An overview of the type of problem-solving creative work a portfolio should have, what CDs + recruiters look for in portfolios and how to get started.

1. Let’s
talk about
Portfolios
Gina Collura, Creative Director

2. Breathe

6. Your portfolio/book has:
- Only your most awesome, smartest work
- At least 6 different projects (shoot for 8 or 9)
(as many integrated projects to show depth of your thinking)
- Includes a range of brands/services, like:
- Food/Beverage
- Sports/Rec
- Travel/Tourism
- Tech product/brand
- Fashion/Beauty
- Eco/sustainable brand

7. Your portfolio/book has:
- Products you love
- A brand you care about
- Something you want to dig into and research

8. Your portfolio/book is:
- An extension of you

10. Look at your work from the last
2 semesters…

11. Luke Sullivan puts it best:
- Speed of the Get
- Believability
- Creativity
It’s not a very big idea if it doesn’t fit on a Post-It note.

12. Look at your work:
- Come up with ideas that generate other ideas.
- Start with human truths.
- Arm yourself with the facts.
- Be fearless around bad ideas.
- Often the worst ideas are your tour guide to the best ones.

13. Look at your work:
- Where is the emotion in this product, service,
or category?
- Remember, it’s “got milk?” not “have milk.”
- Don’t make things for the internet, make things out of
the internet.
- Would the press cover it?
Would a person use it or share it?

25. Portfolio Don’ts
Anything inappropriate/vulgar/distasteful
- No expletives
No typos

26. Creative Directors
on Your Portfolio
“I want more than just ads. I want to see you solve
business problems.”
“Identify a problem for a brand and then show me how
your idea can make the client money.”
“How does your idea make people look at the brand in a
completely different way?”

27. Have one single sentence to intro the campaign.
Here’s a good example in a student book:
‘Citi Bike: How do you take an activity New Yorkers already
do and turn it into something that does tangible good?’ See?
It’s one sentence.”
Recruiters on Your Portfolio

28. “Here’s what student books should have:
- 3 or 4 integrated campaigns
- 1 digital-only campaign
- A couple of 2-D campaigns (print/outdoor/etc.)
- Plus a few things that’re cool: inventions, evolutions on
existing products/services, etc.”
Recruiters on Your Portfolio

29. Ways to create Portfolio Sites
• Cargo: $66/year
• Carbonmade
• Wix
• Format
• Behance.net
• SquareSpace
• Weebly
• Coroflot
• CommArts/Creative Hotlist:
$8.99 for 1 year!
Create + post your site by 10/1
and you might appear in the
March/April Annual!
Buy an easy to spell + remember Domain name (GoDaddy.com) and go!

31. Next Week:
Bring in your
best portfolio
pieces.
What’s
missing?

32. You should have a range of
brands/services, like:
- Food/Beverage
- Sports/Rec
- Travel/Tourism
- Tech product/brand
- Fashion/Beauty
- Eco/sustainable brand
Need a brief? Ask.

33. PICK
SOMETHING
YOU’RE
PSYCHED
ABOUT