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Sir this is a Wendy’s

Absolutely, thanks for the kind words!

Appreciate the kind words, good luck with your portfolio!

Absolutely!

Glad it helped, best of luck with the resume!

I hear you and agree that design roles expect too much from candidates and many of them don’t properly value the position. The part about tracking and including KPIs/ROI is important to combat that. The truth is that many clients and stakeholders don’t know good design from bad design, what they do know is how successful a project was based on KPIs. Good design will only get you so far - showing tangible value as a designer is how you prove that you’re worth higher pay and a seat at the table. Focusing solely on design showcases value that is largely only understood by other designers.

If you’re doing it in an organic way then that can definitely add value (completed X project generating Y KPI for client Z). If you’re just listing big names without context then it’s probably better suited for your portfolio client list.

Hi Katie, here's an example from redditor u/Yuh_nasty that works well from a design standpoint: imgur.com/3AwCnrF There are some things I would change regarding the content and the order of the sections (all of that is outlined in the video), but the simple design works well.

Hi Ivana, yes I’m planning on doing another portfolio review video in the near future. Stay tuned!

@@artfulruckus great news!

Appreciate the kind words!

Hi Mohamed, unfortunately I don't have any of these books as PDFs. There are some great free PDF design books out there on the web though, here's a list that I hope is helpful: www.toptal.com/designers/product-design/free-ebooks-for-designers

@@artfulruckus thanks bro good job and cool stuff in your channel youtube 🔥🔥🔥👏👏👏👏

@@MohamedBoubaker-d4r Thank you!

Glad you found it valuable!

That's a great topic, I'll add it to my list. Thanks for the suggestion!

Great question! Webflow, Wordpress, and Squarespace are my top recommendations to look into. Webflow is the most premium of the options, but is the most costly and will require a learning curve to get set up. Wordpress offers the most flexibility and can be the cheapest, but that also comes with plenty of learning and upkeep. Squarespace is the easiest to get set up, but is also the most limiting from a creativity standpoint as you’ll be working with premade templates. I’d look into those 3 to start and see what works best for you!

Thanks for the kind words, glad you’re finding them helpful!

Great question! I think an About page is a valuable place to dive a bit deeper into your approach, accomplishments, awards, and experience. It doesn’t need to be long, but can be an expanded version of the elevator pitch on the home page. Something like a couple of paragraphs instead of a couple of sentences.

Thanks for the feedback - I see where you’re coming from with wanting things to be more black and white. My thought process is that I may love a portfolio that someone else dislikes or vice versa, so I try to keep my reviews objective by focusing on the elements and breaking down what’s working and what isn’t.

Thanks for the kind words, glad you found it helpful!

Great question! Instagram is an awesome place to get your work out there and get discovered by potential clients, but in my mind it’s not a legitimate place to host a portfolio. Ideally you’re posting your work there and pushing people to your actual site/contact info. Behance is a valid option for a portfolio and is also a great place to get discovered by potential clients. It does come across as less professional than a standalone portfolio site, so I would recommend moving to your own site and domain when time and funds allow.

Haha glad you enjoyed it

Great question! It’s totally fine to use college work in your portfolio when you’re just starting out. Follow the same guidelines as far as telling a story, showing your work, and sharing the goals of each project. Adding in passion projects is another great way to showcase your skillset.

Best of luck in the job search!

You're very welcome, glad you found them helpful!

Thanks for the kind words, glad to hear you found it valuable!

Thanks for the kind words!

Absolutely

A single column is easier to parse for ATS scans and the applications systems that ‘autofill’ info for you using your resume. That being said, I personally use a 2 column to fit more content. I just made sure to test it in the tools mentioned in the video.

I’m not sure what you mean, could you clarify?

Glad you found it valuable! A free domain name isn’t a deal breaker by any means, but for $10, a paid domain name makes your site look much more professional. Recommend going the paid route if you have the funds!

Love to hear that!

Appreciate that!

What makes you think that?

Thanks so much for the kind words! I’m glad you found it helpful

Check out the section from 7:00 onwards, I talk about what to include in an experience section when you’re new to the industry and don’t have much/any experience. Let me know if that answers your question!

Thanks for the kind words! Glad you found it helpful

Agreed, Tatiana’s portfolio is an incredible example! The fonts used in the tips graphic are TT Commons Pro for the headline/body and DIN Pro for the sub-header and footer. Best of luck with finishing your BFA!

@@artfulruckus thank you!

Great questions! I would include both your actual unrelated work experience as well as any related projects. Unrelated work experience is relevant as it shows you know the basics of holding down a job, working in a team, etc. I’m sure there are also some things from those positions that you can spin as relevant skills for a design position (working on tight deadlines, incorporating feedback into your work, etc.) Quantifying impact is different for every job, task, and project. You would need to measure something up front that’s done the ‘old way’, change something, and then measure the same metric afterwards. Let’s say you noticed a system being used as an admin assistant that was inefficient, maybe you were wasting hours every week by having to manually enter everyone’s expenses into a spreadsheet for them. You could then launch a new system that automatically calculated everyone’s expenses via their company cards. You could then calculate how much time this saved on a monthly basis, and feature a metric like ‘launched a new expense system that increased reporting time efficiency by X’. You don’t want to make up numbers as not only is that dishonest, but you also may be asked how you came up with them during an interview. The importance of sections will change depending on where you’re at in your career. Naturally, if you’ve recently graduated, education will be more important and is acceptable to have higher. In general, summary and experience are the two most important sections and would be closest to the top.

Love to hear that, glad you found it valuable!

Glad you enjoyed!

Really appreciate that! Glad you enjoyed it.

Great question! I think Behance portfolios are fine, but creating a portfolio website and placing it on a custom domain name will definitely come across as more professional. I view Behance portfolios as a great way to attract clients that are already on Behance. For job applications or general freelance work, I would work towards getting a site built when you’re able.

@@artfulruckus You are saying you value designers who pay $20/year to keep a domain name and $5/month for a Go Daddy subscription more than the designers who pays $60/month for Adobe Creative Cloud subscription for his/her entire career which includes Adobe Portfolio and Behance? You look for 'design professionals' who save company cost, keep track of the ROI, metrics etc., (A degree in managerial accounting would have been nice!) but at the same time, pay unnecessarily extra just to look 'professional'!

Appreciate that, Matt! On to bigger and better things 🤝

Glad you found it helpful!

Good call! There’s nothing worse than working hard on a logo design you love only to discover it’s already been done.

@@artfulruckus Finding out a year later that the client couldn't use the logo and hired someone else. It was disheartening to see my work replaced despite getting paid.

Glad you found it valuable!

@@artfulruckus 75% of the work is sifting through the "sus" job postings and scams.

Thanks for the feedback! You’re right that this Q&A is speaking to multiple audiences as this ‘Ask Me Anything’ was open to an entire community of senior, mid, and entry level creatives. There are chapters in the description for every question in order to allow viewers to skip to questions that are relevant to where they are in their careers.

I love Paula Scher, but haven't read this one. Adding it to my cart immediately haha, thanks for the recommendation!

Actually it seems to be out of print and quite expensive to pick up second hand - looks to have become a collector's item. I'll have to do some hunting at used book stores for a reasonably priced copy!

👋 Thanks for watching!