Your Portfolio's Life at the Agency
Posted: Thu Sep 23, 2004 8:55 am
[b]Your Portfolio's Life at the Agency
When opportunity knocks, will your portfolio be ready?
By Suzanne Sease[/b]
A new phone message appears on your mobile. The number is unfamiliar.
Could this be message from that agency Art Buyer with the campaign that is going to make you? Yes, this time, it's the real deal: a firm request to see your portfolio from someone who is interested in your talent.
Its been a lot of hard work: Art school, apprenticeship, assisting, production work, business cards, collateral, pro bono, underpaying jobs, working at night.
You've shown your book over and over. You got the feedback. You made the adjustments, dropping work you really love because it sang but only to you. You finally have a sense of what you should be showing that tells who you are as an artist.
If you are a photographer you spent countless hours shooting what you are all about. If you're a freelance graphic designer or illustrator, the hours were spent creating images that show your special way of seeing the world.
Then, the time is spent selecting the images either by yourself or with a portfolio consultant; calibrating the color; printing and then printing some more cause you just weren't happy with that paper. Then either you assemble the portfolio yourself or rely on the talents of several great portfolio makers.
You have selected the perfect image for your mailing campaign. You have spent hours trying to figure who are you sending this too and now it all pays off. You get the call “We would like to see your book." Maybe this has happened before, and the other times it was out of town so you shipped your book off Federal Express. But this time its local and you decide to deliver it yourself.
You get to the lobby, the receptionist smiles and asks if she can help you. You tell her you’re here to drop off your book to Art Buyer X, she gets up and shows you into a small conference room.
And here, sitting against the wall, are what looks like a million portfolio cases just like yours. A bunch in those Fed Ex packages like the ones you used last time. The rest, just like yours, were dropped off.
Hmmm, what else could you have done? I am here to tell you.
The average campaign may call in 30 to 40 portfolios for one project. What can you do to make yours stand out in the crowd?
The most important thing to remember is that your portfolio is going to creative people so make it creative.
When I send portfolios back to my clients, I cover the traditional Federal Express box with either vintage tape; vintage luggage tags from ww.laughingelephant.com or I go to the local craft store and get a great selection of funky stickers from Velvet Elvis, Barbie or whatever seems like fun.
I add them around the address label. People always respond. You have now made an ordinary box something of interest and probably the first to be opened.
Now, the portfolio is out of the box. What is going to make it great? I love working with fabrics that are out of the ordinary. I have a client who photographs children using a “Fun with Dick and Jane” fabric.
Another client who has gritty street scenes portfolio covered in black dominatrix vinyl and sometimes uses just a beautiful unordinary French silk velvet.
These books do stand out but you can’t disappoint when they look inside. Make sure you look at the portfolio as a whole.
The majority of the time, an art director will review the book from the back to front so your portfolio has to be strong coming and going. Put your work up on a wall. Look at it from a distance. Make sure it makes a statement about what you offer. Remember: you are in sales.
Your images are there to sell a product, an emotion, a lifestyle so all the images need to have that special quality that allowed your book in the first time. An art director has a stack of portfolios to look at so make sure yours is user friendly. It needs to flip well with the images laying flat. And the printing or color prints must be the best you can afford.
With everything working in your favor, hopefully your portfolio will get you asked to bid. And that is the article for next time: “How to win the bidding process.”
[url=\"http://thecreativeforum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=20\"]source[/url]
When opportunity knocks, will your portfolio be ready?
By Suzanne Sease[/b]
A new phone message appears on your mobile. The number is unfamiliar.
Could this be message from that agency Art Buyer with the campaign that is going to make you? Yes, this time, it's the real deal: a firm request to see your portfolio from someone who is interested in your talent.
Its been a lot of hard work: Art school, apprenticeship, assisting, production work, business cards, collateral, pro bono, underpaying jobs, working at night.
You've shown your book over and over. You got the feedback. You made the adjustments, dropping work you really love because it sang but only to you. You finally have a sense of what you should be showing that tells who you are as an artist.
If you are a photographer you spent countless hours shooting what you are all about. If you're a freelance graphic designer or illustrator, the hours were spent creating images that show your special way of seeing the world.
Then, the time is spent selecting the images either by yourself or with a portfolio consultant; calibrating the color; printing and then printing some more cause you just weren't happy with that paper. Then either you assemble the portfolio yourself or rely on the talents of several great portfolio makers.
You have selected the perfect image for your mailing campaign. You have spent hours trying to figure who are you sending this too and now it all pays off. You get the call “We would like to see your book." Maybe this has happened before, and the other times it was out of town so you shipped your book off Federal Express. But this time its local and you decide to deliver it yourself.
You get to the lobby, the receptionist smiles and asks if she can help you. You tell her you’re here to drop off your book to Art Buyer X, she gets up and shows you into a small conference room.
And here, sitting against the wall, are what looks like a million portfolio cases just like yours. A bunch in those Fed Ex packages like the ones you used last time. The rest, just like yours, were dropped off.
Hmmm, what else could you have done? I am here to tell you.
The average campaign may call in 30 to 40 portfolios for one project. What can you do to make yours stand out in the crowd?
The most important thing to remember is that your portfolio is going to creative people so make it creative.
When I send portfolios back to my clients, I cover the traditional Federal Express box with either vintage tape; vintage luggage tags from ww.laughingelephant.com or I go to the local craft store and get a great selection of funky stickers from Velvet Elvis, Barbie or whatever seems like fun.
I add them around the address label. People always respond. You have now made an ordinary box something of interest and probably the first to be opened.
Now, the portfolio is out of the box. What is going to make it great? I love working with fabrics that are out of the ordinary. I have a client who photographs children using a “Fun with Dick and Jane” fabric.
Another client who has gritty street scenes portfolio covered in black dominatrix vinyl and sometimes uses just a beautiful unordinary French silk velvet.
These books do stand out but you can’t disappoint when they look inside. Make sure you look at the portfolio as a whole.
The majority of the time, an art director will review the book from the back to front so your portfolio has to be strong coming and going. Put your work up on a wall. Look at it from a distance. Make sure it makes a statement about what you offer. Remember: you are in sales.
Your images are there to sell a product, an emotion, a lifestyle so all the images need to have that special quality that allowed your book in the first time. An art director has a stack of portfolios to look at so make sure yours is user friendly. It needs to flip well with the images laying flat. And the printing or color prints must be the best you can afford.
With everything working in your favor, hopefully your portfolio will get you asked to bid. And that is the article for next time: “How to win the bidding process.”
[url=\"http://thecreativeforum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=20\"]source[/url]