Comments on: How Many Pieces of Work Should you Include in your Web Portfolio?

By: Ovi Dogar

Ovi Dogar — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 08:27:54 +0000

Very interesting and useful article!

Thanks for sharing…

By the way, keep posting… ;)

Ovi Dogar
AbsoluteCovers.com

By: Bethany

Bethany — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 19:02:02 +0000

I think the “less is more” can really engage the viewer/interviewer: they end up wanting to see more of your work and wonder what else you could get up to, given the chance. Great post.

By: Samantha

Samantha — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 19:36:25 +0000

@Nick Whitmoyer
Personally I am not a fan of printing interactive pieces at all for sharing with a client or perspective employer. If someone is viewing a piece for the first time, it should be seen as it was designed to be viewed. Sending someone to a URL first, walking them through the URL via a computer, sending the work on a disk, or carrying a laptop to share the work are all better options than printing an interactive piece.

I have carried small print portfolio as worst case scenario back-up ( like the electricity in the whole city has gone out) or had a piece printed as a leave behind after the person has viewed the work on screen. In that scenario, the piece needs to just be clear enough for the person to recall the experience of seeing it displayed , so I think 72 DPI can work . If someone ever asks you why you won’t send an interactive piece printed for a first time viewing, explaining the importance of the experience should help them understand.
I wouldn’t buy a car based on a picture… because you can’t experience first-hand how it was intended to perform.

By: Doug Avery

Doug Avery — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 19:34:59 +0000

Nick, I’ve had to print a lot of work in the past, and I find the best method is to make an alternate version of the original comp and size it up to 300 dpi. If the pieces has lots of hard edges, you might want to size up in bicubic mode, which preserves a lot of the crispness but won’t blur the pixels in your photos. Then, I just go through and replace any obviously blurry elements with larger versions (if I have them). Even if you don’t replace any elements, resizing a Photoshop comp should make it totally printable, because the type will look much better.

My opinion has always been that 10-12 pieces is enough, less if you’re showing other categories (I like to show a page of logos, a page of photos, a page of photographed print samples). Any more than that, and you risk a) boring the interviewer or b) betraying your “core style” by showing too many pieces with similar solutions.

By: Nick Whitmoyer

Nick Whitmoyer — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 17:34:48 +0000

Samantha, what are you thoughts on interactive work being printed? Printing at 72dpi will show pixilated distortion and I’ve found that resizing the work to 150dpi will make the piece very small.

Is it okay to show interactive work that is printed at 72dpi in your portfolio or should people do the latter of the two?

By: CarlyM

CarlyM — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 17:00:20 +0000

tedious

By: Little Brian

Little Brian — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 22:38:24 +0000

Intimidating?!?!

By: CarlyM

CarlyM — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 17:33:04 +0000

Even as a designer browsing around online portfolios I feel like the all you can eat buffet approach is overwhelming. Instead of thinking, “wow these guys can do it all!” more often I end up seeing how similar all their stuff looks. (”Look they did that same swishy letterhead effect!”). Often, big companies want to show off all their clients, with multiple views of multiple examples and typed case studies. A little of this goes a long way!