iPortfolio

Many designers have a portfolio consisting of a book or large folder of some type to take with them to interviews or possible job opportunities. These are great and have their place but in this day and age of electronics it is easy to carry a portfolio with you at all times.

I was at a friend’s birthday party and I was talking with a lady about what I do. She wanted to see some of my work but unfortunately I didn’t have any with me. But, I did have my iPod Touch. I was able to access my friend’s wifi and show her some of my stuff on-line. It wasn’t great but it worked.

It got me thinking about the touch’s capabilities and iPods in general. Each one is capable of holding photos on it that you can show to potential clients and elevator talkers. So I sat down and adjusted some of my work to fit on my iPod in a photo gallery called “Portfolio.” Now when people ask what I do and to see some of my work I can say, “Sure.” And pull out my iPod and show them.






It’s not a perfect portfolio but it gives people a good idea of what I can do. I have used this on the train, elevator and when talking other social settings.

So you don’t need to have a 24”x36” portfolio to carry your work around in, just make sure that what you do show on your iPod is your best.

“WE are stronger than ME.” –Steve Gordon

At the 2007 HOW Conference, in Atlanta, Steve Gordon spoke on using other designers and creatives by networking with them for jobs and collaboration purposes. I never really understood this until recently. One of the guys I work with is moving on and looking for web design work. I have a fulltime job but do design work on the side and one of the other people I work with does copywriting. Each of us has found job leads for the others. We have found that even though our separate skills don’t fit the specific need one of us can fill the roll and the others can back up and help out.

Even though we are three separate entities our combined abilities are a great design firm. As designers we know others who are copywriters, web gurus, photographers and other creatives. Each of us has a different skill that we can use to help others and they have skills we can utilize. As a design firm of one I have increased what I can offer by two or more. Working for others is great also because it gives us one-man firms people to bounce ideas off of, making our designs even better.

WE are truly stronger than me.