E-Portfolios

[red_angel]

Hi gang. I'm in the process of putting together a portfolio in PDF format to email to agencies and employers. I've never done one for electronic distribution so I was wondering if anyone can give me some pointers or provide some useful links. Cheers.

[Thomas51471]

If you are going to email them the pdf why not just do an online portfolio website and then email the agencies the link. That way you don't have to worry about virus catchers deleting the attachement or bloating thier mailbox with it.

Just a thought.

[red_angel]

My initial thoughts exactly! But most of the job ads I've browsed through are fairly anal in that portfolios need to be PDF files.

My biggest concern is presentation: how do you actually include a diverse range of work in a PDF file. Catalogues, flyers, stationary, logos, etc. Do you include every page of the 100+ page catalogue? Do you need to show the whole blank area of the letterhead? Fairly trivial things but I really have no idea!

Do you know of any online portfolios that I can browse to get some ideas?

[EC]

Yeah I do think you need to show the "blank" area of a letterhead -- you can scale it down though.

I would include a table of contents in a .pdf if it were me, so potential employers can click to the area they are most interested in rather than scrolling through a huge document.

[Ovaltine]

What I do (since several places specify how many pdfs to send) is gear the pieces I send to the companies' tastes, and also send them a link to my online portfolio. This way, I can whet their taste, and then give 'em more.

If I have an interview, I leave a PowerPoint version on disc with them. Likewise, if they only provide a mailing addres, I send the disc along with the cover letter and resume.

[Thomas51471]

Well as far as showing catalog pages goes you could do it like this site does:

http://www.g2catalogdesign.com/index.php

[red_angel]

Cheers for that link, Thomas. My original take was to do a portfolio in a similar "montage" style, as opposed to having each file on it's own page which I think is somewhat unimaginative. I also thought it'd be a good idea to have each page dedicated to a single client, arranging their work in some kind of catalogue style, with details on the bottom. My only query regarding this is that would agencies/employers prefer to see the actual file instead of fancy presentation? Another query is to what size should the PDF document be set to? I was thinking A4 landscape. Your thoughts?

[Ned]

For size, definitely go with letter-sized! Landscape should be fine, but portrait is preferred. HR will want to print that file for themselves color or not. Make sure you also have a fair bit of room for printer margins. Not all recruiters are as computer savvy as most graphic designers, and they will print out what they can, however they know how.

Don't worry, the recruiter does NOT want to see the entire file. They need to get a good feel and idea of what you've done. Your presentation is important, and I would not skimp out on that. The days of carrying around a big portfolio of published and printed material has gone to the way of digital media. Recruiters don't have the time to comb through all that material. Basically, build your PDF like you would a website, giving a "taste" of what you can do!

Myself, I have a tendency of sticking to a 1 or 2 page sample sheet, which works like a little brochure for me. This is fine in my case because I work for myself, mostly out of my own office, and am seeking contracts, not employment. If you are looking for a full-time job, then you will probably want a more detailed, extensive portfolio, but at the same time, you need to keep it quick and easy to read.

Don't forget to optimize! If you compress to about 98dpi, you can maintain a small, emailable filesize, and still keep enough quality for the recruiter to print your portfolio to their desktop printer. You may also consider putting the PDF on your own web server, and providing a link rather than attaching the file.

[Alex Olshevsky]

Your portfolio shouldn't have too many pages. Avoid putting all in the mess.

Your portfolio should include only the best works you have done.

[red_angel]

98 dpi? That is horridly low, to the detriment of the the artwork!

[PrintDriver]

You want to be able to email it?
Then you have to give up something somewhere. Most people only have a 3 to 5 mb attachment limit.

I'm for posting it on a website. Our company server is likely to strip unfamiliar/unsolicited emails of their attachments as stated above.

The other thing about pdf's I don't like is they can be opened and used via Illustrator and such. Since I don't deal with emailed portfolios what do you others on the hiring end think about security locking such a pdf file to be read/print only or rasterizing the content?

[kyao888]

Maybe you should try digital version of your portfolio. There are a lof of resources online for your to look at. Do an ecatalog/flash magazine/digital portfolio search on Google.com


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