STUDIO BRIEF 2 - PART 1 - Portfolio surgery notes

How I prepared for the session

To familiarise myself with what I want to show in my portfolio about who I am and what I like doing, I printed off some of the work that I've been doing lately, things I enjoyed doing in the past and how I have been promoting myself online.

Notes from the session

Types of portfolio

• Printed/physical
• Web

What your website contains :

• Social Media - instagram facebook tumblr
• Male chimp - build up your clients and send out a newsletter all in one go
• Blog - image heavy, punchy single statement conversation (tumblr or wordpress)
• Statement - 3rd person, describing your practice
• Email - a professional one
• Shop - paypal account
• Testimonial from the client next to what you've done; so the others know you are reliable

Start to make a list of potential clients

Find out who commissions and who employs, get names and emails

Keep your email short and simple 'here's some fantastic work i've been doing (link website)'

Maybe put in a small image as a teaser

Email yourself before you send it to make sure it works

Printed physical portfolio :

• Spend some money on it
• Quality prints
• Can be anything not just a black case
• A3 - no bigger
• Portable
• Have 10 core images
• Best one at the beginning and best one at the end 

Preparing for a meeting with a client :

• RESEARCH them
• Look on their website
• What do they do 
• Who they usually use/employ
• In your portfolio you need to have a little bit of similar work to what they have already, and then fresh different work that you can persuade them they need
• Flatter them
• Find out the name of who you're meeting, drop them an email before hand asking them what kind of things you will be discussing in the meeting so that you can prepare accordingly

For 2 weeks time :

• In a group with Sophie, Aaron & Rosie
• AUDIT your work - review, see what you have, the value, does it work still?
• Be objective, look at it as an outsider
• Put your work into different categories: portrait, digital, character, lifework etc. This will become the different galleries for the webrsite. Edit down to the 10 core images 

Develop a style guide : typeface, size, weight all the same for everything so that people know it is you.