Core77

How Long Should Your Design Portfolio Be?

Chime in to our discussion topic of the week

By Core Jr - March 8, 2016

in Design Jobs | Forum Frenzy

Each week we'll be bringing you a pressing topic of the week straight from our reader-controlled discussion boards! This week, we ponder over the question: what's the perfect balance for a design portfolio? Core77-er Alex asks:

"I am a student graduating in May. Currently my whole portfolio is roughly 50 pages, or 25 spreads. This seems way too long to include in an email and expect professionals to look through for a potential job position.

My question is, what do you typically send out for a job application? A shortened work sample? A teaser? How long is this document? What does it include[...]? Professionals, what do you want to see? How many pages per project, on average?

Currently I have made a "work sample" document that is 7 pages long (cover, one page for each of my five projects, resume, and an about me page). It covers my project topics and gives a teaser of the ID work and final product. Ideally, this would spark interest and then I could follow up by sending my full portfolio with a more thorough process."

Have any firsthand experiences to help answer this question, or simply strong-rooted opinions on the topic? Contribute in the comment feed below and help get the conversation going! Also feel free to check out the original post and contribute on our discussion board.

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Chris Holstein

8 years ago

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I too have endured this problem as a freshly graduated interaction-designer.
What do I want to show, and won't it be too dreary?

My experience with my applications is that the reviewing person does not even bother to read the text, and scrolls over the images. If the images catch his attention, the chances of him/her reading the text increase a lot.

So make your images count!

LPT: If you apply digitally and you are positive that they are not going to print it out. Design it in landscape, send a portrait version with it. Your images will be shown much bigger, so much more "BAM" as David Copeland said.

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david copeland

8 years ago

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I agree with David above. Think of the the email/online application as an 'Elevator Pitch'. You are only going to capture a short window of time to hook your audience with your resume and portfolio, so short, sweet and to the point is best. Having recently gone through a number of portfolios, my average time to for review of each was 2-5 minutes. I would glance at the work, and if there were a lot of pages, I scrolled pretty quick, and often times didn't pour through every page. I appreciated (and spent more time on) those shorter, tighter and more 'BAM!' mini-portfolios at the initial blush. There will always be time to go through a longer portfolio WHEN they call you to have a proper interview.

Make sure that 'Elevator Pitch' sample you send shows your process succinctly, and puts your best foot forward.

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David Justis

8 years ago

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For initial contact I send out a cover letter, resume, references, and a work sample teaser (1 page). I make sure to include that my portfolio is available upon request and that includes 5-7 projects each with 2-4 pages (depending on the project) highlighting my process. This also allows a dialogue to be opened when a request for a portfolio is made. Not sure if that helps at all, but it's my two cents.

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