The activity that I attended was on February 8, 2018. It was the portfolio workshop and we had four professionals from the industry to show us their portfolios and give us advice. This workshop will have two other sections that will prepare us students to get jobs in the industry. The first guest was Tom Madison and I feel like he gave me the most useful information of all the people. The few things he told us about making portfolios is to keep things simple, keep things about the media, tell a story, and the public has no patience for you. The last point is the strongest one of them all. It let me know that if you don’t have what a company wants, they won’t hire you. Look for the next one. Another big thing that he mentioned was to have consistent typography throughout the portfolio. It needs to be easy for the viewer to read and not have any distracting type that might take away from the work itself. He also told everyone a good way to set up the pages in a portfolio. Leave white space to introduce a section, then have more photos in the next page and more information. This helps to make your portfolio more fluid. The other presenters were professionals in the industry and former students who are successful in the industry. It was nice to see how I can apply my studies to the ‘real world’ and it also lets me know that I am still learning and that it’s okay to not be 100% at what I do yet.
The other presenter that I found interesting was Esli Becerra.
He used to be a former student and now works for a larger company. Hearing his day
to day life is fun because I can see how my studies now could be applied to a
job later. Since Becerra is a part of the younger generation that includes
myself, it is refreshing to see that my values and ideals are needed in this
industry. He showed his portfolio which was on Tumblr. I found this
interesting, but the execution is good and serves the purpose that its
intended. All the portfolios gave me a good idea of the diversity of
portfolios. I always believed that portfolios were meant to be one way and one
way only. However, after this workshop I realize that portfolios are like canvases
that an artist uses to present their best work.
In a way, I am very stressed about creating a portfolio because
I do not have a lot of work to show. However, I know that I am still in the learning
process of this field and I have a long way to go. I am really enjoying this
program and I am very excited to create work that will be portfolio worthy. It
is amazing that I have found something that I have fun doing that can be
applied into the workplace. I will definitely be attending the next two portfolio
workshops so I can get advice and feedback on my own portfolio.
I was also able to attend this portfolio workshop, here at Lane. I like to think of my Portfolio less about my best work at the given time, but more about my progress of a given period of time. Try to upload a variety of work and show what you can do.
This was a great workshop. I am glad to see other students also so interested in making a livelihood and career in the digital industry. It sounds like you have your eyes set and mind made and hope to catch ya and see ya grow with the program. Awesome job.