Projects for Portfolios

Designing your personal business image: Logo, fonts, colors, and fonts

This is the start of your most important project throughout your career: determining your public image. For many of you this will be extremely difficult because of shyness, lack of experience, no knowledge of what is expected, or the simple fact that you have never examined yourself objectively.

Your basic task is to create a corporate image for yourself as a design or production firm and a personal image for you as an employee.

The first task is to create a personal logo, designed to attract clients and/or employment. Although it is true that you do not actually need a logo for your job hunting efforts, an excellent logo here can really help tie things together.

The basic task is to develop a corporate image for yourself (as a sole proprietor freelance business) and/or a personal image (for job hunting). You must make yourself into a convincing professional presence. You actually must think of two basic designs OR use your name as the business name also.

The only trick is that you must not cause prospective employers to doubt your committment to their company if they hire you. For that reason alone, it is good to keep the two images separate in your mind and in production.

Freelance work

Marketing yourself as a trade shop promoting your best skills

The specialties can be writing, editing, illustration, graphic design, marketing, multimedia, web design, Web coding, video, animation, image assembly or whatever you do well. Do not market things you don't do well (unless you are supposed to know how and have simply not learned those materials yet).

Your goal is to produce designs that will convince industry clients that you know what you are doing. Plus, you need to create the feeling that you can be trusted to produce professional quality work, on time, for competitive rates.

Seeking employment

Marketing yourself as a skilled craftsperson and dedicated employee promoting your best skills and experience

Here the task is very similar, but the capabilities needed seem very different. However, that is an illusion. Employees need the same abilities as freelancers need to produce professional work. Employers expect you to be able to work fast, professionally, and without the need for constant oversight.

Your goal is to produce designs that will convince prospective employers that you know what you are doing. Plus, you need to create the feeling that you can be trusted to produce professional quality work, on time, with no personality hassles. You need to convince them that you can be a team player and hold your own in this very fast and competitive career path.

The various parts of the project
  1. Concept
  2. Business Card
  3. Letterhead (& cover letters)
  4. Resume
  5. Envelopes
  6. Print portfolio
  7. Web portfolio
  8. Digital portfolio

The thing you need to understand in the search for sustenance is that much of it is about personal fit. Do they like and trust you? Do you like and trust them?

Much of it is about personalities. Of course we cannot talk about this or even mention it because that might imply something other than purely objective hiring an the basis of skill and ability. DEAL WITH IT!