Assembling a Portfolio
Finally
It’s time to organize and update my online portfolio. It took snowmageddon 2010 clearing my schedule, but it happened. I’m proud to announce the launch re-launch of my online portfolio.
Portfolio’s Are Tough
I’ve struggled with assembling my portfolio for far too long. I constantly second guess myself revisiting the same questions over and over like…
- Should I show everything I’ve ever done?
- What about some of my sketches and flat artwork?
- Should I make it Flash or HTML?
- What about an intense interface with sound, transitions, and crazy crazy crazy?
- I wrote some amazing code one time, should I show code samples?
- What will people think? It’s the high school lunch table all over again!
- What about teaching demos? I have a ton of them.
- Do I need a case study for every project?
- Why am I doing this again?
Re-Re-inventing the Wheel
Reworking my portfolio is an annual event. I come up with crazy concepts and attempt to develop some sort of miracle in under a week. A few days go by and all is well. Three or four days later it starts to fall apart. Life gets in the way, I lose interest, I lose focus, and the project gets abandoned. Another idea lost on the depths of my hard drive.
Despite my many attempts I’ve nothing to show for it. Yet clients ask me for samples all the time. It’s so embarrassing. I’m a web developer I should have this done already.
My Own Worst Enemy?
I’m not sure about you, but when I think about making a portfolio I immediately want to make the coolest thing the internet has ever seen. I also want it done tomorrow, and I want to spend almost no time on it. Does that sound familiar? It did to me, I’ve become my own worst nightmare. An unreasonable client. Noooo!
I’ve become the guy constantly changing my mind, shifting deadlines, pushing back concepts, and nothing is ever good enough. How did this happen? I thought I knew better. Frustration sets in and I get angry… with myself. Then the project dies a slow and painful death. Ahh the life cycle of internal projects.
The Awakening
Last year I spoke at a wonderful event, Pittsburgh Web Design Day, organized by Refresh Pittsburgh. There I met a Web Developer, Rahmat Dornbrook, who was also assembling an online portfolio. We exchanged our stories of struggle as well as a few laughs. Then he said something the struck me. He said “I used to design my portfolio to impress my peers, but now I design it for my potential customers.” It was dumbstruck. What an obvious but brilliant solution! How could I have missed it? A rookie mistake. Focusing on the cool rather than the communication.
The Aftermath
Although It’s nearly a year later, I’ve held on to that idea and finally put it into practice. I stopped worrying about what people would think and took my own advice. I thought about the problem, removed myself as a client, and trusted my training.
Problem Solved
The goal of my online portfolio is to curate works that represent what I can and would like to do for other clients. It’s not a laundry list of software, it’s not a history of my design and development career. But it is an example of work that I feel comfortable doing and wouldn’t mind doing again. A greatest hits album if you will.
My Advice
- Take a step back
- Solve the problem
- Trust your skills
- Don’t list everything
- Advertise what you want to do, not what you’ve done. Many times they’re different.
- Revise often
Thank you Rahmat for helping me listen to myself.
Tags: Pittsburgh Web Design Day, Portfolio, Rahmat Dornbrook, Refresh Pittsburgh