From the course: Building an Online Portfolio

Getting started with your portfolio - Behance Tutorial

From the course: Building an Online Portfolio

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Getting started with your portfolio

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- [Instructor] Building or updating your portfolio can be a daunting task. In this chapter, we'll cover the things you need to consider before getting started. Portfolios are about building trust above all else and a clear direction will help you stay focused and prevent random clutter from seeping into your work. Portfolios are not about the work alone. They're about the designer. So what's your goal? Do you know where you want to go? Do you understand where you've been? Can you tell that story? What's your core skill and how do you want to represent it throughout your work? Are you an idea person? Is typography your strong suit? Is software your calling card? Do you happen to use a unique process? All of these things will help you identify how to tell your story. Begin to think about making that decision now. What's your existing personal brand? Do you have one? Is it old or dated? Do you need to update it? Is it necessary? What's your social persona and is it consistent? Are you telling the same story throughout your social networks? Is this something that needs to be curated? When auditing your work, you may be considering your objective: I want a new job or position, I want to move up in the company. But those aren't missions. Those aren't values. Missions and values serve the bigger picture. They serve who you are and not what you want. We'll take a look at developing a mission next. Building your portfolio can be overwhelming, whether it's the first time or whether you're updating after a long career. Curating your message and knowing where you want to go is critically important. Once you've made up your mind, begin to make it visible in the work that you've chosen. Not all work is good work. Be sure that the work you select in this early stage is work that you want to represent your core skills and values as a designer. If you don't want to be a web designer, reduce the number of websites you show. But don't worry too much right now. Your primary goal at this point is to gather the work that you're going to choose from. Begin noting your core competencies through auditing your work. Again, what do you do well? Start collecting that work and begin categorizing it in the areas that you think are the areas that you want to show yourself off. Don't worry about getting lost in the details. We can edit the work later. At this point, we just want to collect everything that's worthy of going into your portfolio or may be considered. Don't worry about getting too specific right now. What's important is to get all of the work that you think is worthy of showcasing who you are and the skills that you bring to any new position.

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