Wednesday, 13 October 2010

Learning about the Industry - Louise Owen

Today we met Louise Owen, who is another member of the Ice House team and the wife of Jack Owen, who we met last week. Louise taught us the fundamentals of making a design portfolio and means of getting work/clients. She told us that when it comes to making a portfolio, the important thing is that it is well presented, good quality imagery and no spelling mistakes! She also suggested that alongside our work we can show the creative processes and decisions that went into it. Also documenting the product if it is used in advertisement (so a photo of it if it was on a billboard). As for the person presenting the portfolio, they need to show passion for the subject as well have good communication and show a broad range of knowledge of the industry, clients will not frown upon you for asking questions and wanting to learn. If a freelancer has feedback from other clients they have worked for, this would be a good thing to include in the portfolio as well. When assembling our own portfolio, we should not overburden it with hundreds of images, we should keep it simple and to a minimum of about 12 of our best designs/projects. Louise initially started off as a freelancer working very hard for not a lot in return; she spent almost a year trying to get a steady job in the industry until she got one and gradually went up in the ranks until she could fund Ice House. Louise taught us the value of self presentation as well as maintaining the presentation of our own work. From what I gathered from Louise, it seems we still have a lot to learn about this industry and not any one person can expect to start out without making mistakes, the important thing it to learn from them.

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