Design O’Blog reader Dan Crowbar sent me an email recently asking about including process work and sketches in your portfolio. In this video I’ll share some thoughts & tips as well as show some of my process work on a recent project.
The design community is a two headed beast. You have the online design world that is filled with lots of prolific designers, writers, and twitterers. On the other side you have the offline design world filled with lots of events, meetups, conferences and tweetups. As a web designer who primarily works online I find it extremely easy to exist solely in the online design community and neglect the offline community. This can lead to burnout when work and play, as well as socializing take place online. I’ve found that often times the solution to this burnout is human contact. (remember humans… those people behind the twitter names and avatars?)
But I’m Shy!!!
I moved to Boston just about two years ago. After a few weeks of job searching I was hired at a small design firm and ramped up my freelancing career. This life situation wasn’t exactly conducive to making friends or living a balanced life… I knew I needed to get out of my comfort zone and go out and meet people.
I’ll admit that I’m not the most social person in the world, or even the most outgoing for that matter. In fact I’m really geeky (well what web designer isnt…) and kind of shy at times. I’m slowly realizing that no matter how great the online design community is – it’s no substitute for face to face contact with REAL HUMAN beings…
Taking Action!
Ive been attempting to attend more local events and meet more people – even if I’m terrified to do so. Ive recently been attending some local design and development meetups. So far I’ve managed to make it out to a few AIGA Boston events, Refresh Boston, Build Guild Salem as well as BostonEErs. I just want to encourage everyone who reads this to get out and get involved in your local design community – you never know who you will meet and how you can learn from them! I’ve meet some incredibly cool people at these events including @unruthless @mkivokoski @jasonrobb @inkpixelspaper as well as others.
I’m looking forward to attending more web/design events and meet ups and continue to make new friends. If you are in the Boston/new england area and we haven’t met in real life connect with me on twitter @nikibrown or shoot me an email hi at nikibrown dot com and say Hi – I’m game for making new friends and more nerdy webby learning!
Resources In Your Area
Aiga http://aiga.org/
MeetUp.com http://www.meetup.com/
Build Guild http://buildguild.org
Refresh (insert your city name here) http://refreshingcities.org/
Also consider starting an event in your area if there arent any!
I had a reader email me and ask what they should show and not show in their portfolio. In this video I answer the question and take you through some of my current portfolio pieces and talk about what I would show, take out, and how many items I would present in a job interview.
Let me know if you have any other questions! I’ll be happy to answer via a screencast or video!
One of the most important assets you can have as a designer doing print work, whether you are new or old is an understanding of how to correctly set your files up for printing. There are multiple ways to do this and I am not saying that my is the only way but, mine works and this will teach you fundamentals of how to correctly set up your file so your printer does not send them back to you and waste time in the printing process. There is however, some technical jargon in this article. I have included a glossary at the end that tells you what “the jargon” means. So veterans, students and anyone in-between will be able to read and take something away from this article.
Computer – check. Photoshop – check. Lots of free time – check. It seems that this is all that is necessary to call yourself a ‘designer’ these days. I believe that there is far more to a designer than software, computers and free time. Designers should have critical thinking skills, understanding of design principals, knowledge of grid systems, typography and much more.
Read the rest of my guest post over at Design Reviver and join the discussion in progress!
So it looks like Photoshop just rang in another birthday! Photoshop just turned 20?!?!?!? Holy crap that’s a long time for software. I don’t know about you but Photoshop was my first ‘design’ program starting with version 6. I admit that I cheated a bit and also tinkered with Gimp for a bit. But I mainly have font memories of an online course with my less than legal version on my PC back in the day. I remember being so fascinated and intrigued by Photoshop and what it could do and I was SO EXCITED to learn. This tinkering that I did in high school is what pushed me to become a designer.
