Whether you’re a design student about to graduate, a designer looking for a career change, or a talented freelancer hoping to add a few new clients, this article is for you. Spring is a great time to make changes to have your work seen. We’ll cover everything from submitting work to the best blogs and publications to building the best online portfolio and beyond.
10. Get out there.
In order to get those creative juices flowing make sure to leave your house, your studio, your classroom and, most importantly, your comfort zone. Even just shake things up by taking a walk, visiting a museum or hitting the gym. Often, a quick jaunt away from work will provide inspiration for work to come. Look for typographical inspiration at you local vintage bookstore. Consider how road sign symbols convey information prior to your next icon design project.
9. Have a personal identity
Every creative should have a distinct personal identity and strong branding. Show everyone who you are and why they should hire you instead of the next guy or gal. Having a visually stunning logo and brand identity will certainly be a solid base to build upon. Other important components of a distinct brand including stationery, a website and social media pages should maintain your brand’s style. For a few examples of impeccable logos and branding, check out our “Making Your Mark” Gallery.
8. Portfolio reviews
Show your work to anyone and everyone willing to take a look. This could be a potential employer, an instructor, a classmate, a friend, or even just the guy next to you on the bus. Not only does a fresh set of eyes on your work provide perspective for future projects, but network building eventually leads to job opportunities.
Moreover, there are plenty of formal portfolio reviews to attend. Mainly for graduating seniors in a design or illustration program, AIGA or the Art Director’s Club often hold feedback events. If nothing else, these provide a great opportunity to gain valuable interview experience. A face-to-face review is much more valuable than email correspondence, so get out there and see what others think of your work.
Near Philly? Make sure to check out Feedback.
7. Word-of-mouth
With time and a bit of effort, you can begin to put some momentum behind your brand. Consider how you use social media to show-off your work, how you speak about upcoming projects and who you approach with your work. Well-known designers not only have great work and a solid brand, but they market themselves well. Sharing work can be purposefully geared towards creating chatter around your brand and bringing eyes to your other work. Take a look at this piece from Entrepreneur on leveraging word-of-mouth for your brand
6. Enter a promotional design competition
HOW’s Self Promotion Annual is the big one for this. Whether you’re a student looking for superior recognition on your resume or a seasoned design vet, getting published in HOW’s Self Promo Annual is king. And the deadline is right around the corner, so get on it fast. The contest is notably competitive, but serious bragging rights are up for grabs. Moreover, winners are published and announced on HOW’s social media pages, their newsletter and on their website. Best of Show winners get even more goodies including a free journey to HOW Design Live and a featured spread in an issue of the magazine.
5. Get Published
There are a million and one design contests that you can enter in order to get noticed. While submitting to Graphis, Communication Arts, HOW, and Print magazine annuals is awesome—and will surely get you noticed—it can come with a hefty price tag. For those on a tight budget or looking for the “off-the-beaten-path” promotional route, check out Communication Arts’ online submission page, The Dieline packaging blog submission page, and one of our favorites, Rockport Publishers’ “Calls for Entry”. If you’re looking to submit a promo piece or your entire portfolio, try out No Plastic Sleeves.
4. Social networking
A must for showing off what your work. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn are the most tried and true popular options. Make sure to keep all of your information updated and have a professional profile picture. Having a lousy photo or old content simply makes it seem that you don’t care about your brand. On LinkedIn, be sure to accurately catalog all job history and publications, and have your website link under your contact information. This will act like a virtual resume of your performance history and bring viewers and potential employers directly to you site.
Once you’ve mastered the social media basics, prepare to conquer Behance and Dribbble, communities intended for a design-specific audience. Behance is essentially a free online portfolio platform provided by Adobe. You can search and follow all of your favorite designers and get eyes on your work. Similarly, Dribbble is a show-and-tell for designers and illustrators. You’ll have your work noticed by many in a sea of beautiful lettering, iconography and user experience projects.
3. Stay inspired
There are plenty of great resources out there, but sometimes we still simply run out of steam. The constant hustle, sending out hundreds of resumes, mailing all sorts of new self-promos, updating every page of your site, and contacting all of the right people on social media is exhausting. Periodically, you have to pick up a good book, speak to another designer or just spend a day working on side-projects for fun. You’ll return to the grind relaxed, refreshed and with a new perspective. Reading others’ design blogs is a great way to step away from your own work and blow off steam, without wasting time. A while back, we put together a list of the top 15 design blogs. See what’s still around and send us your suggestions for an updated list.
2. Try something new
Designer James Victore is a great role-model for trying new things and finding inspiration in novel exercises. Between his weekly Burning Questions videos, Dinner Series events with talented designers, and his Take This Job and Love It, it’s no wonder his work seems divinely inspired. A change of perspective via stepping out of your comfort zone to try something new may be that final push to take your work to the next level.
1. Have a great online portfolio
If you don’t have an online portfolio website in this day in age, you’re simply making it very hard on yourself. Having a promo site opens up a number of avenues for being noticed, make yourself searchable on Google, have friends link to your site on social media and bring viewers from Portfolio websites like Behance and Dribble back to the rest of your work. This doesn’t mean you have to learn to code (although that might be useful), just put together a nice, clean drag-and-drop site. Make use of sites like Cargo or Squarespace with tasty templates, or if you have a bit of cash on hand, hire a programmer for a few days and get just what you want.
Looking for even more exposure? Talk to an interactive team about SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and take a look at this guide to creating a memorable portfolio from Print Magazine
Let us know how you get your work out there in the comments below.