Okay, so I was invited to a portfolio review for the North Harris College Visual Communication students. I was kind of nervous. I don’t think I’ve been designing as long as most of the people that were going to be there. Apolinar Chuca (a.k.a. Chuca) has been designing for 19 years. He has some stories! He said that in Photoshop 1, layers didn’t exist. He said you had to line it up right where you want it, and then hit the key to merge it with the rest of the image. Wow. That would suck. I can’t imagine trying to work without layers. So back to the review, in general, I have to say most of the work was decent.

One student asked me, “Where did you get your bachelor’s degree from?” I grinned and told him I didn’t have one. He then asked, “Where did you go to school then?” I smiled again and said, “Here. I only have an associates degree, and I received it from this college.” I told him that getting a bachelors or getting any kind of degree is a toss up. If you want to get a good job at some corporate place, then sure, get a bachelors, or masters, or Ph.d., or whatever. Then again, some places don’t care. They just want to see your portfolio and that you have experience and that you know what you’re doing. I told him if you freelance or are self-employed, you could have a degree in sewer treatment and no one would care, as long as you can design.

There was an art director lady there you had some good input. She said she can look at a portfolio and instantly know which school the student came from. She said work from the students of the art institute all look the same. Bummer for them. They don’t have a clue. She also said, the bigger the portfolio (larger in dimensions), the more likely they are a student. Once you’ve been around and designed things, your work gets smaller and more composed for a “normal size” portfolio. Interesting I thought. Glad I sprung for the 14″ x 11″ Machina Pina Zangaro for $120!

Another thing I noticed was a lot of work printed flat. Book covers, CD covers, packaging design, all flat. Number one, it took me about 3-5 seconds to figure out what I was looking at. Number two, I can’t pick it up, touch it, interact with it, and know how it is supposed to be in real life. A book cover design not on a book? I understand lugging a book around in a portfolio may be unconventional, but at least print it on glossy paper, wrap it in on a book, arrange it on a book self or on a table, in a setting, then take a picture of it. That would say a lot more.

My Summary:

• If you’ve recently graduated, people can tell which college you came from.
• Throw away the big portfolio bag thing.
• Let your work speak for itself. If you have to explain it, you’ve already said too much.