You are to create a self-promotional final portfolio for the last project of the semester. The portfolio will be a physical piece (SD, flash drive, or other common storage device) that contains digital files of your portfolio. The portfolio should be creative, well-designed, and an accurate representation of the best versions of your work.
Whatever you choose to design to house your pieces should be well-planned and complete. For example, if you place your digital portfolio on a CD, it should be packaged in some way that feels complete (a plastic CD case with no tray card, for example, would appear incomplete). If you turn in a flash drive or other storage device, it should be wrapped or packaged in a creative way.
When you are creating your portfolio, you should think of it as a piece that is left behind after an interview or a piece that is given to someone who will view it when you are not physically present to represent your work. The quality of the work, as well as the visual appeal of the physical item, will be considered in grading. Just imagine your portfolio piece sitting on the desk of someone who likely has others as well, and consider whether your piece makes an impression such that the recipient will want to view the contents of it. For many of you, a version of this will be a good thing to take when you actually have interviews in the coming months for jobs.
Project Specs
- Physical submission containing digital files (All Projects Worth Being in Your Portfolio)
- Format will vary
- A resume similar to what I showed in class; should contain at least contact info, employment history, software capabilities, and a work manifesto. You’ll place this on your drive and print it out for your portfolio review.
Grading Criteria
- Project Specification/Concept
- Professionalism
- Layout/Design
- Artwork
- Quality of Work
Instructions
Step 1
Part of the criteria for grading, as seen below, will be the overall quality of your work. The grades that you received throughout your coursework and the feedback you have received are a good indication of what grade you will receive for the Quality portion of your Final grade, and therefore an indication of what projects you will want to improve before placing them in your portfolio. Make improvements to your projects accordingly.
Step 2
Create high-quality pdfs (multi-page if the project dictates) for each of your projects and label them each Project[#].pdf
Step 3
Create an index page listing each project and including a brief description of the project, naming the file Index.pdf.
Step 4
Place all of your files on your storage item and ensure that everything has been saved properly. Your piece should include the following items:
- Index page with list of projects and descriptions
- Projects folder with a high-quality pdf of each project inside
- Resume
Step 5
Design your physical submission (flash drive and its wrapping, etc); the piece, in its final form, should contain the following on the outside:
- Name
- Anything else that makes sense for the format of your submission
Examples
Here is an example of a physical piece, along with the cover page and index page that were contained in the flash drive. The flash drive was in the box. There were of course folders in the flash drive that corresponded to the index page, containing the projects referenced. This one is fairly simple, but it at least is consistent and planned out.
Submission
Submit your project by 12:00 pm on the due date (Monday of Finals Week). Your submission should again be an original, custom-designed physical piece which contains the digital files listed above. If I am not in my office, drop it in my mailbox outside my office.
Note: If you have created an online portfolio, your self-promotion can really be whatever you want, as long as it leads to your work online (aka, gives a url to an actual portfolio site of yours).