Advice on improving portfolio

[will smith]

Hi all
I have a question to ask relating to my portfolio. I am a pre-press technician with 7 years artworking experience, plus 5 more years in repro / pre-press. I have a hnd with honours in print media management I have a portfolio that has mainly repro projects in it, as well as a few designery jobs that I have worked on. I have not really got a great deal of creative experience, and no real evidence projects that I have had any design input on. I really want to focus more on creative work, I have got really into Illustrator and have posted an example attached to this post.

I have been a big fan of this forum and some of the visitors to this site are very talented. So:

Can anyone tell me what a balanced portfolio should contain - illustrations / layout etc.

Can anyone tell me what career path I should take - should I try to maintain my current level of doing the odd image, or should I try to get experience in a studio environment?

Are there any courses I can take part time in the UK?

I am not unhappy with my current job, I just want to be stronger when it comes to my portfolio
Thanks for the help in advance

[Big Perm-dizzle]

okay so you know illustrator but can you use it on a real world application?

make a portfolio from scrap - like your in college....

if you know prepress then you a leg up on the competition - pick a couple companies from the phone book and do a corportate identity for them. you have seem enough design work to have some creative juices in your head already

www.hirethisdesigner.com (http://www.hirethisdesigner.com) - portfolio
www.conceptprint.com (http://www.conceptprint.com) - the company I work for

[morea]

check out these links, too! Welcome to the forum! /emoticons/cheers.gif

www.creativegroup.com/TCG/WinningPortfolio (http://www.creativegroup.com/TCG/WinningPortfolio)
graphicdesign.about.com/cs/designerportfolios/a/portfolio.htm (http://graphicdesign.about.com/cs/designerportfolios/a/portfolio.htm)
graphicdesign.about.com/library/portfolio/blportfolio.htm (http://graphicdesign.about.com/library/portfolio/blportfolio.htm)
www.adigitaldreamer.com/articles/graphic-design-portfolio.htm (http://www.adigitaldreamer.com/articles/graphic-design-portfolio.htm)
www.coroflot.com/public/portfolio_tips.asp (http://www.coroflot.com/public/portfolio_tips.asp)

Hope that helps some. Nice work on the car, btw.