The following guest post was created by Amber from Snippets of Design.
Have you ever needed a professional portfolio to display your graphic art, photography, or other designs? If so, let me show you how easily I made one in a photo book.
How to Create a Portfolio
Start by picking what kind of photo book you would like, and what size. Two of my books are 8” square books, one is a 6” square, and one photo book is 11” x 14”.
Then you can pick a style that you would like to use. This includes the design, type of cover, and lay of the pages. The modern gallery style is a good style if you would like a clean design that requires less work.
Also, the deluxe lay-flat pages and hardcovers make a very impressive impression which makes them a great choice for a portfolio.
First, Design the Cover
Because it’s a portfolio, I chose to put my watermark or logo on the front of all of my books with the type of portfolio as the title. Then I put a photo of me and my name, Amber Iva, on the back.
Don’t forget to write the name of your portfolio and name or business name on the spine of your book. You can even change the background of the spine if you would like.
Next, Add Photos
Use the add photos button to upload your photos and designs. For each page or set of pages, you will need to pick a layout. There are a ton of choices to explore and use. If you would like even more control over your layout, you can use the advanced editing button in the upper right corner and change the size of the photos as I did above.
You can also create mockups in photoshop or illustrator, save them as jpegs and upload them into your book. It’s also easy to upload artwork the same way. These are some photographs that I took and then turned into cards and announcements. It’s a great way to show off web design too.
Because of what I do, I personally made photography, interior design, and graphic art portfolios.
I used the photography portfolio to display the different types of professional photos I love to capture.
I love to photograph people.
I love to capture their emotions and natural selves.
Choose Your Photo Book Type
I made this book a little larger so the photos would be more breathtaking to look through. I also used the flat lay pages which I discovered I love.
Notice how the pages lay so perfectly. I love the way the larger photos overflowing onto both pages.
“Oh my heart!”
Okay, I might be a little bit passionate about photography. It makes me happy. It’s not my fault though, these photo books photographs look great in person, even better than I expected.
I also created an interior design portfolio that features my interior and event designs.
It really is a great way to highlight and display any work you’ve done.
Other Portfolio Book Types
I also created a graphic and web design portfolio. I made this one to display the invitations and announcements that I’ve created, logos, and mock-ups of products like bags and menus.
For convenience, you can even create a portfolio in minutes on your phone! If you download the app, you can easily upload your photos to create a book. I created a smaller, 6” paper-back portfolio from my phone so that I could show you how simple it is. I built mine while I was on a road trip. I’m not even exaggerating, that’s how easy it is.
I used it to construct a portfolio highlighting campaigns that I’ve created. I listed the title of each campaign and the companies that they were for.
It’s a fantastic, easy, convenient, and cheaper option for building a portfolio.
Now that you have a portfolio, you can even create business cards to match. Here are the ones I created:
I designed my own and uploaded them, but there are several calling card options that you can choose from and fill in quickly if that’s more convenient.
Now that you know how to create a portfolio, go out and highlight your hard work and begin the career of your dreams.
Happy DIYing friends,
Amber
