Si Scott Portfolio Review

Today's Portfolio Review with Si Scott was very beneficial to say the least. I prepared some questions that I wanted answering and we ended up discussing all of those and more. The overarching advice that I received was:

"I like it a lot. It's presented well, I just want to see more."

This would suggest that my portfolio could benefit from one or two more projects as it only contains four that I am truly satisfied with at the moment. Once last module's Amazon Publication has been sent off to print I am certain that will go in. The same can be said for my British Linguistics screen-prints. I need to photograph these over the coming week as the lighting bulbs blew before submission last module and the photography staff weren't in the building to help. I have since not got around to re-hiring out the lighting equipment.

Another pointer from Si was that the presentation of my typeface design (Belt Up Lad, Takes The Biscuit and A Bad Workman Blames His Tools) could perhaps use a sentence as the focal point and then have the entire alphabet running underneath. This would demonstrate how it works in context of readability and legibility.
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Portfolio aside, we also talked about the issue of a creative CV because I personally feel that I have been having some problems with it. Si advised that I should consider working with folded paper crafting like I did for last year's Fedrigoni brief. The idea behind this being that my work is very much about print finish and tangible qualities so I should therefore try to evoke the same sort of work ethic for my CV as well. This is an idea I like a lot and will look into. The other alternative could be to screen-print what could arguably be described as a mailshot/leave-behind.

Finally, I managed to get some recommendations on London based studios that (based on my work) I may like to work for / approach in regards to a job or internship.

In summary of the whole tutorial (as there is simply too much to type the long-winded way) the ups and downs (as well as advice and recommended studios) were as follows:

Ups:

+ Professional and well presented portfolio.
+ Strong product photography.
+ Coherent with branding - business card, CV and website.
+ I want one of your prints when I come back in.
+ Typefaces in context of an iPhone app is effective.

Downs:

- Would simply like to see more work. I like it, I want more.
- Present typeface design contextually.

Advice:

+ Make your CV interactive to reflect your design interests.
+ Send real pieces of work to studios. It's too easy to send .pdfs and emails.
+ Make a nuisance of yourself, be persistent.
+ Just show people your prints to get distribution.
+ Begin and end portfolio with your favourite pieces

Relevant Studios:

NB Studio
Pentagram
Area
North Design
Spin
The Chase
Bibliotheque