A career in graphic design opens a lot of opportunities to a wide range of creative jobs. But these doors also lead to competitions—no matter where you go. You’re not going to make it if you don’t have the essential qualities and requirements to be one.
Just so you know, graphic designers are supposed to be curious, patient, and creative to be successful in their line of work. If you’re an aspiring designer, you can only promise to deliver what your client needs if you pay attention to details. But before all that, you can only be hired by your dream company if you have a stellar portfolio.
Our definition of a stellar portfolio includes your best and most unique design works. And all of these featured projects must reflect your passion, style, and personality. To do that, here are some of the key points you can follow to build a design portfolio worth seeing.
Create Your Brand
Brand isn’t exactly a logo—or a name. The brand is you. According to Dan Pallota from Harvard Business Review, a magazine owned and managed by Harvard University, “Brand is much more than a name or a logo. Brand is everything, and everything is brand.” Pallota pointed out that brand is a person or a company’s strategy, call to action, customer service, voice, communication tools, visuals, facilities, clients, and team—all in one.
Your entire portfolio should be able to define your brand. It must lay down all your skills, talent, products, and services so that your client or dream company can have an idea of what you bring to the table.
Only Choose Your Best Pieces
Think of yourself as a singer, and your portfolio as your studio album. If you’re releasing an album, it should have your greatest hits, right?
Choose your best projects from your pool of work from the day you started as a graphic designer, design student, or intern. If you find the selection process difficult, skip some of your projects that don’t have an impact on your career or personal growth.
Highlight Your Biggest Achievement
Put your best of the best on the spotlight. Pick your most unique and beautiful piece, and place it on the center—or at the last page of your portfolio. This would be your “wow” factor when clients and companies browse your designs. If you’re marketing yourself at Rakuboss, we can assure you that clients will always look for your single best design.
Consider The Consistency
Try telling a story using your portfolio. Create a narrative through the consistency of your works and designs. So, consider the order and theme of your designs. Decide on what pieces deserve the beginning, middle, and end of your story.
Rock The Cover Page
Whether you plan on creating a physical or online portfolio, it’s important to feature a memorable cover page. Your best works are not just the designs featured on the inside of your portfolio. The cover page is your first piece from the exhibit. Your cover page will deliver the first impression.
