I thought I'd post my actual portfolio up here for a few reasons;
1. I really enjoyed making it.
2. Everyone likes to see what their competition looks like, so why not share? haha
AND MOST IMPORTANTLY...
3. I wanted to show everyone that doesn't have the money to purchase an expensive portfolio that it's possible to make a professional looking portfolio yourself.
I did a lot of research on the design of existing portfolios, scrap books, photo albums, and books. I ended up merging a few different designs, adding some of my own little ideas, and combining quite a few different materials to get the final product. I believe overall the portfolio cost me under $30 to make, and the binding cost me about $10 to do.
The reason I chose the design I did was because I wanted a portfolio that would be easy to expand and change as my work does.
My interior layout was very basic because I wanted the work to shine and not just the way it's displayed. Overall I love it. It's like a security blanket when you were a kid. It's soft and unique and you can't stop running your fingers over it because of the texture. I hope this helps some underclassmen that aren't sure what to do in terms of their design if they can't afford a prefabricated one.
If anyone would like to see my step-by-step process, just let me know in the comments and I'll post it up. It's not too difficult, just very time consuming and labor intensive.
Finally, I want to send out a huge Huge HUGE thank you to Print Mag and AIGA for featuring my Print cover. Seeing a link directly to this blog on Print Magazine's website knocked me outta my seat! Then seeing that AIGA also posted it on their Twitter feed pretty much killed me.. haha. Seriously though, it's an overwhelming honor to be shown as an example for the student competition by the people who run it, so THANK YOU!!
8 comments:
Fellow designer here, looking to re-do my portfolio and this is exactly what I had in mind... Please do tell your step-by-step process.. Amazing work btw! :D
yes, please PLEASE post your steps to making this. this is totally & completely EXACTLY what i need as a broke college senior. it looks flawless!
please? .. or at least, would you be able to point us to some good tutorials/instruction sites that you gleaned your information from? ... thank you!!
I'll try and get some pictures up with a brief tutorial soon. Thanks for the interest!
To those that commented on the steps... I've exhausted myself searching for the step by step photos I took last year, but unfortunately I can't find them anywhere. The best I can do is tell you the supplies I used and the steps that I can remember. After all, better late than never!:
1. Large sheet of illustration board for the cover (hot or cold press is fine. I believe I actually just used a strong chip board). Cut that into 6 pieces total. 1 for the front, 1 for the back, and 4 identical ones for the middle binding. All 6 of these should have the same height and the 4 smaller ones should only be about an inch wide. You can see all 4 pieces in the third shot on this post.
2. Choose one large piece of fabric to use as the coating. I would get about 1 yard of it, 2 if you want extra incase of a mess up.
3. Purchase 1 sheet of heavier cold press illustration paper. I can't remember the exact thickness. Mid grade watercolor paper will work as well. I think that's what I might have used. This will be used to hold it all together.
4. Super 77. You will use a lot! Get a decent sized can. It's expensive and you'll have plenty left over, but it WILL fall apart eventually if you buy the cheap spray glue.
5. Choose your paper (I chose 12 x 18 and cut it down to 12 x 14 so that I'd end up with 11 x 14. The binding takes up an inch.) Also, choose the paper you'd like to cover the ends of this up. This is not necessary, but I thought it looked pretty nice on the binding. You can kind of see what I'm talking about on the third picture of the post. It's the black paper. I also used this as the interior backing for the cover.
6. Finally (I think), you'll need 2 or 3 screw gromits, roughly 3/4 of an inch deep. Blick Art supplies is where I found the ones I used. These will hold the binding together.
Ok, now if you're still with me and you'd like more thorough steps on how to finish building the actual portfolio, I'd be happy to tell ya. Just let me know in the comments because there are quite a few. Sorry again for the very Very late response :)
yes please-- I'm still very interested in how to complete the portfolio, as I would like to do this for my architectural folio submission
Yes please need more info ASAP, thanks heaps for this!
More info please!! Thanks heaps for this tutorial!
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