Make a Speed-Dating Deck for all your portfolio needs
Forget the Portfolio, make a Presentation (and make it fast)
Some years ago I got invited to a speed dating event — at a design firm. For them it was a fun way of saying “come to the studio on a Saturday, meet some people and drink free champagne and/or kombucha.” For me, it became a good frame of mind for presenting work in general. I ended up making a speed-dating deck to talk about my work and it’s one of the best presentation tools I ever made. This is what it looked like:
The Do’s
- Tell me a story. Have big slides that are just words. Make sure to have a point of view, what should I take away from this besides cool images?
- Have a beginning, middle and end. Know where the transitions are. This is a story, not an art gallery. The work doesn’t speak for itself — you do.
- Give yourself the ability to speed it up or slow it down. Those 76 slides up there? Easily 5 minutes if needed. 30 or more if I need to take up space. Make sure you can throttle it for the room or moment.
The Don’ts
- Don’t add extraneous quotes. Famous designers, movies, your Dad, anyone. If it’s a platitude or irrelevant, get rid of it. Try saying it out loud, you’ll see.
- Don’t make it only things I’ve seen on your website — and go ‘and here’s this project.’ I’m already bored.
- Skip crazy transitions. You need to match the imagery to your words — quickly. No one wants to wait for 5 things to slowly slide onto the page.
Why this is Interesting
The short answer is simple — most people don’t do this. Too many presentations of work are:
- Bringing up your website and clicking through it, or,
- Putting images from your website into a deck and clicking through it. See the problem?
In almost all cases, this will be a different view of you and your work. Of course you’ll have to show some of the same work, or all of it. Re-contextualize it for a real conversation. If you’re getting called into an interview, those people already visited your website. Show (and tell) them something new.
How to Start
Try starting chronologically. The trajectory of your career is naturally a story, so it gets you going in the right direction. Trim it, shape it and restructure from there. Practice talking through it. And above all, don’t be boring.
(PRACTICAL KNOWLEDGE) is an ongoing series about presenting work, building better portfolios and being a decent creative by Andy Sheffield.
