So you think you’ve got it all you’re working for a big agency that gives you all sorts of opportunities to do your best and be as creative as you can be. Or maybe you’re the exact opposite stuck in a job with no creativity whatsoever. Regardless of where you start its important to keep progressing. Now I’m not saying change your job every 6 months or do contract work. Your progression I believe is best measured by your portfolio. My current art director, for example, comes from a starting background of designing and developing for small businesses, whereas I come from a starting position as a Web Designer in one of the top 5 Financial Institutions in Canada. You can probably tell where I am going with this.
In the latest redesign of www.bmo.com my art director and I had the rare opportunity to redesign a major financial institution’s site design. As successful as we were working with the thousands of people and businesses across the bank it seemed to me that my art director was more excited about this than I. For I’ve only ever worked at the bank and have had few small business exposures. Don’t get me wrong this was a great opportunity and experience to add to the portfolio, but it seems to me that my portfolio lacked color…it’s all blue as you can see.
My point to all this is that a strong designer needs to be consistently aware of what’s lacking in their portfolio in order to build it and keep growing, rather than repeating similar projects and designs over and over again. I hope my single point mentioned here will get you thinking, moving forward, and building your portfolio more so than before.
