Physical Portfolio Size Question

[mjk212]

I'm beginning the process of putting together my design portfolio (yes, an actual physical portfolio), and I'm having trouble making up my mind on a final size. I'm hoping some of you guys who have made them or seen many of them can give me some insight. I've already decided on a screw-post book from Pina Zangaro as the actual container, so that's not the issue.

My biggest concern is that I have a couple different pieces that are full 6-page magazine spreads. At first I thought it would be fine to showcase these scaled down a bit and photoshopped onto pictures of actual magazines, but what I keep hearing from my professors and some research is how important it is to show work in its actual size (so reviewers can easily critique typography issues, etc).

So at the moment I'm leaning towards 11''x17'' so I can show both sides of a spread on a single sheet within the portfolio, but that would mean the "fold" center on the spread wouldn't be folded at all, but rather fall right in the center of the sheet. That might be kind of weird.

A size that I liked right off the bat is the smaller 11''x14'', but again it might be weird displaying spreads that are 8.5''x11'', leaving some extra space on the sides of each sheet.

So naturally, another option is just using a small, 8.5''x11'' portfolio so these spreads can actually be displayed as they would be in a magazine, but that would mean I would probably need 8 pages for each of these projects, and 4-6 for all the others. With probably 10 projects in there, that would mean a portfolio that's at least 40-45 pages long.

This post is getting pretty long, so basically all I'm asking is which size makes the most sense to you, given the work I need to showcase?

[Virgo Nightingale]

I had a few magazine spreads in mine as well, and I think my portfolio was 13 x 19 or so, that way I could display spreads across one page (and thus 2 related spreads in one 'spread' so they could be viewed together). Smaller pieces were simply displayed in the middle of the page, but I really didn't have anything so small that it got lost. My portfolio was huge, I know. But it worked for me and landed me a job very quickly.

Do you have actual printed samples of your magazine spreads? Perhaps you can have them smaller in your physical portfolio, but provide samples to prospective employers to look at during your portfolio review. Or perhaps have full size versions in your online portfolio?

[mjk212]

I had a few magazine spreads in mine as well, and I think my portfolio was 13 x 19 or so, that way I could display spreads across one page (and thus 2 related spreads in one 'spread' so they could be viewed together). Smaller pieces were simply displayed in the middle of the page, but I really didn't have anything so small that it got lost. My portfolio was huge, I know. But it worked for me and landed me a job very quickly.

Do you have actual printed samples of your magazine spreads? Perhaps you can have them smaller in your physical portfolio, but provide samples to prospective employers to look at during your portfolio review. Or perhaps have full size versions in your online portfolio?
Thanks for the response.
I could easily print out samples of the spreads, but for some reason my professor is quite against not having these full-size in the portfolio itself. Right now I'm leaning towards 11x17 and just displaying them full-size and full-bleed, preceded by a page with the project description, etc. Do you see any problems with that approach?