To get a design job, you need a strong portfolio. To build a strong portfolio you need to do designs. To do designs you need to get clients or a job. So how the hell are you supposed to build your portfolio when you are starting out? Don’t worry. People who are hiring newly graduated graphic designers understand that your portfolio will be limited to the work you did in school. Nobody’s going to judge you.
There are ways to supplement your design portfolio with work, even if you have never had a design job. Knowing what I know now, here’s what I would tell any designer who is trying to build up their portfolio without client work.
Create a project based on a real creative brief
Ok, this first suggestion is going to sound super scary, but hear me out. Identify the type of agency or studio you want to work for. Do a little research on LinkedIn to find out who the creative director is. Reach out and explain that you are a new designer trying to build up your portfolio. You want to be able to show work that is relevant to the type of job you want, and you want to get a glimpse of what it’s like to do work for an agency like theirs. Ask if it would be possible to get a copy of an old creative brief that you could use as a guide for a made up portfolio piece (make sure they would be ok with you using your finished piece in your portfolio and tell them that you would be clear with prospective employers that it was a fake project). You are not asking for a job. You are asking for little insight into real-world graphic design. The worst outcome is the person says no. If they say yes, you have the opportunity to see how information is relayed to designers and see what kinds of things matter in a project besides it just looking good. You may even be able to start building a relationship with that creative director, which could lead to open doors down the road.
FYI, a creative brief is a document that agencies use to guide the design team on a project. It will usually have background information about the project, a list of objectives, what the timeline is, what visual assets to use, how the piece will be used (stand alone? part of a larger campaign?) the tone of the piece, the intended audience(s), what the client specifically wants to see or specifically hates, etc. A good creative brief helps ensure that everyone working on the project has all the information they need and understands the purpose of the project.
Too scary? Find me on LinkedIn and ask me if I’ll share a creative brief that you can use for a fake portfolio piece.
Trust me when I tell you that while creative directors are very busy people, they are usually very sympathetic to new designers asking for help. We’ve all been there. If you are respectful of their time, most are happy to answer questions and help set you on a path to success.
Once you have your creative brief, do your best to create work that meets the objective. Consider sending your work back to the creative director who gave you the brief to get their feedback. When you present the piece in your portfolio, share the story of how you wanted to get a glimpse of real design life so you took the initiative to get your hands on a real creative brief so you could do your own version for your portfolio. Employers like initiative. 🙂
Teach yourself something and then design an instructional content piece
This is essentially the standard “make up your own project” piece of advice, but I want to give you a little more direction that will help you end up with something more impactful.
What is something you need to learn? A certain software? A home improvement skill? Car maintenance? Pet care? A craft you want to try or get better at? It doesn’t matter. In fact it could be something as simple as how to make a great peanut butter and jelly sandwich. The important part of this sample portfolio piece is that you can translate what you learn about the topic into a compelling design or guide that others could learn something from. If you can kill two birds with one stone by teaching yourself something new that you need to know anyway, why not?
You may have been told in school that there will be copywriters around to give you content. That might be true and it might not, depending on where you work. If you can show that you can put ideas into words AND you can then make those words look interesting on a page (or website) that’s a big deal.
This project will give you the opportunity to show off your illustration or photography skills if you have those. Or you can use a free service like Pexels to show that you are awesome at finding the right stock images to support your design.
Really suck at writing or don’t have the time? Find somebody on Fiverr or Upwork. Then when you present your portfolio, you can talk about your experience directing content so that you could focus on design.
If you want to really show off, include a one-pager design when you present this portfolio piece that covers who your audience is and how their unique needs guided your design decisions. What would the audience not already know that would be helpful? What misconceptions might they have? What hesitations would they need to overcome to do the thing you are talking about?
Include non-design creative work if you have it
If you do any other type of creative stuff, I don’t mind seeing that in a portfolio. It has to be relevant though. Why are you showing it? Do you have a process or workflow that would tell me something about what you might be like as an employee? Have you had to do some creative problem solving that shows me that you can think on the spot? Did you have to keep to a budget and figure out how to maintain the quality you wanted with materials that weren’t the best?
Use your non-design related creative talents to give prospective employers a glimpse at who you are and how you work.
Keep in mind that art is subjective. If you include fine art in your portfolio, be prepared to talk about it. Tell me what your goal was, why you think you succeeded, how you want the viewer to react. Did you have to learn a new technique? Don’t just show me interesting pictures with no context.
Volunteer your design services for churches or charities
You’ve probably heard this advice before. It’s a great idea because not only will you hopefully end up with some real work, you’ll get a little experience working with a client. In my experience, the less someone is paying you for design work, the more feedback they have. Volunteer work can be a great way to practice setting client expectations and managing your scope of work. My advice would be to look for an organization that has a marketing person on staff and ask that person if you can help them with some small design projects. That way, you can get some real world experience and mentorship without having to manage a client that doesn’t know anything about design or marketing.
Offer to help family and friends with holiday cards and wedding invitations
There’s a good chance you won’t even have to offer, your family members will just expect you to do free design work for them! It’s ok to say no, but if the project interests you and fits with your goals for your portfolio, go for it. At best you will have a nice creative piece for your portfolio and maybe even some printed samples. At worst, you’ll have gained experience working with picky customers who assume what you are doing is easy.
Understand that the process of building up your portfolio is a valuable learning experience itself!
Be intentional about what you include and exclude. Give yourself projects that will help you move toward your goals even if you don’t get a job right away. Think about what you need to work on, or what you want to work on and challenge yourself. When you present your portfolio, talk about your process for deciding what to include. Tell the interviewer what you hope you’ve been able to convey with your presentation and ask how successful you were at doing so. You’ll get real time feedback that will help you make your next portfolio presentation even stronger.
Just don’t give in to the excuse that no one will hire you because you don’t have a real portfolio. Your portfolio is as awesome as YOU make it.
