Creating Your Interior Design Portfolio

A great portfolio can be your portal to betterand better work as in interior designer. Here are a few tips to get youstarted. What To Include: Depending on how long you have been in the bus...

A great portfolio can be your portal to betterand better work as in interior designer. Here are a few tips to get youstarted.

What To Include:

Depending on how long you have been in the business, you may have a lotof project to choose from to include in your portfolio, or perhaps justa few. The key is to make sure that at the end of every job, you takepains to ensure that there are lots of high-quality photographs of yourwork. You can hire a professional or take a class or two and learn todo this yourself. Since these photographs are all your potentialclients will have to go on when judging your work, they need to be aswell presented and professional looking as possible.

You should include somewhere around a half a dozen or so projects inyour portfolio. If you have enough work under your belt that you cantailor your portfolio to the needs of each client you show it too, allthe better. If you are not quite there yet, simply make sure that yourbook shows off the best of your work and that it includes examples thatshow a nice range of work and abilities.

There should be an introduction wherein you explain your background andexperience as well as your overall philosophy when it comes to design.Here is also where you can toot your horn a little bit about anyspecialized skills you have acquired and any awards you may havereceived.

Compiling Your Information:

There should be a little bit of background information included withyour images, such as drawings, the materials that you used, andespecially "before, during, and after" shots. If you have the abilityto use special tools and methods, include that information as well.

There should be a few pages for each project that show the work as itprogressed. The pages should be arranged chronologically, with perhapsa really nice shot of the finished project introducing each section.Add a short bit of text to any pages you feel may benefit from someexplanation.

You should, of course, always be sure to have plenty of business cardsand resumes on hand and tucked away on your portfolio for you to handout to potential clients. If you have the wherewithal, you can alsocreate a brochure you can leave places, and a website that you canpoint people to.

Printing and Binding

There are a few ways go go about this. Many designers just take theirphotographs and affix them to paper to create their pages. You can alsoput them together in a layout software program and print them out witha high quality digital printer. The second method may be a bit moreprofessional looking, as you can add text boxes to go with your images,and the overall effect is more sleek.

When it comes to binding, there are a few options as well. You can gowith the traditional portfolio case, or you can create custom books foreach potential client. The machines that create traditional hardcoverbooks are surprisingly inexpensive and easy to use. With your ownmachine on hand, and a set of covers at the ready, you can literallyhave a custom made book ready to take to a meeting in less than 5minutes, and can leave the book behind for your client to keep.

Article Tags: There Should