At the end of each semester in art school it is an obligation to submit a booklet of your work.
So as a graphic designer studying fine arts I make sure to submit a professional portfolio to not only show my teacher my progress but also to give it a professional graphic design feel.
Indeed not ever art student does know how to operate and create a professional portfolio on adobe programs, so I'm going to present to you an simple way to help you create a professional yet creative portfolio look for your work with the least work possible.
First:
Lets me start by showing you how I did my portfolio and then I will proceed with giving you easy hacks to create your own booklet with or without the advanced graphic design programs.
I created this simple cover for my sketching class end of semester portfolio
the size on the other hand is an A6 hard cover with a double wire binding
Intendedly so, this cover is simple and very directly, it displays my personal logo in the middle.
along with my portfolio I submited a CD with a CD cover that goes with the same simple design.
However the CD contains a power point presentation of my work with a high rezoultion jpg file of my sketches
I placed the inside pictures of my work in a orderly way for you to see how it looked like from the inside
and for the description I added the information in between the curled braces of my personal logo
Remarkably so this is how I did my portfolio!
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lets talk about easier ways to so an art portfolio without all the hassle of professional advanced design programs.. or maybe just use up a bit of them! no worries I'll explain every step of the way.
Steps to work with:
1. Gathering your work in one file:
> take pictures of your work (use a good DSLR camera) try to take the pictures in a good lighting area and try to make the subject being pictured as straight as possible
> on the other hand if you could simply scan the subjects it would save you a lot of work
> cropping time! upload your pictures on your computer and and start by copping all your subjects till the limit of the drawing paper leaving no space to show any distractive background in picture
> if needed you can straighten your art work using a straightening filter that can be accessed in any easy photo editing program (Picasa - link to download in the end)
> make sure to play with the levels of brightness and saturation of each image to let the art work show and stand out in the pictures since the whole process of picturing and printing takes ways from the subject pained or drawn in the first place, so fixing it up a bit in different filters will make it look better after printing, but you should be careful not to over do it for it might change the art work completely
> now that you have finished fixing up your pictures put them all in one file and rename them according to the sequence of which they were made (to record the evolution of your skills)
2. Decide on the size portfolio size between a3 a4 a5 or a6
3. If you don't already have personal logo make sure to create any simple symbol that best describes your character as an artist
It could be of the following:
- a simple hand signature that your use in your paintings
- your name initials in any font style that suits your painting style
- an simple abstracts stencil of any object or animal or plant that best expresses your personality
4. Designing the cover:
Now there are two ways to do your cover either design it on the computer or just hand make it.
> just download a nice image that expresses the general theme of your course (helpful links at the end)
> add your personal logo in any space you find
> cut two hard cover boards in your portfolio size
> print your design on a white sticker paper and stick it on the hard cover
Since your an art student I would encourage you to do a handmade deign to the cover of your booklet, its the best way to show who you really are as artist and as I'm sure the teacher would appetite the extra effort. plus its would give your booklet a very original distinctive look.
Steps to help you design your cover:
> cut two hard cardboard cutouts of the wanted size or any kind of thick paper
> you can use different techniques to cover the surface of the boards.
here are some ideas: (don't be afraid to try a bunch of different ideas)
- spray paint the surface with different colours then place a couple of nice looking leaves on tope and cover it all up in other one tone colour of spray paint, remove the leaves and check out the results
- cover the surface of the hardcover boards with a layer of acrylics paints, give it time to dry, cut out random pieces of a good quality sponge, dunk in different colours and stamp way!
- drop an ink blob in the middle of the hard cover, with a straw blow thin ink lines from the ink blob to the edges of the hard cover, create nice knotted and tangled textures and just have fun
> when you finally find your perfect cover print out your personal logo on transparent sticker paper and stick it any place on the cover
5. Adding information about your artwork:
> using any computer typing program like Microsoft word for instance, type up all the information you wanna write about every artwork
- Name of painting
- Size and unit of measure
- kind of media used (acrylics/ oil/ pencil)
- Date of when it was made
> place this information for each art work in a text square and feel free to edit the frame and play around in the front and font size
> make sure to use the same font style, size and value to all the information to give it a unified proper look
> separate each text box on a separate page
> add page numbers
> make sure to appropriate the font size with booklet size (For example: a4 > 12 or a5 > 10)
> add an introduction page with your logo, name, date and course info
> you can also add a short table of contents at the second page
> save your file in PDF format
> then export your PDF file as .jpg (file > export > image > JPEG)
> put all jpgs in one files and fix the sequence again by renaming the files in the right order (introduction page, table of contents, dicription 1 , art work 1, description 2, art work 2 etc.. )
6. Printing the contents:
this is a bit of a complicated thing really! and you might want an printing expert to help you print the files
> check out the different textures of paper available, try to pick a white coloured paper so it would affect you work colours when printed
> print the jpgs in order double sided (recto-verso) on the textured or matt paper, cut the papers to the right size if needed or ask your printing guy to do it for you in the professional cutting machine
> check the order of the content one last time
> put the hard cover boards on both sides of the cut papers
> check the direction of the papers to be aligned with the cover
> ask your printing expert for your binding options (single wire / double wire / plastic wire) or you can just using metallic binding rings (they come in different sizes)
> finally bind it all togather and be proud of your work
hope this was not too long for you! if you have any questions please comment bellow and will answer you as soon as possible!
if you like work and would like to see more please like, comment and share. lets talk art !
Helpful links:
- Picasa free download: for Mac http://picasa-mac.en.softonic.com/mac for windows http://picasa.en.downloadastro.com
- Free download images: https://pixabay.com/en/ http://www.freeimages.com
- handmade book design ideas: https://www.pinterest.com/lamoblacky/handmade-book-cover/
