Hey yall! I have been looking for a job for a couple months now and have gotten nothing. I had a job but for several reasons left and have been freelancing the past year. I’m ready to get a 9-5 again and have over 5 years of experience but I’m not getting any traction. Can you all help me make my portfolio stronger and take a look at it? Am I dusty or even competitive for this market?
I think you have some nice work samples presented along with some that might not be doing you any favors. My suggestion would be:
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Pare it down and only show your strongst work. Not counting the videos, you have 22 samples shown on the civil rights page. I don’t think that many are needed in this case. I think you could eliminate some of the samples under Shabach! and Epilepsy, too.
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Put all of the videos on one page. I know some of them fit in with the branding of other projects, but I think you have too many videos. For exampple, you don’t really need four of the Got Questions videos, but having just one video on a page would seem odd. So put all of the videos on one page.
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At the risk of sounding harsh, I don’t think the Kwynci Kutz work is that strong. I’d eliminate it altogether. After all, you’re only as strong as your weakest piece.
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I don’t think the freelance logos is your strongest category. At the very least eliminate the AC Jordan and two Traye Russell logos.
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Add an About Me page. This is a good place to sell yourself, and you are missing out on this opportunity.
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Half your portfolio is church stuff, which is great if you are only interested in working for a church. But how many churches employ full time designers? There may be a limited market for what you are selling.
Back in the days when designers would show up in person and present a physical portfolio, I met with a local YMCA. We spent 20 minutes flipping through my pages, and she was tentative on whether I was a good fit, until she saw the campaign I did for a casino night fundraiser, then I was hired. Because they had a casino night fundraiser on their calendar. And every other time I’ve been hired over the years it’s been a similar situation. People need to see a connection between your portfolio and their need.
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There is a lot of truth in that. Some people can’t look at a portfolio full of great work for insurance companies, for example, and think that the designer can do great hospitality work.
More than once, I’ve said, “Just because I haven’t done work for (fill in the industry) doesn’t mean I can’t do work the industry."
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Thank you all so much! Please keep the feedback coming. This has been so helpful!
What type of samples do you think I should add? Health care? Product design? Business/tech?
Would you be willing to come up with some companies for me to mock up!?
Your work, talent, and abilities are fine (or better 
). You’ll find a job if you keep looking.
However, as someone who has evaluated thousands of portfolios over the years, I have several observations.
For example, your Leadership Conference on Civil Rights work is extensive and very good. However, when I click on the Epilepsy Foundation, I see one solitary graphic. This suggests that you put it there to help diversify your portfolio and round it out by including work for another organization that you probably wouldn’t have otherwise included. A solitary piece might be fine if that piece is stunning, but all things considered, it doesn’t deserve its own category.
From what I can tell, you’ve grouped your work by clients, but sometimes grouping the work by subject matter or campaign works just as well. For example, the videos in your civil rights category might stand alone or in a separate multi-media category or something similar.
I always found it helpful when reviewing portfolios to read written insight into the projects, objectives, challenges, and why designers made the decisions they made.
Additionally, when evaluating a portfolio, an art director tries to infer something about the applicant’s personality. It would help if you included a brief section about yourself. I’m not suggesting buzzwords or easily dismissed statements. Instead, I suggest you introduce yourself while providing a little information about who you are — education, experience, motivations, and anything else relevant to your abilities as a designer.
Along similar lines, I looked at your LinkedIn page — as every art director will do. You describe yourself as a “Christian Freelance Graphic Designer and Video Editor.” Are you saying you specialize in Christian design and video projects, or are you saying that your religious beliefs are so part and parcel to who you are that you want it stated right up front. Your job choices, beliefs, and priorities are, of course, your business. However, some otherwise great employers and clients might interpret what you’ve written incorrectly and assume you won’t or can’t work on projects not focused on religion, like a bank, department store, or construction company. I suppose I’m saying that whatever you write about yourself, be sure to consider how others might interpret it and whether that accurately reflects what you meant to say.
Before working on any ficticious projects, I’d suggest you currate what you have and re-evaluate the roundness of your portfolio.
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Thank you so much for this feedback! I am self-taught in graphic design, so a lot of the wisdom you are sharing is incredibly helpful. You actually highlighted one of the things I’m trying to figure out, which is how to pitch myself.
My faith is extremely important to me so I wouldn’t want to create or promote things that would go against it like sex outside of marriage/hookup culture, intoxication, debauchery, discrimination, etc. You get the picture. I’m certainly not opposed to working for jobs that aren’t Christian, but this was an issue I encountered towards the end of my last job that I would love to avoid if possible. I am afraid I have put myself in a box which isn’t ideal either. This is the main reason I took down my “About Me” page because I was wrestling with how to share that my faith is important to me but I’m still a complete professional who can work for the vast majority of industries.
Any tips or ideas?
Thank you!!
As far as the roundness and ratio of my portfolio, I was at The Leadership Conference for four years (hence the depth of work) and I’ve been freelancing for one year. Most of the work I have done this past year has been for Christian organizations solely through word of mouth. Other work that I have done like at internships or in secular spaces I either don’t have access to or I’m not allowed to share. For example, I’m currently working for a minor-league basketball team but they aren’t launching until 2026. I would love to include what I’m doing for them but I can’t yet.
What are your thoughts or suggestions?
Personally, I think you limit yourself by pushing your faith as your top of the list criterion. It is your personal stance and has no place in your portfolio. We all have a moral compass, we live by, whatever somene’s religion, or lack of. If something should come up in our working life that causes potential conflict with it, we deal with that quietly and either, refuse the job, or work around that for our clients so both are not compromised.
For me, stating you are a 'Christian’ anything, when not directly related to Christianity, possibly comes across as a little sanctimonious. Personally, it would make me consider not hiring you.
I expect any designer I would potentially employ to have a strong moral and ethical compass, regardless. Your personal beliefs are irrelevant to most potential employers, I’d imagine.
That aside, I think the work you are presenting is OK, but if I’m honest, it all looks as though you are self-taught. Don’t get me wrong, there are a couple of pieces that are fairly good, but overall, I am not bowled over by it and I’d need to be for you to end up on the YES pile.
As someone else said, having no About page is a deal breaker. I’d be putting that firmly on the NO pile for this. I’d need to know a little about your background and who you are.
Have a look at other professional designers’ sites. Learn from the best of the best. Overall the presentation feels a little lacklustre. A bit of an afterthought.
Depending on the level of job you are going for, you will be competing against some seriously polished portfolios. You have to make a potential employer sit up and take notice.
I am not saying this to be harsh and negative, but you will be facing much harsher scrutiny and criticism from potential employers. I think you need to up your presentation game. I’ve seen much worse work, but you are not giving yourself the best chance with this. None of it screams, passion, enthusiasm, energy.
Hope this helps – rather than deflates.
Good luck.
I appreciate your honesty. Thank you!
If there were any areas that could improve my design so it looks less self-taught what would they be?
Also, who are some designers you consider best of the the best that I should look at?