Design Portfolios

Chapter 1Why Do I Need a Portfolio?

Why all the fuss about design portfolios? I already have great‐looking project cutsheets!

If you are a student of design, just getting started in your chosen creative industry, this is a reasonable question. Without any guidance on the matter, it would be easy to believe that all a recruiter really needs to know is that you do decent work. Unfortunately, the portfolio is a convention of the design industry and, to get a job, you must have one; it's the universal measure of your progress and abilities. Design firms just don't hire designers fresh out of school without first reviewing their student portfolios. Unlike many other occupations (think, for example, auto sales, accounting, or nursing) where a résumé may be the only document ever submitted in a job application, every designer must present a résumé and a portfolio for review if they are to be considered a credible candidate.

Despite this vital role in the search for professional employment, the design portfolio just doesn't get much exposure in the classroom. As a student of landscape architecture, I don't recall ever even seeing a portfolio until my junior year. At that point in my emerging career, my portfolio (I'm being generous with the term here; I was not a highly organized student) was little more than a roll of drawings and a few beat‐up presentation boards in the back of my dorm closet. As graduation loomed, I began to realize (with some anxiety, I might add) the importance ...