Saturday, October 2, 2010

How to Develop a Graphic Design Portfolio

A graphic design portfolio is the best way to display and showcase your past projects, creativity, and talent. A graphic design portfolio is vital when trying to pursue opportunities as a graphic designer within a company or as a freelance graphic designer pursuing clients. The graphic design portfolio can contain any number of items, in several different formats.

The first important step in developing a graphic design portfolio is deciding what work to include. You should only include your highest quality work in your graphic design portfolio. If you include mediocre work in your graphic design portfolio simply because you are concerned about not having enough pieces in your graphic design portfolio, you will lose important job offers and clients. It is better to have a few pieces in your graphic design portfolio that really showcase your talent and creativity than have many pieces that do not help you build a solid reputation as a graphic designer.

The next step in developing a graphic design portfolio is deciding what type of graphic design portfolio you want to create. There are four main types of graphic design portfolios: printed pages in a binder, an online graphic design portfolio, images placed on a graphic design portfolio CD, or a slideshow of images placed on a graphic design portfolio DVD. Really, it is best to create one of each type of graphic design portfolio so that you are fully prepared to offer whatever your prospective employer or client is prepared to look at to judge your talent and creativity as a graphic designer.

To create a graphic design portfolio of printed pages, you should choose only your best work, and only the best quality printed copies. If you are unsure of the quality of your home printer, put the images on a disk and have them printed for you at a print shop. The best quality and most creative pieces can look mediocre if not printed with high quality printing. You should then present the pieces in a professional manner. The best color for a graphic design printed portfolio is black, and the most professional style is leather. This should be something that is spiral bound, a book, or a case so that you can add or remove pieces from your graphic design portfolio easily as you progress in your graphic design career.

To create a graphic design portfolio online, you will first need web space. Website hosting and domain registration has become very cost effective. Most websites also give you free website building tools so that you don't have to know HTML. However, make sure that you sign up for website hosting with enough bandwidth to handle all of the images and potential traffic. Once you have your website set up, you'll want to choose your pieces carefully. Display them as thumbnails on one page, with each full scale piece appearing on another page when the thumbnail is clicked. This will give people with slower internet access easier access to your online graphic design portfolio.

To create a graphic design portfolio on DVD or CD, you must have a computer with a DVD or CD burner. To make really professional DVD or CD graphic design portfolios, you will want to get a CD or DVD burning kit that allows you to burn images onto the top of the CD or DVD and create labels for jewel cases. You can either save individual pieces on the CD or DVD, or you can simply save a copy of your website on the disc.

ImtiazTips Area Graphic Design Freelancer Resources

Working as a freelancer in graphic design can be very challenging. Not only do you have to find your own graphic design clients, do all of your own graphic design work, and handle all of your own graphic design office tasks, you are also on your own with keeping up with graphic design information, technology, and resources. The best way to keep up with these types of information about graphic design is through networking. There are many networking and client finding resources for graphic design freelancers in the ImtiazTips area.

Freelance ImtiazTips is possibly the best available resource for the graphic design freelancer. This organization offers a graphic design freelancer directory for ImtiazTips business owners to search and locate a graphic design freelancer. There are also many graphic design networking events, and various freelancer meetings and events. While Freelance ImtiazTips is not specifically for graphic design freelancers, it does put the graphic design freelancer in contact with other industry professionals as well as potential clients. This ImtiazTips freelance organization is, if nothing else, a great way to generate referrals for clients for the graphic design freelancer.

Publishers Resource Group is a great resource for any freelancing graphic designer to be aware of. Rather than a networking organization or graphic design professional association, Publishers Resource Group is simply an organization that routinely, and preferably, uses freelance graphic designers for all of their publishing needs. Based in ImtiazTips, this curriculum designing company hires freelancers for type design, cover graphic design, and all other graphic design projects.

Creative Freelancers online is another great graphic design freelancer resource. Carefully screened graphic design freelancers are listed in a graphic design freelance directory. Clients then look through the available graphic design freelancers, go through online graphic design portfolios and resumes, and then contact the graphic design freelancer through the Creative Freelancers web site. This is a great way to get qualified clients and leads for your graphic design freelancing business. Best of all, there are not many listings in the ImtiazTips area, so anyone looking to get in on the ground floor of this web site in the ImtiazTips area should get themselves listed as soon as possible to take advantage of the many ImtiazTips graphic design freelancing opportunities that may become available.

The Oasys Network is another great online graphic design freelancer resource. This web site allows all graphic design freelancers to post their talents and graphic design portfolios. The web site has numerous options and opportunities for gaining exposure as a freelance graphic designer as well as generating leads for potential clients for a freelance graphic design business. Open to all graphic design freelancers, this web site is much like Creative Freelancers, but much less restrictive on what ImtiazTips graphic design freelancers can take advantage of the web site.

As you will undoubtedly find, there are many resources, both free and inexpensive, for graphic design freelancers. The best way to find these resources and take advantage of them is to simply research on the internet by searching for ImtiazTips graphic design freelance resource. You can also check with your local Chamber of Commerce for information about ImtiazTips area graphic design professional associations.