Week 7 - Tips for Job hunting and Promotions

While reading Building Design Portfolios it was said that one should aim for having a strong design then to prepare for the interview and presentations. Job hunting requires first research of the company you have submitted your information. A résumé is important because that is where the viewer will be able to see in writing all the things you have done and have your contact information on there hands without having to look further. The cover letter is where you will very friendly encourage the reader to look at your portfolio. Follow up materials are thank you notes and follow-up phone calls. Promotions that you sent out could be mailers, books and monographs, CDs, and PDFs. This are known to be "limited-edition portfolios" because designers distribute as reminders or enticements. I also learned that your promotional piece does not have to be very expensive just good enough to catch the most attention and this will show the viewer the ability to produce innovative work without a big budget. In the examples that were given my favorite was one by Japanese designer Hirokazu Kurebayashi's promotional piece it's an elegant professionally printed package for a corporate audience. First in a plastic sleeve then opens to expose a black cloth bag silk-screened bag with the designer's name and holds a four sided black cardboard envelope containing twenty-seven printed samples. (Images Displayed in pages 56 an 57)

Cleaning up after your scanning is what was discussed in chapter seven of Designing a Digital Portfolio. The problems with digitized art are put together in a short list:
• Tonal problems
• Combining and editing
• Size and resolution
• Sharpness

All of these issues happen with all types of digital art. If the concepts of tone, color, resolution, and sharpness are well understood then you can apply them equally well in any digital file. Here is another list about working on the right types of files, and in the right order: (Page 120)
1. Change your file type.
2. Adjust brightness, contrast, and color casts.
3. Clean up and retouch your art.
4. Save a copy of the image.
5. Adjust document size and resolution, if needed.
6. Sharpen, if needed.
7. Optimize and save in a compressed format.

In this chapter there was also given an Image-editing cheat sheet which will come in handy when I all the digitizing of my work. Keep in mind future plans like the revisions or the start of a new portfolio.