Boost up your portfolio

Tips on how you can seduce that amazing agency

Published in

Inside VBAT

5 min readMay 20, 2015

In my last blog you can read tips on how to find a creative internship. But now it is time to make contact with them. Not to just call them or send a boring email. No, you have to seduce them. They need you! Sort of..

Find yourself in your portfolio

So who are you? What are the agencies in your top 5 doing? As a student you may not have a lot of work for your portfolio yet. But you can make new work, especially to get hired at that amazing internship. I think it’s important to show your passion in your portfolio. What do you really love to do? But I think it’s also important to show a diversity of work you experimented with. Your portfolio doesn’t have to be perfect but make a selection of the best work you have what also relates to you.

It’s also good to show a selection of your sketchbooks. It gives the agency an insight on how you work and think. And if you’re searching for really nice Sketchbooks, check Nuuna out!
Make new projects without clients. Here an inspiring blog from Marko Stupic who worked on a 365 project. “Practice does not make perfect. Only perfect practice makes perfect.” Vince Lombardi
Be different, but yourself. Surprise the company and yourself. Propose something more unique than just a website or a fancy email. Make a movie, give-a-way, performance, pop-up store…

One step ahead

We as students are the future of design and I think we have to behave ourselves as the future. A lot of things will change in the design industry and we are the ones who get involved in that. Be one step ahead. Try to be up to date on what’s going on in the design industry and do something with that in your portfolio. By example, write about it in a blog, make work which will be possible in the future, ask the agency questions about how they see the future, that’s always really interesting!

I think the most important thing is to keep inspiring yourself. And again, and again. Anno 2015 it’s so easy to get trough a lot of information.

I just started a new account on Twitter. I am not a huge fan of all the social media and keep myself up to date all the time, but I also see the positive side of social media. It’s much easier to keep your attention to the creative industry. Here are some lists of inspirational input for Twitter.

I think the most important thing is to keep inspiring yourself. And again, and again. Anno 2015 it’s so easy to get trough a lot of information. Here are a few nice websites to inspire yourself:

Challenge yourself

As student you may not have a lot of work in your portfolio yet. It’s always good to make work without a client or school project. Just invent your own project or be a part of a design challenge. Here I found some nice challenges to take part of, the most entries starting in the beginning of the year:

AndyAwards; Special category for students.
D&AD; Has a lot of nice events and competitions like the new blood awards.
ED Awards; Special category for students.
Graphic Competitions; List of different competitions.
RSA Student Design Awards;
The Dieline Awards; Product packaging design.

Online Courses

The best way to learn the basics of graphic design is by experiences at school and internships. But you can also find some nice courses online!

Make a portfolio

When you start to make your portfolio it’s good to look to other portfolios. What are they doing? What is their focus? There are so many great websites! I have collected some nice examples for you:

Here some nice platforms to show your portfolio:

I think it’s important to present your portfolio a bit professional. I first started my website in Wix a couple of years ago but I didn’t like the advertising of them. That was the reason I started in Wordpress and it works so much better! Here also some tips to keep in mind:

Don’t forget to make your portfolio responsive. It also has to look good on a tablet/phone.
The photography of your graphic work is really important! Don’t just add pdf files to your website but print your work and take the time to photograph it.
Also important: ask people for feedback. Not only from your mother and best friends but also from other design students, teachers and other people from the creative industry.
Your portfolio is never finished. You’re always growing and becoming better and better, so don’t forget your portfolio will become that too. Don’t forget to update your portfolio.

Share your work

There are a lot of websites who would like to share your work. I didn’t know that, but you can submit your work and that’s a good change to show your portfolio.

Advice from the Creatives of VBAT

‘Make sure the work in your portfolio focuses on your best or most proud work. 5 strong pieces are so much better than 10 which considerably vary in quality. Choose sharpness instead of width. Width is were average comes in. It’s your sharpest work that will evoke your true passion and personality to the one you are having an interview with. And last but not least, no one will remember you for your weakest work.’
Richard Mooij — Creative

Now you have learned how to give your portfolio a boost, sign up for a personal portfolio review at VBAT during their breakout session at What Design Can Do 2015.

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