Building a Graphics Design portfolio?

CliffyBiro

CliffyBiro

CliffyBiro

Caporegime
Joined
1 Mar 2008
Posts
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Spurred on by the recent competition and a few words with a couple of other members, I'm going to set about building up a portfolio of my work to try and get a foot on the ladder....so to speak.

One problem.... I'm not too sure how to go about this. :(

1. I'm guessing I just need a display of my work, ideas and concepts?
2. What media should it be presented in? On paper? CD/DVD? A combination?


I'm also after help on the best route to setup a personal website to display my work. Preferably as cheap as possible.

ANY help at all is SO much appreciated as I'm so bored being out of work I need to be doing something.

Thank you.
 
rz30 said:
I will build you a site for cheap.
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Thanks very much for the offer but I quite like the idea of building it myself. :)


That way, I have more to add to my portfolio. :p

KizZ said:
It's always good to have a physical portfolio that you can present. Get an A1 portfolio, buy some A1 paper and start mounting your work on it. It's good to have sheets with brainstorms and ideas, drawings and photography are a plus too :). I did a bit of googling for some useful tips:

http://www.graphicdesignblog.co.uk/what-do-you-put-in-your-portfolio/
http://www.youthedesigner.com/2008/06/30/12-steps-to-a-super-graphic-design-portfolio/
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Thanks man. :)

Will head to Easons tomorrow to pick up a few things rather than all my ideas being sketched onto scraps of paper with a Bic pen. :p
 
rz30 said:
This may just be your lucky 1%.

I can throw in custom made CMS as well.

Cheap = £350 : expensive = £2500-£5000.

Do you have an idea for a design skippy, maybe i can help out....
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Not as yet but I'll be making a start on possible designs tomorrow.

I'll be keeping this thread updated with everything I do in relation to this topic. :)

ATM though, I can't afford £35 never mind £350. :p
 
Guys, thanks so so much for all of this. Really helping.

One point that was brought up was to do bit's and bob's for friends. I'd like to do this but first, I want to have a website of my own up and running. Nothing major. I've just got Dreamweaver and Flash so will be fiddling about on that for the next while coming up with a design with the help of a friend of mine who is also a small scale freelance designer.

Once, I get a design I'm happy with, where do I go from there?




One thing I am going to try over the next few weeks though is to look at sites I use reguarly and try to redesign them. Would that be a good path to go down for starters?


I'm also going to work on a CD cover for a friend's band.


These aren't major things but I think it should help get the ball rolling.
 
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How does everyone like Stasis Media as the name for my site?

Red Dwarf influenced. :p

Also considered:

Simulant Media
Polymorph Designs
 
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BFCTom said:
tbh if it's just an individual, I think site names based around the designer's name works better. No matter what you do in the future then (if you get employed by a design company) you will still have your own personal portfolio of work on show, totally separate.

Obviously if it was going to be a 2-3 person setup then something like the above would look better.
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I was considering that but I guess I'm one of those people who doesn't really like their own name. :p

There are very few people I've talked to who say my surname right. :p
 
RandomTom said:
Link didn't seem to work properly.

http://vidahost.com/uk-shared-hosting - starter package + domain = all that you need. Or even http://vidahost.com/basic-hosting for £17 a year.
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Nice. :)

Do you pay for the domain two years at a time?

Thorpy said:
If you have decent knowledge in Photoshop and CSS/XHTML etc you can probs get a site up and running in a day or two. Granted mine hasn't the 'wow' factor that many others do but i rushed it for deadline xD



Looks good, web hosting is weird though, you pay for what you get really. Cheap hosts generally don't do very well.
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What is Dreamweaver like for designing the site in?
 
Stefnay said:
Recommend http://www.finalcrit.com/ is easy way of storing your pictures, is flash portfolio, but very simple and fast loading. Have used them for about a year now and received attention from a few studios and freelancers.

But if you really wanna get noticed best place would be http://www.theaoi.com/ if you have the money would definitely go with them, prices vary from £60 up to £100. Is a site that has regular viewing from top studios, best place to get noticed imo.

I'm more illustration based but if it helps for ideas here’s some of my portfolio, havent updated it for a while tho.
http://www.finalcrit.com/design/naylers
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That looks like a great site. :)

Will sign up there too. Thanks. :D
 
zhx said:
ill just throw in my two bits. Im a third year graphic design student about to graduate and currently on my ' portfolio module '. So perhaps I might be able to throw you a few bits of decent information. In fact ill copy what the tutors have said to us

1. ) You will want print + electronic.
Electronic : Building a website is fine as it allows future employers to quickly access your work. But keep it simple and to the point. Doesn't have to be fancy at all, in fact probably the less the better. Also create a PDF of your work, this will probably be a more accurate representation of your actual printed portfolio. Obviously this should be small in size so it can be sent to email. Don't send CD's !

Print : Were advised to have a A3 portfolio as it is easily carried about and isn't too in your face to the ' reader ' so they can properly access all the information and see all of your work. High quality print on good paper just in some nice plastic holders as it were in a nice zip up leathery case. You can get them for about £20.

2. ) As for your portfolio. Strongest work at the front and back, with everything else in between. Good to show an example or two of sketch book type things to show work progression. It is important to have a bit of personality in the portfolio so that your potential employer gets an idea about you as a person

As for graphic work at the moment I have a lot of friends trying to get jobs in the industry and the main thing that every one is after at the moment is digital ' i.e. flash / html / css etc. But its important to have a spread of work unless you are going for a particular job, like flash builder or something.

Also be noted that there arent that many jobs being offered at the moment. If you can get some work experience jump on it. As said above I have friends with degrees who can't get any work experience! It might not be easy at first but keep trying
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I was offered a trial position with a company in Enniskillen while I was at college but didn't accept it. :(

It was quite a distance away and I was 17 with no money or transport. Looking back, I still should have jumped at the chance. :(

It would have been unpaid at the start and then a job offered if I was up to scratch.
 
Sash said:
Have you thought about using Myspace and other places to show off your artwork? Get the pictures and graphics out to as many people as possible. Also think about deviantart too :)

Best thing is they are free lol
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I have indeed. When I get the site up and running I'll be on Twitter/Myspace/Facebook/DeviantArt..... anything. :p
 
ps3ud0 said:
skip good luck mate - have a view of http://www.sixshootermedia.com/free-templates/ - might give you some ideas regards styles...

Perhaps though concentrate on the content now rather than how you are going to eventually publish it. Just make sure you cover both web+print design...

ps3ud0 :cool:
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I checked out that site when you told me about it last night and really liked it.

The logo I posted above was inspired by the Jigowatt logo on that page. I really liked the colours.

I see making the website as content in itself so by doing that, I have a firm base as an example and as a platform for my work. :)
 
jongeeone said:
Just asked him what he could do...

1Gb Space
5Gb Bandwidth
5 of everything (MySQL,POP-3,Domains etc etc)
1 .co.uk domain
Direct Admin control panel with Instalatron (Library of scripts or somthing)

£25.00 for the year.
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I'll send him an email sometime this week. :)

This is what I have to show for messing around on Dreamweaver all day:

sneakypeekp.png



It's taking a while to get used to. Before now, the only similar program I had used was an ancient FrontPage.
 
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OK so I've just funded up my bank account to buy the One.com package today.

Web space - 3000 MB
Unlimited transfer
Unlimited e-mail accounts
Virus- and spam filter
Photo GalleryNEW!
WebEditor
Blog - 3 clicks
FTP-login - Statistics
PHP5 - MySQL
Daily backup
FREE - Google Adwords coupon
FREE - Live Help 24/7


Does that seem decent enough?

Is there a limit to what I can install on it? I've been advised to implement this:
http://expressionengine.com/


Once I have purchased the package, what's the next step?
 
tsinc80697 said:
Expression Engine is great, just redone my site using it, links in my signature but it costs $250/license for the full version. Well worth it in my eyes but not at this point for you if you're on a budget!

If you want a CMS then try a free one, pixie or Wordpress maybe? Depends how blog orientated you want the site or more like a content management system!

If you need any help with xHTML/CSS/jQuery/CMS then just mail me via my site, happy to help out a forum member as I have some spare time at the moment!
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I'll most likely take you up on that. :)

Thanks.
 
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