Building Design Portfolios

Most graduating design students create print

portfolios; they typically spend the last part of

their senior year assembling all their best proj-

ects into a presentation box of some kind. Often,

students will polish or rework old pieces and add

some extra promotional work. Boxes are made or

purchased to fit the material, both physically and

stylistically. Frequently, the portfolio has a theme,

as in the case of Rhode Island School of Design

student Michelle Kim’s white case with red string

(124–125). She titled it “Being Green” to signal

her newness in the field. Increasingly, student

portfolios take the form of printed books, organ-

ized around a central idea that expresses the

student’s best.

Student

Print Portfolios

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An invitation commissioned by Room investigates the

idea of available space. In Halem’s words, “This piece

works on the level of letter shapes instead of paper

edges. Within the vertical and diagonal lines, the letter

shapes are left blank.”

Hansje van Halem is a recent graduate of Gerrit

Rietveld Academy in Amsterdam. Her portfolio con-

sists of several jpegs displaying her design work.

These electronic files come to art directors accompa-

nied by a résumé that includes descriptions of the

work. This page is from a flipbook called Damp. It’s a

conceptual exploration of the complexities of typography

and typographic design. The design is part of Halem’s

graduation project.

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The image shown here is an invitation that was commissioned for an artist-run space

called Room; it promotes a growing collection of artist publications called Print Room.

The physical space of the Room is symbolized by lines that stop at the edges of the title.

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BELOW

The Thinking Forward Festival, a European cultural

festival that celebrates the Dutch presidency, commis-

sioned these books. Halem created two pieces that

fold into an olive green cover. The pink booklet is a

catalog of participants; the blue booklet contains text

describing the festival. Halem’s dignified and under-

stated approach to the project shows art directors that

she understands how to enhance, not overshadow,

content with design.

LEFT

As part of her thesis, Halem created this annual report

for VPRO, a Dutch broadcasting company. It’s a book

inside a book, with random messages that pop up to

brighten the report.

LEFT

This design by Halem is called The Scratched Letter.

Here, she scratched or drew letterforms by hand; they

become denser and fully black as the book progresses.

Art directors might be drawn to this piece because of

its in-depth exploration of typography. The sample also

shows Halem’s extraordinary drawing skills.

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BELOW

Designed by Halem in cooperation with Gerard Unger

for the City Council of Amsterdam, this report consists

of information on Amsterdam Cultural Art Initiatives. It

is a simple, elegant typographic report that’s printed

exceedingly well on thin paper. There’s a subtle echo of

text running down the outer and inner edges of each

page for emphasis. The fact that Halem collaborated

with such a well-known designer is one of the reasons

this is such a strong portfolio piece.

LEFT

Commissioned by the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam

in 2004, this catalog is called Municipal Art Acquisitions

Graphic Design. It has spots for eighty-four designs, but

the sixty-four that didn’t make the cut are represented

by punched-out windows, leaving only the twenty final

selections in place.

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