Advertising Portfolio Tips

How To Present Your Portfolio Of Work

These advertising portfolio tips will help you build an advertising portfolio that not only looks great, but gets you hired.  As a writer or designer in the advertising industry, your advertising portfolio is your calling card, and having an impressive portfolio of work is your best bet for standing out from the pack in this highly competitive industry.  Read on to learn the top advertising portfolio tips that will help you present yourself and your work to prospective employers in the best possible light.

Whether you’re just starting out in your advertising career, or have been in the business for decades, these advertising portfolio tips are equally important.  Your work won’t speak for itself unless you are able to present it in an impressive, appealing package.  The way you contain your materials can be as crucial a chance to shine as the quality of the materials themselves, especially in such an image-conscious business.  Following these advertising portfolio tips will help guarantee that a client takes your actual samples seriously, which is the first step towards landing a job.

One of the most important advertising portfolio tips is that it’s crucial to make a good first impression, so be sure to buy the presentation supplies that will signal your professionalism from the very first moment a potential boss or client encounters you.  You can purchase a clean, modern-looking black portfolio case at an art supply store in the $20 range, and a pack of additional portfolio pages for a small amount more.  This minor investment will pay off by telling the person looking at your portfolio that you’re aware of and follow the industry standards for how to show your work.  An advertising portfolio tip that can save you money: some major office supply retailers carry the same brands of portfolio as art supply stores, so look at an art store to find the product that’s most appealing, then comparison shop at office supply stores for opportunities to buy these items in bulk or at a discounted price.

Another simple but significant advertising portfolio tip is to start out with your resume on the very first page of your portfolio.  Putting your resume in front of your client before they see your clips helps provide context, so that they can look at your work with a solid sense of your experience and your background.  Although anyone in the industry who is looking through your advertising portfolio has probably already seen your resume during the initial screening process for the position you’re applying for, it’s smart to include it in your portfolio as well.  After all, you’ll be competing with a tough pool of applicants for any job in the advertising field, so it’s a good idea not to expect your prospective employer to remember the details of your resume, since they’ve likely read many others since they looked at yours.  Offering your client the chance to refresh their memory as to who you are and what you've done before they check out your actual writing or design clips is a smart business move.