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Thanks for the kind words, glad you’re finding them helpful!

Great question! I think an About page is a valuable place to dive a bit deeper into your approach, accomplishments, awards, and experience. It doesn’t need to be long, but can be an expanded version of the elevator pitch on the home page. Something like a couple of paragraphs instead of a couple of sentences.

Thanks for the feedback - I see where you’re coming from with wanting things to be more black and white. My thought process is that I may love a portfolio that someone else dislikes or vice versa, so I try to keep my reviews objective by focusing on the elements and breaking down what’s working and what isn’t.

Thanks for the kind words, glad you found it helpful!

Great question! Instagram is an awesome place to get your work out there and get discovered by potential clients, but in my mind it’s not a legitimate place to host a portfolio. Ideally you’re posting your work there and pushing people to your actual site/contact info. Behance is a valid option for a portfolio and is also a great place to get discovered by potential clients. It does come across as less professional than a standalone portfolio site, so I would recommend moving to your own site and domain when time and funds allow.

Haha glad you enjoyed it

Great question! It’s totally fine to use college work in your portfolio when you’re just starting out. Follow the same guidelines as far as telling a story, showing your work, and sharing the goals of each project. Adding in passion projects is another great way to showcase your skillset.

Best of luck in the job search!

You're very welcome, glad you found them helpful!

Thanks for the kind words, glad to hear you found it valuable!

Thanks for the kind words!

Absolutely

A single column is easier to parse for ATS scans and the applications systems that ‘autofill’ info for you using your resume. That being said, I personally use a 2 column to fit more content. I just made sure to test it in the tools mentioned in the video.

I’m not sure what you mean, could you clarify?

Glad you found it valuable! A free domain name isn’t a deal breaker by any means, but for $10, a paid domain name makes your site look much more professional. Recommend going the paid route if you have the funds!

Love to hear that!

Appreciate that!

What makes you think that?

Thanks so much for the kind words! I’m glad you found it helpful

Check out the section from 7:00 onwards, I talk about what to include in an experience section when you’re new to the industry and don’t have much/any experience. Let me know if that answers your question!

Thanks for the kind words! Glad you found it helpful

Agreed, Tatiana’s portfolio is an incredible example! The fonts used in the tips graphic are TT Commons Pro for the headline/body and DIN Pro for the sub-header and footer. Best of luck with finishing your BFA!

@@artfulruckus thank you!

Great questions! I would include both your actual unrelated work experience as well as any related projects. Unrelated work experience is relevant as it shows you know the basics of holding down a job, working in a team, etc. I’m sure there are also some things from those positions that you can spin as relevant skills for a design position (working on tight deadlines, incorporating feedback into your work, etc.) Quantifying impact is different for every job, task, and project. You would need to measure something up front that’s done the ‘old way’, change something, and then measure the same metric afterwards. Let’s say you noticed a system being used as an admin assistant that was inefficient, maybe you were wasting hours every week by having to manually enter everyone’s expenses into a spreadsheet for them. You could then launch a new system that automatically calculated everyone’s expenses via their company cards. You could then calculate how much time this saved on a monthly basis, and feature a metric like ‘launched a new expense system that increased reporting time efficiency by X’. You don’t want to make up numbers as not only is that dishonest, but you also may be asked how you came up with them during an interview. The importance of sections will change depending on where you’re at in your career. Naturally, if you’ve recently graduated, education will be more important and is acceptable to have higher. In general, summary and experience are the two most important sections and would be closest to the top.

Love to hear that, glad you found it valuable!

Glad you enjoyed!

Really appreciate that! Glad you enjoyed it.

Great question! I think Behance portfolios are fine, but creating a portfolio website and placing it on a custom domain name will definitely come across as more professional. I view Behance portfolios as a great way to attract clients that are already on Behance. For job applications or general freelance work, I would work towards getting a site built when you’re able.

Appreciate that, Matt! On to bigger and better things 🤝

Glad you found it helpful!

Good call! There’s nothing worse than working hard on a logo design you love only to discover it’s already been done.

@@artfulruckus Finding out a year later that the client couldn't use the logo and hired someone else. It was disheartening to see my work replaced despite getting paid.

Glad you found it valuable!

@@artfulruckus 75% of the work is sifting through the "sus" job postings and scams.

Thanks for the feedback! You’re right that this Q&A is speaking to multiple audiences as this ‘Ask Me Anything’ was open to an entire community of senior, mid, and entry level creatives. There are chapters in the description for every question in order to allow viewers to skip to questions that are relevant to where they are in their careers.

I love Paula Scher, but haven't read this one. Adding it to my cart immediately haha, thanks for the recommendation!

Actually it seems to be out of print and quite expensive to pick up second hand - looks to have become a collector's item. I'll have to do some hunting at used book stores for a reasonably priced copy!

👋 Thanks for watching!

I’m all for including fictional projects in your portfolio. It shows that you’re passionate about design and that you’re honing your craft outside of your 9-5. Ideally, the passion projects should mimic real world project guidelines (you did research, you started with a goal in mind, you outline strategy and key findings, etc). This helps potential clients/employers make the connection between the fictional project and how the skills/output could translate to a real world project.

Thanks man!

Haha the golden ratio is great when it works, but definitely one of the most overhyped concepts when it comes to logo design.

Absolutely, glad you found it valuable!

Listing freelance as its own block makes sense and is a common practice, within that you can list your biggest/most relevant wins for your clients. As with any job, it’s tough to encapsulate everything into a few bullet points, so I would focus on the biggest campaigns with the most impressive metrics and then you can get more granular in your portfolio/interview if you’d like to speak to smaller clients/campaigns.

My portfolio is at tmunz.com

Glad it was helpful! I’ve got a hefty list of portfolio review requests going, but feel free to send it my way and I’ll get it in the queue for a future episode 🙌

Thanks Sam! All portfolio links can be found in the video description

@@artfulruckus Apologies, I didn't scroll further down, was using my phone, thank you!

@@samcharo no worries at all! It’s a good call out as the description is pretty long. Maybe I can add the addresses on screen in future reviews to make them more easy to find.

Love to hear that!

Thanks for the kind words, glad you found it valuable!

That’s super nice of you to say, really appreciate it!