ποΈ Selling & marketing Β· E-book
A Portfolio Worth Reading
Choosing the work, writing about it, and showing it well
A Portfolio Worth Reading
Choosing the work, writing about it, and showing it well
Your name
A4 Β· this is a layout preview in the βGalleryβ design. When you generate, the studio writes every chapter in full, paints the cover and chapter art, and composes a downloadable A4 PDF with your name, bio and store link on it.
A portfolio is an argument, not an archive. It exists to convince one busy person that you can be trusted with a particular kind of job. This book is about narrowing what you show, explaining it plainly, and putting it somewhere it can be read in a hurry.
What's inside
- 1What a Portfolio Is ForSets the purpose of the portfolio as one argument aimed at one reader, and rules out everything else. You will write the sentence naming the work you want more of.
- 2Six Pieces, Not SixtyWorks through selection: what earns a place, what to archive and why breadth weakens the case. You will cut your current selection to six pieces and be able to justify each one.
- 3The Shape of a Case StudyGives a repeatable structure of brief, constraint, decisions and outcome that fits on a single screen. You will rebuild one project into that structure end to end.
- 4Writing About Your Own WorkCovers plain description, credit-sharing and how to describe a project honestly when the result is complicated. You will write two hundred words about a project without a single vague claim.
- 5Personal Projects That CountShows how self-initiated work can carry a portfolio when client work does not yet exist. You will scope one personal project that demonstrates exactly the work you want.
- 6Site, PDF or DeckCompares the three formats by who receives them and how, and covers file size, loading and mobile reading. You will choose a primary format and produce a second as a fallback.
- 7Talking Through It LivePrepares you to present the work aloud, handle awkward questions and talk about projects that failed. You will rehearse a five-minute walk-through of three pieces.
- 8Keeping It CurrentSets a light maintenance routine so the portfolio never falls two years behind again. You will leave with a quarterly review date and a rule for what replaces what.
A sample from chapter one
What a Portfolio Is For
A portfolio is not a record of everything you have made. It is an argument that you can be trusted with a particular kind of work, aimed at one person who is short of time. They are skimming for evidence that you have already done something close to what they need, and breadth reads as the absence of that evidence.
So start by naming the work you want more of, in a plain sentence. Editorial illustration for magazines. Brand identity for small food businesses. Then every choice that follows, which pieces, which order, which words, gets measured against that sentence. Work you are proud of but do not want to repeat belongs in an archive, not on the front page.
- Write the sentence naming the work you want, and pin it above the desk.
- Lead with the piece closest to the job you are chasing, not the newest one.
- Give every project a one-line caption saying what it was and what you did.
- Remove anything you would not want to be asked to make again.
Key takeaways
- A portfolio argues for one kind of work rather than describing everything you can do.
- The first piece does most of the work, so it should match the brief you want next.
- Anything you would not want to repeat is quietly costing you the jobs you do want.
The studio writes every chapter from this outline, paints the art and hands you a PDF you can sell the same afternoon.
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