10 years out...What does your portfolio look like?

Thanks for the insights Yo and R! Much appreciated from new age legends such as yourselves. I think I’m going to go with the combo portfolio. Working on it now, and its got 4 in-depth projects and then a bunch of other projects that are just renderings or product photos. I think its a good mix. Ill post up here once im done for some virtual crit action.

-Kyle

Looking forward to it!

R

I also appreciate all of your feedback. Not to highjack the thread too much but I had one question. What media do you guys use to present your portfolios? I have been using an Ipad. Mostly because it allows me a lot of flexibility in what I want to present.

I usually project if I can. If you can’t make it better, make it bigger! (And if you can’t make it bigger make it red… ) :laughing:

Of all the interviews I had done over the past decade, all of them afforded a place to project. These days the web is almost universally easiest, you can always lock down certain content with a password that you want to present in person, and you can project it on any machine, iPad, laptop, etc.

If you have the dongles and can project off the iPad that’s OK, but I’ve had people show up to interviews with an iPad presentation and then expected 7 designers to gather around the table and look at their content because they had nothing to project - that was a big no-no.

Thanks gain for the input I will gear around a projected presentation. I had that very embarrassing situation happen to me. I got a schedule for the interview, who I would meet with and when. So I came prepared to present to 1 or 2 people at a time. When I showed up they had changed the plan and I was to present to a group of 10 people at once. To say the least the Ipad did not cut it and I felt very embarrassed. But now I bring both a projectable version on a USB and my Ipad as back up.

Bring all the formats. I feel like I just wrote this in another thread recently.

With technology these days there’s no excuse. Make a PDF. Have it on your iPad, your laptop, a USB key, your iPhone, your Dropbox, your iCloud, your gmail inbox + printed.

Also, BTW, be prepared to present without any of the above. Know how to talk about your work/experience. Bring stuff.

R

I think one of my favourite stories from you was about your frog interview (I think it was that). Where you turned up with a suitcase of various parts of projects and asked the interviewer to pick something and you would tell the story behind it, kind of like a show and tell.

Obviously you will tell it better but I took this story to heart myself and for certain interviews have asked if they wanted me to talk through a specific project rather than go through my folio page by page. I found it starts a much better conversation and puts my mind at ease rather than feeling I’m just talking at them. I also have my own favourite projects so it is good to have them pick something they like which is often not something I expect them to. It can afford you to tell very intricate parts of projects that you may just not show in a folio like how you dealt with a manufacturer etc etc…I imagine when I hit the 10 year mark I’d be utilizing this approach more.

That is true. you don’t want to have a presentation, you want to have a conversation, so engaging right away, learning what they want to talk about, and then showing how you can steer that conversation to hit all of your key points… that is what interviewing for a director or vp position is like. They obviously know you can do work, they have reviewed the portfolio. The interview is showing that you can think on your feet, then you can handle feedback, pivot to an explanation that influences their perception, then crack a joke all in 5 seconds.

This is a useful methodology, I imagine it would apply to every interview at every job level as well, and not just the VP/Director positions. Nothing is more uncomfortable than a stiff you ask question and I answer question style of interview.

Totally agree! I hit 15 years this year and just started a new gig. I’m a pretty visual guys, I have gotten up and sketched out frameworks and research plans on a whiteboard during an interview.

As you move up in your career you take on more management and move into more decision making roles. The key is to show how you can be a strategic partner to the business. How do you lead design to elevate the brands, enhance consumer lives, all while driving ROI. That being said you are still a designer and creative thinker, we want to see those skills.

My portfolio has roughly 3 groups of work. First work were I have led business teams in developing long-term innovation pipelines, second nuts and bolts product design work for developing new products for our brands, and last tools, process, and practices that I have created to create efficiencies, and shepard creative thinking.

J

https://static1.squarespace.com/static/599da3982994ca56bfd1c428/t/599f1082bebafbe36adab17c/1503596708671/Joseph+Gabry_PORTFOLIO.pdf

This is 15 years, wrapped up into 50 pages.
Probably not showing enough process here.
Some sketches and illustrator work in the Product section.
Lots of final work/photos.

I’m trying to cover a lot.
Product, Graphic, and Experiential Design.

I appreciate any questions, comments, or critiques.

This is my portfolio with about 6 years of experience in product design.
My advice is to first be able to tell a good story and attune it to the party that you are in conversation with.
Then you need good supporting visual / tangible material. Show process but only when it supports the story of the project, what is more important that it becomes clear through your work what your vision and goals are as a designer.

I am still looking to improve my portfolio for next year, I will use a more distinctive layout with more pages and less and larger photographs.

Ya, you sound super happy.


R

If only our country allowed you to start your own company based on your own rules and principles, free from the judgement of others … :unamused:

How’s that working out for you?


Glad to hear it.

Variant, I have to say you just don’t present yourself well here. I think it would be difficult for any of us to recommend you for a project management/development role because I would want to work with someone who is so salty. From what I’m reading here I get the sense that you are really hurting. I wish I could convince you to not lash out here and try to build bridges. There are a number of folks here who could use PMs on project or full time basis. This entire forum is like a giant job interview. I know a lot of folks that have gotten jobs here and I’ve actively recruited a few posters on both full time and contract basis. Please, before you reply, consider turning over a new leaf and try to take advantage of what the forum can do instead of just venting. Think about it.

Can you please re-read this and see the hypocracy of your words? You’ve answered your own problem time after time. I get that you want to be arty and have your own style, but if you present yourself with the same punk-rock I’m the best everyone sucks but me attitude everywhere else like you do on here, then it isn’t the folio or industry that is the problem. You wouldn’t get a job in any industry anywhere with that attitude. Take a step back, stop lashing out and have a think about why you don’t get hits, rather than blaming everything except yourself.

For context:
https://variantone.carbonmade.com/

What complete and utter crap. If you have something of value, I’ll buy it. If you don’t, fuck off. It is really quite that simple.

You are obsolete, get over it and change. Saying murca should want your buggy whip over and over won’t make it so.