Portfolio Tips for DM4 Projects
by Julia Machotka
I have gathered some ideas for how to turn your DM4 art into portfolio-ready pieces. Here's an intro on how to make the most of this site:
Note that I only briefly touched on one section (emojis) and while that tip may be great for a UI/UX career path, there are plenty of tips for print career paths, too! So peruse and see what inspires you. Best wishes with your portfolio!
Emojis
Go from yawn 🥱 to yay 😁 with your emojis
To turn the emoji exercise into a great project for your portfolio, it won't take much! You have all the vector parts for emoji faces and all you need to do is design a vector background for them. I have randomly chosen various themes for emojis (well, it started with bees, then I just played on the word and tried beets and beers, lol!). Note that all three of these use the exact same vector parts, just a new vector background.
Here I inverted the colors a bit to show up on a dark background (that is, I made facial features light):
Last (and maybe best!) I tried beer emojis. Note how just a change from a lager to an amber, and expanding the sides to curves, makes the angry face look a bit angrier. Also, the last one (sleepy emoji) seemed more fun to adjust to another happy face, a green beer, and some shamrocks.
For a more advanced piec in your portfolio (especially for those who are interested in the field of UI/UX), try mocking up a screen or two of an app of your own invention. See three examples with my above emojis:
Donuts
The Do's of Donuts
Intro
The donut assignment may seem like nothing, but I'll help guide you through turning it into something. Have a look at the concept in this video:
Coffee Box Art, Simple
To recreate the 100 count "Regular Donut Shop Keurig Coffee" box found at Costco, please right-click the image below and choose "Save Image As" (note that term varies by browser, but similar). Place this image as a template layer in Illustrator. Try to think through how to recreate each piece. You will, of course, place your donut art. Then remember your Pen Tool for the K-cup silhouette shape. And for the rest, you can view the following tips in the Advanced tab:
- To view tips on fonts, see video 3
- To view tips on logo, see video 4
- To view tips and download the background dots, see video 5
Coffee Box Art, Advanced
After coming up with your concept, search for a flat, 2-dimensional, Keurig donut Coffee box or use this Nutty Caramel one (note that this image is not of high resolution so you may want to keep searching). Open Illustrator and create a 1520px x 1520px file in RGB mode. Place your Keurig JPG as a template in the bottom layer. In my videos, I keep the Keurig JPG off to the side as I work and I move it in and out of the artboard as needed. But you can work exclusively with the template art in the middle of your artboard. See these videos on how I worked through recreating this artwork with my own flavor "Maple Walnut."
- I came up with the idea of "Maple Walnut" donut coffee, consider brainstorming real flavors or even a spoof of a flavor:
- Use the image from your Google search as a template and import your donut art:
- Carefully observe typefaces, see what they remind you of, then do a font search on the words that come to mind:
- Here are some valuable logo tips:
- The background dots are a bit of a challenge, so I'm providing the vector I used in my art.
- Don't forget good layering practices:
- Remember the Pen Tool exercises we did and the Pathfinder:
- If you're ever stuck with creating new shapes, remember the ones you've already done. You can turn your duck into a maple leaf (yes, really):
- Same idea here, I'm turning my lemon into a walnut shell and my broccoli into a walnut:
- How I did the 3d coffee pod in the bottom left and added simple shadows:
- Time to step back, assess, revise and polish before turning your art into a 3-dimensional box.
Create a Dimensional Mockup
Completing Module 11 is essential for this step. For a quick demo on Smart Objects in Photoshop, see the Tshirt tips.
After creating your advanced box front art, you can port your Illustrator file into this Mockup Planet PSD box mockup for added realism that will look like this:
Please leave the Mockup Planet logo in your file OR link back to the page with the above URL.
You might want to get more accurate with your side panel than me, but I have used what is called "Greek" text, or lorem ipsum, on mine and I used a fictitious nutrition label. You may download and use this mockup in your own art.
Shadows
Throw some shade on that.
Sometimes the smallest things can make the biggest difference. Try adding a few simple shadows to your Sketch-to-Illustration project or to your midterm project or other. See the differences in no shadow (before) and shadow (after):
With a great composition created in your Sketch-to-Illustration art, sometimes a detail, like shadow, can make such a fun difference for your portfolio. And thank you Melissa Mendes-Campos for your lovely Illustrator project used in this demo! I've used Melissa's artwork in this demo to show how to create simple shadows to match the simple style of flat illustration:
Flowers
Flow your flowers into function.
There are lots you can do with patterns. You could mockup matching napkins, tablecloths, dinnerware, drapery and more. Take a look at this idea of creating a mock interior design presentation:
Consider going back to your Flower Power designs and:
- First, find a photo of a rug (or tablecloth or drapes or whatever suits your presentation idea).
- Using the art from your flower pattern, rework the pattern to match the photo in colors and basic design elements.
- Find a floorplan (or other) framework for your pattern presentation.
- Scale the pattern (note the concept that the zoomed-in swatch is to see details and within the conference room, the suggestion is that that is the scale that the pattern would fill).
- Find other artwork to add to the collage "moodboard" that helps support the presentation.
If you'd like to see it up close, please download my Flower Power Mockup PDF .
This video shows some great tips and trips to creating seamless patterns:
Tshirts
Tease out more from your tee
To add life to your tshirt art in your portfolio, consider creating a photorealistic version of your art. Have a look at the two following demos.
One-sided tshirt mockup:
Two-sided tshirt mockup (thank you Melissa Thomas for the great double-sided tshirt art used in this demo!):
Seed Packets
Planting a few ideas...
Intro
Please know that your seed packets are all ready a great addition to your portfolio! Just lay the up on either 4-up on a single page (lovely artwork by Gabriel Spiegel Anjo):
or 3-up and 2-up (lovely artwork by Kezia Jiranek)):
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But have a look at two other great options for the project: a physical packet and a Photoshop mockup of your packets.
Seed Packet Template
Taking a stab at packaging design is a great thing to do for anyone on a print design path. Have a look at the seed packet template I created and this video demo:
Please download the template and give it a go.
Seed Packet Mockup
Another option for your portfolio is yet another Photoshop mockup (this one created by me, not the best, but I couldn't find one out there to provide to you!). Here's the zipped front and back mockup and two examples:
Please also see these backgrounds I found on some free image searches:
Waymo
Perfect penmanship (or pentoolmanship)
Your Waymo cutout is ready for your portfolio: simply place the before and after images within one single page (online or in a printed portfolio) to show your Pen Tool skills. If you'd like, you could go further with it and either 1) add a motion blur behind the car or 2) place the car on a new background (note, that'll take a lot of adjustments! Note you must remove the window, observe the direction light is coming from and more...that's advanced stuff!)
Restoration
Photo with a facelift
Just like Waymo, the restoration you did to the vintage photo is ready for your portfolio as is. Again, simply place the before and after images within one single page (online or in a printed portfolio) to show your photo editing skills. You can emphasize your work by putting a run-down looking frame around the original, and a shiny golden frame on the restored!
