This newsletter is late. We try to publish a new issue every two weeks, but the last fourteen days I have been quite busy traveling for work, writing emails, and looking at over 200 portfolios, proposals, and graduation projects by young and upcoming designers.
Anton and I will curate two exhibitions in 2024, one of them being the collectible exhibition FOKUS at this year’s Vienna Design Week. As I just learned myself, this kind of curation involves looking at many, many portfolios and proposals. We also do jury work on a regular basis, which I really enjoy because it gives us the opportunity to meet new talents and look at projects we would not have found otherwise. However, I often wish I could mentor or talk to a lot of the designers who submit their work BEFORE they hand in their portfolios to give them advice about their text structure, photographs, or overall presentation. As this is quite an impossible task, I try to share my knowledge in this newsletter. So these are my tips for you if you’re a designer applying for a call for entries, competition or handing in your project or proposal in a call for entries.
1. You don’t have to do everything on your own. = Ask for help.
The most common mistake (which I’m not immune to, either) is doing everything on your own: taking photographs of your work, writing your own text about the things that you designed, coding your own website. I don’t know about you but I hardly know anyone who’s good at everything. Maybe you have a friend who’s a photographer? Maybe your old flatmate works in journalism? Ask them for advice and help. Plus, if you’re a soon-to-be graduate, you’ll be much more relaxed if it’s not YOU taking photographs of your graduation project after you’ve just set up a whole exhibition, worked all night, and presented your graduation project to your professors. So just ask for help. Maybe you can exchange a piece of furniture for a website or a photo shoot? Also, having someone else look at your work often helps you to see things in a different context.
2. Think of a good title. Then, think of a good subtitle.
Having a good subtitle helps. A lot. Please don’t make the subtitle too poetic or hard to understand. Usually, a good guideline is: the title needs to be short, easy to remember, maybe even a bit funny. The subtitle needs to be clear, summing up your project in just a few words.
3. Think of a fictional grandparent.
Last year at Dutch Design Week, the graduates of the Design Academy Eindhoven had a brilliant idea: They published a zine called “Dear Grandma,” in which they explained their projects to an (imaginary) grandma. This automatically forced them to use simpler language, breaking down complex issues for a target audience outside the design bubble. When you don’t have a lot of space to explain your work (which, to be honest, is always the case), for example, in a press kit, a group exhibition or a competition, then using this technique can help you to narrow things down. As a rule of thumb: texts usually don’t get better the longer they get.
4. Keep it simple.
Think of your portfolio or proposal as a canvas. It doesn’t have to convey your ~artistic vibe~. It doesn’t need fancy typefaces (unless you really, really want to). The best portfolios that were sent to me gave the work itself the space it needed.
(But like every rule on this list, this one is made to be broken.)
5. Keep it not too short, but also not too long.
Sometimes, when I’m doing jury work, I stumble upon applicants who hand in their complete graduation thesis, sometimes containing up to 150–200 pages. When a project is very interesting to me, I try to skim through it, but this can be very exhausting when there are too many projects. I almost always wish that there was a shorter version, with a maximum of 10–15 pages.
Interestingly, when a portfolio is sent to me (for example, as an application for an open position), it’s almost always the other way around – most students’ portfolios would benefit from giving their projects MORE room, instead of showing me ten miniature-sized photographs on a single PDF page.
6. Form a group.
Nobody likes writing applications, but maybe you’re not the only one writing or preparing them? Start a sort of self-help group and write applications together. Plus, discussing your work with someone else will make it better (I know I’ve said this before!).
7. Only show projects you’re really convinced of.
This is an easy one: If you’re not totally convinced of your body of work, why should it inspire anyone else? Also, let’s assume someone gets inspired by a work of yours that you no longer like, and wants to hire you because of it. Would this be a good basis for a new collaboration?
I hope my unsolicited advice was helpful to some of you. Let us know if you disagree or agree – and if you have a good story about a bad portfolio or failed application to share, please reply to this email! We would love to hear your stories.
Until next time,
Nina
PS: Is something missing? If you feel we missed an essential aspect or perspective on this topic, please feel free to let us know via contact@thethingmagazine.com or leave us a message or a comment We don’t claim to be perfect, but rather want to inspire open discourse instead of closed gatekeeping.