D&AD New Blood Mentoring

9 Jul

EM WAS INVITED TO BE A MENTOR WITH LADIES, WINE AND DESIGN LONDON AT THEIR PORTFOLIO NIGHT WITH D&AD NEW BLOOD.

Set in the D&AD HQ in Shoreditch, 16 mentors worked with over 60 creatives to offer a brief portfolio review as well as advice and insights into the industry for the graduates looking to launch their careers.

Speaking with with 14 different graduates across various disciplines, Em had a great time looking through brilliant work, answering questions and meeting some of the amazing new faces entering our industry!

Some general portfolio tips kept creeping up during our conversations and we thought we’d share them here:
1. Use your portfolio to tell a story and build a rhythm into it, not every project needs masses of detail, you want to show off your different skills, so use your work to do that.

2. Some people recently are just using Instagram which isn’t enough to showcase your work professionally (unless you’re a content creator), so make sure to create a digital portfolio whether that’s on a website or in a PDF.

3. Don’t try and cram a lot of work into one page, keep it clear and let each piece have its own space, but take time to curate your work so you don’t have loads of pages.

4. If you have great real world stats that show the impact your work has, make sure that info is in there and show it off.

5. People don’t have a lot of time to read long descriptions – have a tl;dr summary of the project before a lengthy paragraph giving someone the idea and the option to go in further if they’re interested.

6. Show work in situ – if you can’t photograph it, mock it up (there’s no shame in using mock ups, even the big agencies do it). It helps sell the work in, it shows that what you’re doing works in context, and it shows attention to the details.

Some of the amazing creatives Em spoke to were: Creative Team Dannie & Max, Illustrator Francesca Tiley , Creative Team Angela and Erin, Designer Alissa Metsnik, Creative Designer Rianne Jones, and Designer Jo Crossley