The Midnight Charette is an explicit podcast about design, architecture, and the everyday. Hosted by architectural designers David Lee and Marina Bourderonnet, it features a variety of creative professionals in unscripted and long-format conversations that allow for thoughtful takes and more personal discussions. Honesty and humor are used to cover a wide array of subjects: some episodes provide useful tips for designers, while others are project reviews, interviews, or simply explorations of everyday life and design. The Midnight Charette is available for free on iTunes, YouTube, Spotify, and all other podcast directories.
On this episode of The Midnight Charette podcast, hosts David Lee and Marina Bourderonnet discuss how to create a design portfolio that will get you interviewed and hired. The two cover everything from the critical points most designers overlook and what employers look for in a portfolio to format, binding, book sizes, graphics, what projects to include and exclude, cover design, layout, ordering work, digital submissions, and more. If you have any questions or advice about portfolios or any other design-related topics, leave a voicemail at The Midnight Charette hotline: 213-222-6950.
This podcast episode is available on The Midnight Charette's website, iTunes, Spotify, YouTube, and all other podcast apps.
HIGHLIGHTS & TIMESTAMPS
(05:41) The purpose of the portfolio and how it will be used.
(08:28) Portfolio size: The pros and cons of large and small booklets.
(14:20) Orientation: Choosing between portrait, landscape, or square.
(15:43) Exterior packaging: The relationship to the interior and over-designing.
(20:22) Cover graphics: Staying away from common trends and putting off employers.
(26:10) Binding: The pros and cons of perfect, wire-o, spiral, and custom binding.
(28:41) Viewing speeds: Designing for different levels of engagement.
(36:58) Creating an “A-Team” of projects: The number of pages and what projects to include (and not include).
(47:07) Understanding the portfolio as a slideshow presentation for the interview.
(53:32) Reworking old projects to appear more desirable: Graphics, storytelling, and honesty.
(58:21) Text length: The chances of it being read, benefits of long-form writing, and preparing for interviews.
(01:04:52) Including images that belong to someone else.
(01:07:37) Designing a layout for the interview: Board layouts, multiple-image and single-image pages.
(01:14:34) Ordering the work to leave a good impression by chronology, scale, and type.
(01:17:47) Titles and labels: Communicating clearly, academic verbiage, and highlighting unique qualities.
(01:20:55) Separating oneself from other successful candidates.
(01:22:44) The interview.
(01:23:44) Work samples and digital portfolios: Emailing work, file sizes, resolution, and sending links.
(01:26:54) Updating the portfolio.
(01:28:55) Key points and summary.
