Are you a creative professional?
Do you rely on collections of previous work, whether public or private, to get new work?
If you do, you’re one of millions of artists who are fortunate enough to make a living doing what they love. But you also face more economic and emotional insecurity than many in non-creative industries — folks who might not feel as passionate about what they do but enjoy a bit more job security than most creatives.
You can achieve amazing success as a creative entrepreneur. However, you need to focus on the “entrepreneur” part as much as the “creative” part, and maybe even more so at times.
With that in mind, take a few minutes to absorb these six tips to create an excellent creative portfolio from Vic Mignogna, a multitalented creative entrepreneur with dozens of film, voice, animation and web show credits to his name. These guidelines are useful for any type of creative portfolio, no matter where your talents lie.
1. Don’t Have a “One Size Fits All” Portfolio.
An effective creative portfolio is actually multiple portfolios. It’s a collection of collections, each of which is tailored to a different audience (more on how to do that below). There’s no limit to the number of portfolio versions you can create; it may come down to the number of client types or media you work with. What you shouldn’t do is use the same static, tired-seeming portfolio no matter the situation.
2. Consider Your Audience.
When showcasing your work, consider who your audience is and why they want to see what you’re capable of. If you’re putting together a retrospective of your standout achievements for a group of fellow creatives, the collection should look very different from the one you show a potential client interested in your capabilities as a mixed-media artist, or fiction writer, or children’s animation voice actor.
3. Organize Your Work By Medium, Theme, and Other Broad Categories.
You might not show it to anyone outside a narrow circle of colleagues or peers, but you undoubtedly have a “master” portfolio that includes your entire body of work. At least, all the work you see fit to showcase.
It’s important to organize this big body of work in a logical way. How you organize it will determine how you compose the collections that potential clients, critics, and others eventually see.
For example, depending on your range as an artist, you might organize your portfolio by medium, theme or topic, project, client or employer, or any number of other broad categories. You can, of course, create parallel collections for each category: one broken down by medium, another by client, still another by theme. It’s your work, so it’s up to you.
4. Create Narrower, Contextual Collections Within Each Category.
Don’t stop organizing your creative portfolio at the category level. Create narrower, context-rich collections within each category that showcase your depth or highlight the types of projects or themes you’ve explored over the course of your career.
Even if you show an entire category (or even the whole portfolio) to someone who requests it, having these more narrow showcases will make it easier for them to assess and make sense of your work. They’ll find it more interesting, engaging, approachable — pick your adjective — and might just make the decision to hire you on the back of it.
5. Provide Detailed Descriptions With Each Piece of Work or Collection.
As a creative immersed in your work day in and day out, it’s easy to forget that you have by far the most contextual understanding of your practice. No one else “gets it” like you do, which means they might not appreciate it to the fullest extent. Or, in more practical terms, a quick review of your portfolio might leave them asking, “So what?”
You can avoid this by providing detailed but not overlong descriptions of each piece of work showcased in a particular collection. Take the opportunity to explain how you produced the work, the thinking behind it, and the broader creative context in which it lives.
6. Iterate Based on Feedback From Collaborators and Clients.
Last but not least, update your portfolio in ways large and small based on feedback from collaborators, clients, mentors, and others you trust. Seek out input regularly, too. Frank feedback can sting, but it’s better than a stagnant or underwhelming portfolio that sells you short.
Your Portfolio Is Your Professional Persona — Treat It Accordingly.
A creative portfolio is to creatives what a conventional resume is to most other professionals. It’s your professional calling card, the thing that gets you noticed by those in a position to pay you to do what you love.
It’s absolutely critical that you treat it accordingly. Top creatives — people with decades of experience in the business, like Vic Mignogna — continuously update, evaluate, and expand their portfolios, even (especially) when they don’t have a flood of new work to add. After all, you never know what will resonate with your audience, so why not create as many opportunities as possible for that to happen?
