A few months ago, I wrote this blog on where to find a job as a graphic designer. And while the feedback has been fantastic (seriously guys, thanks heaps!), the question as been raised – ok, that’s all well and good, but I don’t know where to start before getting a good job. What about the fact that every application asks for a portfolio of work or experience? What do I do then? Every designer has been there. I personally found when I was at Uni studying graphic design, the tutors and lecturers didn’t cover portfolios or internships as a topic, let alone how to get one or work with one. I also found that so much of the work that I had done at design school, when it was finished, really didn’t look like much – sometimes they were great pictures on a page, but what actually is that? How do I make it look amazing, how do I give it real world potential? The first thing you have to do, is get your portfolio together. A lot of design schools use this process as a rite of passage out of school, but i would seriously recommend you getting an early start, maybe in about the second year of your course. Not only will this help you get internships or freelance gigs (which I think you should do while you are studying) but it will give you a head up when the portfolio is your major assessment for the term. In terms of the content of your folio, I’m not just talking about print outs of the work you have done (guilty of this). Design the document. Spend some time looking at the way you want to represent everything that you have learnt, and put it into a form that represents your style of design. This is an important note – as you get further along in your career, your personal style of design will become just as important as your ability to do the work at all, as companies want to hire someone that will be able to design in their style, or the style they want to achieve. But I didn’t say the folio was printed. I’m finding it more and more that design portfolios are digital – mine is on an iPad for instance – and then you bring along the actual pieces you have designed…

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