It’s safe to say that I get bored quickly.
Most creatives would share this sentiment, which is why much like a four-year-old at a all you can eat dessert buffet, we feel the need to frantically try everything. I tend to approach graphics software and techniques in a similar fashion. This sentiment is likely equal parts curiosity and being unapologetically cheap.
Up until this point, I’ve been using a basic print portfolio when applying to companies. By basic, I mean it was effectively an image with some text.
It gets the job done, but design-wise, the page is about as visually interesting as a tax return form. It’s extremely static, and does not showcase landscape-oriented work, motion, or process well.
My two primary goals for the re-design:
Create a flexible grid layout that presents both the image AND its specifications in a succinct, but iconic way.
While I am a digital painting specialist, the portfolio should reflect competency in other skill spheres.
Solution: Create a look book that markets my services not solely as an illustration portfolio, but as a brand.
Corporate identity guides and case studies are fascinating. The interesting bit about them is how they take fairly banal information, such as pantone color guides and gutter widths, and present them as something visually exciting. Then again, I get excited by ampersands, so who even knows. The two examples below are why I will forever feel inadequate as a designer, and are beginning to illuminate that I may have a thing for planes.
Experimental ID for American Airlines
NASA Graphics Standards Manual
I recently did a fairly large overhaul on my portfolio site here, which took the periodic table and airport terminal signage (again, planes) as design inspiration. The entire site uses a tri-color theme of charcoal, white and goldenrod and uses an iconographic organizational system designed as fake “elements.”
The site design served as a jumping point to create a faux-identity guide that showcased my portfolio and kept my web and print identity cohesive.
Cover with letterhead and logo mark, set in League Gothic and Myriad Pro.
One of the challenges initially was finding a way to incorporate the periodic table theme. On the webpage, Painting, Sequential Art and Animation were three featured categories as per my areas of specialization. The solution I arrived at a graphical treatment of my resume skill set into its own series of “elements.”
With some certainty, Dmitri Mendeleev is rolling over in his grave somewhere.
Previously, I had arranged my portfolio in order of each piece’s date of completion. Most of my work is intrinsically tied to a story concept, so arranging the work by subject flowed more naturally than the chronological solution. Each story uses its logo as a header, with a brief description of the concept. The element system from the periodic table page is now used as a modular organization system to address what skills and software are being showcased in each section.
Foreigner is set in Muncie with body text in Helvetica Light.
Interior pages continue the icon system, denoting a yellow element for the primary category, in this case ‘Painting’, and a white element for its secondary category, ‘Concept Art’. I continue to hurt science’s feelings by using bond line notation to show media, size and date of completion. This was also the first time in seven years I have bothered to open a book on chemistry, which further served to reinforce both what photosynthesis looks like written in ‘math,’ and subsequently why I went to art school. Dear scientist friends, I am sorry and you’re welcome.
