Portfolios and the designer's process

[derekleffew]

Just came across an example of a superior online design portfolio.
Lyrics 14: The Best Of… - Guy Rhodes – Photography | Videography | Lighting Design
Note that the page is much more than pretty pictures and light plots. He actually explains his decisions and design process. I particularly like the sketches that could have been drawn on a napkin.

I don't know Guy from Adam, but would likely hire him in a minute based solely on viewing this page. That he won some sort of Apollo Award is just gravy.

 

[Pie4Weebl]

See, I've thought a lot about "just how much" info to include on a portfolio website. I decided for myself that a small selection of photos and a summery is really all I needed to get my point across. (I have a thing for minimalism) You really have to decide who is your audience and tailor it to them. While I may be wrong, I've come to the conclusion, that more often than not, the people who hire lighting designers, are not other lighting designers. With that is mind, you want to be careful to target your site to the kind of people you want to hire you, and not other LDs.

For theatre, yes, it can be important to talk about your design process, as your target audience would be the directors and producers who hire you for a production. On the other hand, if you do concerts or corporate work, process falls behind the importance of final product. It seems, more often than not, bands just want to see that you can make cool looks and enhance the show going experience for the audience. I don't think photos of napkin sketches, no matter how interesting to you or me, help convey that ability.

Just my .02, I'm certainly up for discussion if others feel differently as I can't seem to tweak my website/personal brand enough.

 

[guyrhodes]

First, thanks to Derek for sharing my blog link here on ControlBooth. I finally joined the forums here so I could offer some of my thoughts on the discussion here.

While I'd never imagine presenting napkin sketches in an official "portfolio" (what I'd present as the "Lighting Design" section of my web site, which is simply photographs), I think it's fun to share a more detailed view of the design process on my blog (linked above) for those that want to know more about how things were put together.

I do think it's important, however, to be able to show a potential client - or employer - that you have the ability to take a wacky idea from a sketch to a CAD drawing on through to the real world. For students, especially, saving these sketches and rough renderings can be important in proving that you have a grasp on what you're doing. Presenting photos and sketches from some shows I did in high school allowed me to be waived from many intro level design classes in college, allowing me to take more classes instead in areas that interested me, such as CAD, etc.