As I look back on this past month’s events in an attempt to debrief and process what I learned, I felt the need to write about it since it’s something I tend to not do and I’d like to change that. As designers, it’s important to take note of our process, jotting down what worked and what didn’t work, and ultimately, how we got to our final solution. We’re problem solvers and part of being one is understanding why your solution works. ✅
I’d love to share my perspective as a young designer on a search for full-time employment and what’s been working and what hasn’t been working. Hopefully, this helps someone trying to succeed as a designer because there are no blueprints for life, only trial and error.
Today, I’m writing about AIGA San Francisco’s annual Portfolio Day held at California College of the Arts a couple of Saturdays ago and the insight I gained from speaking to seasoned design professionals as well as the advice I’d like to share based on my own experience.
Create work that you want to do and stick to it.
As a recent graduate of the Department of Design at UC Davis, I was exposed to a multitude of areas within design, ranging from exhibition design to fashion and textiles to interior architecture, etc. I was lucky enough to pick and choose from courses that interested me, honing in on my passion for traditional graphic design and gaining experience in digital design work, setting myself up to be a very multidisciplinary designer. After speaking with many designers at Portfolio Day, I learned about the importance of creating work that you love doing and sharing this as opposed sharing all your life’s work. Yes, it’s nice to create work that showcases your many talents, but it’s more important to focus on work that you enjoy doing. Chances are, what you like goes hand in hand with what you’re best at and that speaks volumes in terms of job hunting and what employers see in your breadth of work.
Cutting down on what you choose to show also helps narrow down your list of design roles that you’re choosing to apply to. For instance, it only makes sense to showcase your best publication work if you genuinely enjoy working on editorial work. From there, you could apply to roles that cater to that, or even better, review the list of designers attending Portfolio Day, figure out who works in your desired area of design, and come with specific, targeted questions that pinpoint the insight you’d love to gain. You only have a few minutes to speak with these professionals, so use your time wisely!
Diversity, Diversity, Diversity!
In terms of showcasing your work, diversity has two meanings. For one, it’s important to create design that is reflective of the world around you. The world is full of people that come from different backgrounds and all walks of life. Your work should be reflective of these experiences and your design decisions should be true to the experience of your audience. You want your audience to be able to find your work compelling enough to want to take action and that begins with reflecting diversity that they can see themselves being a part of.
Secondly, your work itself should be diverse! In short, the experiences behind your work should shine, not just the graphics themselves. Yes, it’s important to be able to showcase work that demonstrates breadth of technical skill, but it’s equally important to show where you gained these skills. From the feedback I received at Portfolio Day, I learned that there’s so much more to showing your work than what meets the eye. You should be able to structure your portfolio in a way that showcases the wide array of experiences you have had in your short time as a designer, no matter how small you may think they may be. In my case, I succeeded to demonstrate my technical skills through the different printed pieces I brought along, but I failed to craft a story about the exciting experiences I have had working with different clients and audiences. It’s these moments that show how versatile you are as a designer in demonstrating how you are able to quickly adapt to different situations and can strategize in any given occasion.
Celebrate progress!
As a budding designer myself, I’ve experienced imposter syndrome, feeling inferior to my peers, seeing that they’re succeeding in one area as I struggle in another. It’s easy to compare yourself to others, which makes it so important to take note that success is different for everyone. Everyone is skilled in different ways and where your strengths lay may be different for someone else. Take note of your own triumphs and successes and own them because no one else will do that for you. So celebrate those random moments where you pulled off a really cool project or landed an interview for a great opportunity or even something as small as finally figuring out how to turn off the ever-so-frustrating perspective grid in Adobe Illustrator. It’s small, but it’s a triumph and you earned it, but remember, keep working at it! ✨🎉
Until the next Portfolio Day!
In short, who knows where I’ll be next year, but I highly recommend attending events like this, where you’re able to get one-on-one feedback and network with skilled professionals who have been in your shoes. Portfolio Day is an incredible opportunity to learn more about the design industry, understand where you can improve, and who knows, maybe you’ll meet your future boss! Take advantage of that!
