2. Reasons for Portfolios
• Personal: to protect and preserve your
work
• Occupational: to present your work to
obtain a job, either employment or freelance
• Educational: to demonstrate your
qualification to be admitted to higher levels
of formal art education
3. Making the right selections
• For occupational and educational portfolios,
consider the type of job (or courses/degrees) you
are capable of and want to pursue
• Your portfolio should be created and arranged
to support your goal
• If you have multiple goals, you may need
multiple portfolios
4. Demonstrating your skill
• Concepts: ideas
• Design: composition, expressive use of elements
• Techniques: mastery of the craft
When preparing your employment
(or educational portfolio that shows your
abilities on three levels:
5. Demonstrating your skill
• Show a larger number of examples in your area
of primary emphasis
• Included pieces in other formats/media if they
show good concepts or related skills
• Versatility can increase your marketiblity!
In most cases you want to show both depth
and breadth
6. Portfolio preparation steps
1. Determine the primary purpose of your
portfolio
2. Compile and select the artwork that might fit
the purpose of your portfolio
3. Narrow down your selections to 18-24
examples, with 10-12 for refocusing your
portfolio for different employers (or schools)
4. Determine what new work you need to produce
to supplement your portfolio
7. Portfolio preparation steps
While you certainly may (and should in some cases)
carry a physical portfolio, there will be times that
you want to present your work when you will
not be present.
For these occasions, and to use as a reminder of
your visit, you should have an electronic version
of your portfolio.
8. Portfolio preparation steps
5. Decide on the electronic presentation method:
website or PowerPoint presentation.
• Each has its advantages — a web site can be
accessed any time, but the viewer must remember
your URL.
• A PowerPoint can be burned to CD and left
behind after an interview — but if you use any
type that isn’t in image format, there can be
problems when viewed in a computer without
your fonts!
9. Portfolio preparation steps
6. Digitize all selected work: scan, digitally
photograph, convert from PDF; .jpg format in
RGB color space.
7. Organize your work: choose primary and
secondary methods — by Theme? Media?
Subject/concept? What information should you
include with each piece? (name, email, phone,
size & media, etc.)
10. Portfolio preparation steps
8. Design and create the presentation: what sort
of background would showcase your abilities as
a designer and set off your artwork effectively?
9. Rehearse your presentation. Know how to
effectively navigate your electronic document,
and know what you are going to say about each
piece. Use your work to explain concept, design
and technique. Tell your story.
11. Next steps…
• Start by collecting all of the work you’ve saved
in one place. Depending on your background, you
may have many pieces, or just a few.
• Sort your work: you may want to sort by
medium, by the class you took when you created
them, etc. The idea is to make it easy to look at
similar works together.
12. Next steps…
• Don’t discard anything yet, unless you have a
very large number of pieces (more than 50).
• If you have lots of work, start grouping similar
pieces together, and eliminating the ones you
don’t feel demonstrate your best work.
• You will bring all your samples to the meeting
with the instructor to begin the process of
selecting your final collection.
13. Next steps…
• Sign up for your portfolio meeting today,
or as soon as possible! Bring all your work and
meet with your instructor for about an hour, and
review all your samples and talk about your goals.
• Sign-up sheet is on the instructor’s door.
• Individual meetings will take place on during the
next three weeks. During that time, we will not
meet as a class.
