Presenting Your Portfolio

Overview

You’ll present your Behance and printed portfolios to the class this semester. After presenting a few times, you should be able to speak more eloquently about your portfolio samples. You’ll get better with practice. You will also be able to communicate more effectively the objectives, ideas, skills, and talents that helped you create each portfolio sample. This is valuable information for any potential employer deciding if you are their best candidate. 

Practice saying your answers out loud often. It will pay off during your interview.

As you choose samples and create your portfolio challenge yourself to answer three questions for each of your portfolio samples.

  1. What is the sample for? (Describe the objective of the project) 
  2. Why did you create the sample the way you did? (Explain your ideas, creative directions, and choice of design elements) 
  3. How did you create the sample? (Software, typeface, color harmony, are the photos or illustrations yours, did you use any special filters or effects?)

Examples of how to present

  1. What is the sample for? (Describe the objective of the project) Example: Instead of saying, “This is a brochure we had to do for InDesign class”… Say, “The goal of this project was to create a 4-page brochure that targeted a small-town community, and educated them about the local effects of pollution.”
  2. Why did you create the sample the way you did? (Explain your ideas) Example: Instead of saying, “I created the brochure with photos and colorful art to grab the viewer’s attention”… Say, “My idea for the direction of this brochure was to educate the small-town community about pollution by showing them how they are directly affected by it. I used photographs of local lakes and streams that are full of garbage and are lacking healthy fish. I choose to fill the brochure with large photos to do most of the speaking for me, and not have a lot of boring copy to read.” –See the difference? The 2nd answer talks about your IDEAS.–
  3. How did you create the sample? (Software, typeface, your own photos or illustrations, special filters, or effects?) Example: Instead of saying, “I used InDesign to make the brochure”… Say, “The final brochure layout was done in InDesign. I used paragraph and character style sheets for the headlines and body copy. The logo on the front cover was designed by me in Illustrator. I took all of the digital photographs myself, using a Canon 18 megapixel SLR camera, and cropped and color corrected the photos in Photoshop.”

Notice how I didn’t focus on these being “class” projects. Treat each sample like a professional design project—because they are! You have been working on real design projects for several months now, use it to your advantage.

While presenting, speak clearly and slowly, and move from sample to sample with confidence. Allow a pause after each sample to let them ask questions. When you are done showing your final sample, ask them if they have any questions.

Video examples showing how to present your creative work

Presenting your creative portfolio – Brochure
(2:45)

Presenting your creative portfolio – Animated Video
(2:43)

Presenting your creative portfolio – Sustainable Tour Poster (for a real client)
(4:17)

Presenting your creative portfolio – Website
(2:56)

Presenting your creative portfolio – Packaging
(3:44)