By: Sidhanth Thomas
Crafting a portfolio with the right amount of storytelling and ergonomics and having it convey a put-together design language is no easy feat, let alone being something you spend little time on. Recruiters, on average, spend a maximum of a few minutes on a portfolio – also, factoring in how long it is, you need the ability to hold the reader’s attention for as long as possible while establishing the correct narrative.
In the AEC and Design Industry, communicating key design ideas may include having a minimalistic design language. However, it also comes down to your work. Understanding sequence, alternating text, and images are paramount to stand out under the relentlessly scanning eyes of a recruiter.
Tell a Story
Telling a story comes naturally to everyone. Punctuate this art, and let it flow. Avoid the traditional title, paragraph, and series of images, while exchanging them for an organic flow of ideas. Zero in on talking about the most impactful points at the beginning, explaining the problem and its solution.
Every architectural project comes with its own challenges; detail them with solutions you came up with to mitigate or deal with these challenges. It is recommended the first project listed incorporates most, if not all, of your skills – while being easy to read and seamlessly presentable. Guess what?
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A Common Design Language
This quality will vary depending on how detailed you want your portfolio to be. For an AEC professional who wants their portfolio to be comprehensive or elaborate, it is paramount to use images/graphics along a singular vein of design.
Identify portfolio markers and design elements you want to incorporate into everything from your backgrounds to text color. When it comes to your drawings, ensure consistency in terms of colors, line types and styles, annotations, supporting text, etc.
Respecting Proprietary Boundaries, Smartly
Quite a roadblock, especially in the AEC industry, respecting your client’s wishes and privacy, especially if a residential project or containing proprietary company information, is, needless to say, important.
You can simply describe the project and how you contributed to it in general terms, being generic in tone. You could also link a social media post about the project for more information. Now, if one of your best projects does end up coming under the gambit of this boundary, you know what to do!
Go Back and Forth
Something important to keep in mind are the final details. Go over your portfolio multiple times to ensure a sense of flow and structure.
Visualize individual projects one after the other in order to thoroughly clean up the layouts, text sizes, white space, and image resolutions so that your portfolio design is consistent. Your finished product should get you hired in no time.
