Putting it all together

This week’s blog will be brief. I will take a look back at how things progressed and key pieces that stood out to me from the visual design process. Thanks for taking the ride with me!

Here we are at the end of one journey, the visual design journey. Time was spent over the past several weeks using design thinking to take us from brand identity to full event collateral. The key pieces that stood out to me were using the right typeface for the job, which means knowing both your audience and your key message. From there, you can apply colorization to further define the message. The use of mood boards helps provide direction for engaging your audience. Once you have your brand identity, audience, typeface, and colors, it’s all about organization and layout. The organization is giving precedence to the most important message, and the layout is not afraid to incorporate generous amounts of white space, allowing the design to breathe. If you’re designing for digital, it also includes using grids or modular designs to organize information so that the most important content is positioned “above the fold.”

A quick gut check to determine whether or not you should include something is- ‘if this is the only project a potential employer saw, would they be seeing my best work?’ -HEATHER PHILLIPS

Now that you have the different designs, what’s next? You can let them sit wherever you have them. However, that’s not going to help you land that sweet design job or get the well-earned promotion. No, what you need to do now is showcase your stuff! Like the trophies you got for extracurricular activities (sports, cheerleading, dancing, etc.). Seriously! You spend all that time doing the work, now show it off like a proud parent! Okay, you’re ready. Wait! Are you planning to showcase everything you’ve done on your portfolio site? Well, that’s great, but what would be even better is if you were picky (like having a favorite child, but you certainly don’t tell your other kids that). So, that’s right. You should be selective when adding a design project to your portfolio. According to Heather Phillips, a Director of Design at Go Abstract, you need to determine “asset by asset.” She goes on in her Medium article 5 Dos and Don’ts for Your Design Portfolio you need to ask yourself “if this is the only project a potential employer saw, would they be seeing my best work?” As you go through each of your finished designs, make another folder labeled Portfolio, and if you answer “yes” to the previous question, place a copy in the newly created folder. Then, by the time you’re done, you’ll have only the designs you want to showcase. From here, decide on the type of portfolio layout you want to use. On your site, start to create high-level headings. That is try to create groupings that your designs fall into. Now that you have all the upfront framework in place, start adding your designs. Don’t forget to save your draft often, and when finished uploading the last design, Publish! I hope you found this helpful. Again, thank you for coming along for the visual design ride!

Phillips, H. (2017, April 18). 5 dos and don’ts for your design portfolio. Medium. https://medium.com/bridge-collection/5-dos-and-don-ts-for-your-design-portfolio-80292583ace1