Portfolio presentation

This morning I had a portfolio presentation with Ian Anderson of 'The Desingers Republic.' I have to admit I was quite worried about going after hearing about Ian being 'very straight to the point' with his opinion, but it was actually a really helpful presentation. We each had the chance to present the work in our portfolios and then received feedback about the way we presented. Ian gave us individual feedback on our presentation skills and the way we 'came across' talking about our portfolio of work. It was good to get the chance to talk to him about his opinion on the way we presented and also other general points about portfolios and interviews.

Although I feel confident about the work I have produced, making presentations is not one of my strongest skills, and I do get nervous when I have to speak in group presentation situations. I know what to say about my work, I'm the person who designed it, so I know everything about each piece that is in there but sometimes the nerves can get the better of me and I may not say everything i had planned to say! I guess this will only get better the more i do it, and I am sure there will be a lot of practice in interviews and portfolio presentations in the future.

The feedback I received from Ian was to slow down when I am presenting as I did talk a bit too fast! But overall the way I presented my work, myself and the layout of the portfolio is working well. Ian said the layout works well with my style of work and all the work "fits" together showing that I have a style, if he hired me and I started on Monday he would know what type of work I would produce for him.....hopefully this is s a good thing??!

Ian gave us some other really useful advice about making presentations;

- script what you are going to say -- not word for word, but think about what you need/want to say about each project...what are the main points that I need t get across?

- don't talk too much about each project - say what the brief asked, what I produced and how my response met the requirements. Keep it short and to the point...don't waffle!

talking about how many projects a portfolio should contain, Ian said an ideal amount is about 5 projects - no less.

• the 1st project should be the attention grabber - the one that looks really good!
• the 2nd should be quite an academic brief - something where you really followed and understood what the brief was asking, and show that you can explain this.
• the 3rd should be the biggest project - one with lots of supporting work, which shows that I can understand big projects and really explore and experiment with them over quite a long period of time.
• the 4th should be something really experimental - what I like to do!
• finally, the 5th should be the most memorable - one that people can remember you for, you should be relaxed and able to speak easily about it.

All in all it was a really helpful session and hopefully I can improve for the next time I need to present!