Graphic Design Portfolio Learning
If you’re thinking of learning a career that gives you personal freedom, creative freedom, and opens up endless job opportunities, a career in graphic design could be on the cards.
All across the UK, more and more people are quitting their desk jobs working 9 – 5 while making somebody else rich, and are instead choosing to sign up for a graphic design portfolio learning online course and study graphic design at home.
Signing up for an online graphic design course is hugely beneficial as you can learn from home, you can fit your classes around your schedule, and you will be taught by qualified, certified, experienced, professional graphic designers who will teach you every trick in the trade.
If you are new to graphic design and want to get yourself out there and start landing some high-profile clients, a portfolio is essential as this is how you will sell yourself. Building a portfolio however, is easier said than done.
To help get you started, here’s a look at some of our top tips on building the ultimate graphic design online portfolio.
No fillers!
When it comes to building a design portfolio to show off your skills as a graphic designer, the last thing you should do is even consider using filler content.
Basically, your portfolio is there to showcase your work as a designer and to show potential clients what you’re capable of. Needless to say, you should choose your very best designs rather than trying to include as many images and designs as you can.
Graphic designers sometimes make the mistake of trying to cram as many designs into their portfolios as they can, because they figure the more designs they have, the more professional they will look. Now, if each design is indeed their best work and is one which they’re 99% happy with (a true graphic designer is never 100% happy with their work) that’s all well and good, but if not, adopt a ‘less is more’ approach.
Now, you could get creative and show your early designs when you were starting off to show how far you’ve progressed, but if so, make sure you’re clear with this so that the reader can understand this.
Begin and finish with your finest works
Another thing you’ll notice when you sit down and begin learning for a graphic design portfolio learning class is to start and end with your finest works.
When you put a portfolio together, you want something amazing to capture the reader’s eye and draw them in, and at the same time, you also want to end with something special, a grand finale, if you will.
For these reasons, when compiling a graphic design portfolio, make sure to include your two best designs at the start and the end of your portfolio.
Incorporate your personal style in your portfolio
Different graphic designers have different styles and formats that they prefer with their designs, and consequently, you should include yours in your portfolio.
If for example, you prefer to use a certain font or typography, make sure this is evident in the designs in your portfolio.
Of course you should include your personal logo as this is essentially your artist’s signature, though if you do tend to work in a specific style using the same types of fonts, colours, and patterns in your designs, make sure you include plenty of these images in your portfolio.
Make sure you include some versatility too
Another thing your tutor will teach you when you take part in a graphic design portfolio learning course is to include some versatility in your profile too.
As a designer, you need to not only showcase your preferred style and techniques, but also show that you’re capable of adapting to different styles and creating different and unusual designs based upon your client’s briefs.
Because of this, make sure to include some of your more unique and unusual designs, even if they are rare and you don’t create them very often.
Display the work which you would like to get hired for
When you’re learning graphic design in the early stages, you’ll learn different techniques to create different types of designs. As time passes however, and as you become more confident as a designer, you may have a specific field of graphic design that you would like to specialise in. If that is the case, make sure to showcase this primarily in your portfolio.
If, for example, you would like to get into graphic design for designing logos, obviously your portfolio should include plenty of examples of the different kinds of logos that you’ve created over the months/years.
Keep it simple
As well as including plenty of images of your designs, your graphic design portfolio learning online tutor will also teach you about the importance of keeping your portfolio simple.
Of course you need to include text, I.E your name, experience, qualifications, field of expertise, and contact details, as well as info about some of your more import designs. When adding the text to your portfolio, however, make sure you don’t waffle on with paragraph after paragraph as people will lose interest.
Ensure that the most important info, I.E your name and contact details, are clear and easy to find, but avoid the temptation to write endless paragraphs about how great you are and how much you love graphic design.
Let your work speak for itself
Expanding on what we just mentioned, when you create an online portfolio, they say that ‘a picture speaks a thousand words’ and because of this you should let your work speak for itself.
You’re a designer, not a writer, so let your designs do the talking for you. At the end of the day, people will hire you not for how great you are at telling stories with words, but rather, for how great you are at telling stories with images.
