Graphic Design Portfolio Strategies for Print and Digital Media is now listed on the Barnes and Noble and Amazon.com web sites. It will be available January 15th, published by Prentice Hall.

I want to get an "A"

Paula Scher in her book “Make it Bigger” makes the point that design is less about styles and theories and more about the personal and corporate political forces that surround getting things done. Knowing how to navigate those waters is a life skill that applies in almost every profession.

The end of the school year brings students pleading for exceptions to deadlines, grading policies and a host of other complaints. The arguments that are the least effective are those that include the “I really want to make an A” component. What most students fail to realize is that this is almost universally going to negate any other argument they make.

No teacher at the university level is going to be positively influenced by the statement that you want to make an A. That gives the impression that you don't really care about learning, only about your GPA. From the point of view of teachers who have dedicated their lives to studying a subject, the best way to influence them is to convince them that you are interested in the material and that you have learned or mastered it. If you want an A, the most convincing argument is that you have excelled, going beyond the mere minimum requirements and brought some creative insight to your understanding of the subject. This is almost universally the best way to convince someone that you are deserving of an A. To focus on the grade alone is rather short-sighted. Professionally, no one is going to care all that much whether your GPA was a few points higher or lower. In fact, in all likelihood, telling them what a mean and unreasonable professor you had to contend with might gain you some points over the dweeb with the perfect 4.0.

Showing that you read the text, did some outside investigations, checked out a few optional books, made connections between subjects, found some aspect of the subject that interested you and followed up on it — those are the ways to navigate the academic waters.

Type Camp and original sources

Step in Design magazine, published in Peoria, ran a recent article touting a study program that takes students to locations such as the St. Brides Printing Library so they could experience the works in their original form. Interestingly, we at Bradley University tried a program such as that in 2004. We took a group of students to the British Library, St. Brides Printing Library, the Victoria and Albert Museum, and the National Art Library, along with visits to William Morris' house in Hammersmith. Students were to do some preliminary research in preparation, and then had two weeks in London to consult original sources (not reproductions) to gain further insight into the works they were writing about. It is a very hard sell to get undergraduates to take an interest in anything connected to libraries. (above is an image of Bradley University student Dave Schuette at the St. Brides Printing Library examining a some Kelmscott editions.)

A little goes a long way, or a designer is not a brand.

A little goes a long way, or a designer is not a brand.
Some confusion can occur in talking about branding with regard to portfolios. The Brand identity of a portfolio needs to be subtle. Never over-bearing. Analyzing the situation, one is reminded of the observations of Beatrice Warde’s famous crystal goblet analogy in speaking about typography.

"Imagine that you have before you a flagon of wine. You may choose your own favourite vintage for this imaginary demonstration, so that it be a deep shimmering crimson in colour. You have two goblets before you. One is of solid gold, wrought in the most exquisite patterns. The other is of crystal-clear glass, thin as a bubble, and as transparent. Pour and drink; and according to your choice of goblet, I shall know whether or not you are a connoisseur of wine. For if you have no feelings about wine one way or the other, you will want the sensation of drinking the stuff out of a vessel that may have cost thousands of pounds; but if you are a member of that vanishing tribe, the amateurs of fine vintages, you will choose the crystal, because everything about it is calculated to reveal rather than hide the beautiful thing which it was meant to contain."

Of the person who selected the glass goblet, she goes on to state.

"the first thing he asked of his particular object was not 'How should it look?' but 'What must it do?” …Without this essential humility of mind, I have seen ardent designers go more hopelessly wrong, make more ludicrous mistakes out of an excessive enthusiasm, than I could have thought possible.”

The portfolio must serve as a frame, a delivery system and a navigation device for the projects it contains. Any personal messages must be hushed when the viewer is looking at content. To add another analogy one can apply to this, a ring tone for a phone may be functional in attracting attention and alerting its owner, but once the conversation commences, it would be counter productive if the ringtone continued. Having served its function, it needs to fade into the background.

And the most effective portfolio presentation is one that allows the viewer to examine the work presented in a clean, clear, uncluttered space. So how does one make a portfolio that is both individual and serves is contents well?

It should be pointed out that Warde speaks of the above approach as modernist, and in 1955, when her address was delivered to the Type Directors Club in London, modernist has a very clear meaning. It is with somewhat less certainty that things can be formulated so directly. Perhaps then even Warde sensed the dead end of strict minimalism as she wrote :

And with this clue, this purposiveness in the back of your mind, it is possible to do the most unheard-of things, and find that they justify you triumphantly. It is not a waste of time to go to the simple fundamentals and reason from them.

It is for this reason we urge “reasoning from the fundamentals” as a guide to successfully completing the portfolio design process