/Rhino. I'm afraid I won't be able to compete with anyone who is doing presentation renderings.
@thompson'sgazelle where did you find examples of professional portfolios? I have searched a lot on issuu and just googled for at least an hour with little success. Are there other portfolio websites?
randomised
Sep 18, 17 1:30 pm
Any office that puts people with 4 years experience on making computer renderings is dead in the water. You don't have to/shouldn't have to/shouldn't even want to compete with people like that but with people that handle projects, manage budgets, time, people etc. Interns, fresh grads and juniors can do the pretty pictures, you're supposed to get them built.
thatsthat
Sep 18, 17 3:15 pm
This is an excellent way to think about it! Thanks randomised! I've been so worried about having a portfolio that wasn't full of superficial stuff to catch the reviewer's eye.
thompson's gazelle
Sep 18, 17 10:33 pm
I did try looking them up on issuu, but didn't really find what I needed--most of them being probably entry-level job applications or academic portfolios. I looked up my office's server and skimmed through past applicants' portfolios at different experience levels.
Quentin
Sep 18, 17 10:24 am
I recently switched jobs with 4 years of experience between two firms. I put together a professional portfolio and brought some school stuff in a separate package. When I was interviewing everybody was surprisingly interested in both. For professional it was mix of renderings, drawings, and details that I specifically worked on. Goodluck
Josh Mings
Sep 18, 17 2:16 pm
As I mentioned in another thread, I recently went through this exercise for an award submission. Here is what I put in:
Intro - About me, my design philosophy, my CV (my thesis project is integrated into this section since it informed a lot of my design philosophy)
Project - Last 5 years of work, this submission had 7 projects with a mix of graphics and text stating role, project size, project team, my specific responsibilities for each project.
Extras - pages showing what I do outside the office (volunteering/painting)
whistler
Sep 19, 17 3:45 pm
I only want to look at built stuff! and details.
JLC-1
Sep 19, 17 3:57 pm
second that!
thatsthat
Sep 19, 17 4:47 pm
this is very helpful!
whistler
Sep 19, 17 4:57 pm
If you bring me drawings and various illustrations to look over I will assume that's all you want to do. If you show me built stuff even smaller residential projects I automatically will assume you want and / or have aspirations to build projects.
whistler
Sep 19, 17 4:57 pm
If you bring me drawings and various illustrations to look over I will assume that's all you want to do. If you show me built stuff even smaller residential projects I automatically will assume you want and / or have aspirations to build projects.
Hello, I'm currently thinking of moving to a different office, and wondering about my portfolio contents.
I have about 4 years of experience after graduation, and my portfolio still looks like a recent graduate (I know that 4 years could arguably be pretty recent as well) focused on pretty diagrams / renderings mostly from my academic work, and some added pages of professional work that primarily show similar content.
Is this format of portfolio still valid for a designer with my level of experience? I see portfolio's of people who have 7~8 years of experience, and most of the time, it's just one or two final renderings / photographs per project, with a brief project description and their roles in the projects.
Can't decide which is a better option. It seems like the latter version is more suitable for people who have at least 15+ meaningful projects that could be represented, and is that true? I feel like I have less than five projects that I can say I've actually contributed to... so should I stick to my original format?
Any advice would be greatly appreciated, thanks in advance!
It's not the amount of years that matter, but what you've been doing all those years. If you've been stuck making diagrams and renderings all this time, you'll still be considered a recent graduate when you apply for a job. Just put in your portfolio the stuff you worked on and make the folio look awesome and professional.
@randomised
Thanks for the input. What I'm concerned about is that due to the lack of labor at my current office, I've been taking on managerial roles from which I learned and grew a lot, but not necessarily visually representable in a portfolio format. Would this portion of my experience be expressed through interviews perhaps?
That's what you mention and highlight in your CV and motivation letters to the offices you apply to.
Thank you so much for asking this question, @ thompson's gazelle. I'm in the same boat, where an opportunity has presented itself, and I'm having to put together a portfolio, but NO IDEA what to put in it. I'm at 4 years experience, but what I've done is such a mixed bag because I work for a small boutique firm. (I've done some reception stuff all the way through managing projects through design through construction.) We have beautiful drawings, but we don't do any renderings (we have someone in house that does presentation drawings by hand) and we're just getting started with Revit/Rhino. I'm afraid I won't be able to compete with anyone who is doing presentation renderings.
@thompson'sgazelle where did you find examples of professional portfolios? I have searched a lot on issuu and just googled for at least an hour with little success. Are there other portfolio websites?
Any office that puts people with 4 years experience on making computer renderings is dead in the water. You don't have to/shouldn't have to/shouldn't even want to compete with people like that but with people that handle projects, manage budgets, time, people etc. Interns, fresh grads and juniors can do the pretty pictures, you're supposed to get them built.
This is an excellent way to think about it! Thanks randomised! I've been so worried about having a portfolio that wasn't full of superficial stuff to catch the reviewer's eye.
I did try looking them up on issuu, but didn't really find what I needed--most of them being probably entry-level job applications or academic portfolios. I looked up my office's server and skimmed through past applicants' portfolios at different experience levels.
I recently switched jobs with 4 years of experience between two firms. I put together a professional portfolio and brought some school stuff in a separate package. When I was interviewing everybody was surprisingly interested in both. For professional it was mix of renderings, drawings, and details that I specifically worked on. Goodluck
As I mentioned in another thread, I recently went through this exercise for an award submission. Here is what I put in:
Intro - About me, my design philosophy, my CV (my thesis project is integrated into this section since it informed a lot of my design philosophy)
Project - Last 5 years of work, this submission had 7 projects with a mix of graphics and text stating role, project size, project team, my specific responsibilities for each project.
Extras - pages showing what I do outside the office (volunteering/painting)
I only want to look at built stuff! and details.
second that!
this is very helpful!
If you bring me drawings and various illustrations to look over I will assume that's all you want to do. If you show me built stuff even smaller residential projects I automatically will assume you want and / or have aspirations to build projects.
If you bring me drawings and various illustrations to look over I will assume that's all you want to do. If you show me built stuff even smaller residential projects I automatically will assume you want and / or have aspirations to build projects.