02. Describing Your Own Work

Introduction

Part of the portfolio project is describing your own work. Below are some tips to consider in order to write the descriptions for you work if you already have some that you want to work on or augment, or are not sure where to start. You can basically start with these headings as bullet points if you'd like:

TL;DR

  • The Context
  • The Problem
  • The Concept
  • The Process
  • Role/Tools

The guiding principle should be to assume that the work does not speak for itself, you must therefore, speak for it.

The Context

What was this project for? Was it a class assignment, what class was it for? What was the context of the class (branding, systems, advertising, etc.) Was it a real client? Self-initiated project? Was there a comprehensive brief? Describe what constraints or limitations that you had.

The Problem

What problem were you trying to solve? What was the assignment asking you to do? Was this solution for an intended audience? What challenges arose out of achieving the solution to that problem?

“The challenge was to create a system that worked effectively to communicate quality to adults doing the purchasing, but fun that felt true for very young children”

The Concept

What was your central concept or strategy? What decisions were intentional, and what came out of doing the project. What were you trying to evoke (Energetically, Visually)?

The Process

The point here is to show some resiude of your thinking. If you are able to, show actual sketches, research and initial versions. This might also include messy artboards in Illustrator, or iterations from class that are marked up. You might want to retroactively simulate some of this material. That might mean:

  • Taking a print of an earlier version and marking it up with the feedback you received
  • Creating a sketch based on your initial idea.
  • Putting multiple versions in one file to create a more comprehensive "process" screenshot.

Your Role + Tools

What did you do for the project? Was it collaborative? Was the client an art director, were you also taking and retouching photos? What tools did you use? This could be software, hardware (ie drawing material, or images manipulated in a flatbed scanner).