Graphic Design

Assignment 06:10: Portfolio Promotion Package

Jason W. Howell
August 1, 2018

Goal

The goal of this assign­ment is to pre­pare a pro­mo­tion pack­age use­ful for find­ing employment.

Objective

The objec­tive of this assign­ment is to pro­duce the fol­low­ing pro­mo­tional mate­ri­als: sta­tion­ary set, printed port­fo­lio and dig­i­tal port­fo­lio. This assign­ment cor­re­lates with the WPA-AGRD-Pro­mo­tion Package.

Background Reading

Assignment

Develop an iden­tity set for use as a self-pro­mo­tional tool for find­ing intern­ships, employ­ment or free­lance projects. The abil­ity to show­case cre­ativ­ity, research based skills and con­cep­tual devel­op­ment is incred­i­bly valu­able in find­ing a posi­tion in the profession.

Part One

Update and com­plete a resume and cover let­ter tem­plate. Care­fully make notes on which sec­tions to update for a par­tic­u­lar com­pany. Develop a plan for find­ing net­work con­tacts and dis­tri­b­u­tion of pro­mo­tion mate­ri­als. Pay care­ful atten­tion to the desired employ­ment sub-pro­fes­sion. Dif­fer­ent groups expect to see dif­fer­ent things in a pro­mo­tional port­fo­lio and letter.

Whether in print or email, cover let­ters should have a basic intro sen­tence stat­ing you inter­est in the posi­tion or com­pany, and where the posi­tion was dis­cov­ered (ie rec­om­mended by some­one to name­drop, or from a par­tic­u­lar list­ing). The body paragraph(s) should hit the high­lights of your resume, and why those fit the vision or mis­sion of the com­pany. This will require a lit­tle research and a need to tai­lor each let­ter to the end user. Data Merge may be help­ful. Con­clude your let­ter with a call to action for inter­act­ing with the addressee again.

Sub­mit a text based doc­u­ment for revi­sions of resume and cover let­ter, plus sketches of gen­eral lay­out or inspi­ra­tion as PDF files to appro­pri­ate D2L dropbox.

Part Two

Cre­ate a basic iden­tity set. Keep logo­types or logos sim­ple. Focus ideas on a con­cept that is unique, but beware of elab­o­rate solu­tions. Pro­fes­sion­als have seen most every­thing. Gen­er­ate a basic look keep­ing in mind your abil­ity to adapt your solu­tion to any media and the abil­ity to repro­duce it within your skill set and means. Con­sider, as a min­i­mum for this part, the following:

  • Resume (PDF/Print and Website)
  • Cover Let­ter (PDF/Print and email)
  • Web­site

Visual con­sis­tency and bal­ance is key. Avoid trendy graph­ics or free tem­plates. Use clas­sic and well sup­ported type­faces with a large vari­ety and mul­ti­lin­gual sup­port. Try to keep graph­ics to a min­i­mal, and con­sider screen use as well as print­ing limitations.

Part Three

Cre­ate a tra­di­tional sta­tion­ary set, con­sist­ing of the following:

  • resume
  • cover let­ter on letterhead
  • num­ber 10 envelope
  • cat­a­log envelope
  • busi­ness card
  • printed port­fo­lio

Dig­i­tal for­mats should include:

  • web­site
  • Web­site resume page (with PDF link)
  • mobile for­mat­ted email (with links to webpage)
  • social media images/posts and cam­paign mes­sages, espe­cially those that will drive traf­fic and show­case visual elements.

Web­site cat­e­gories should cover all of the fol­low­ing, though they may be labeled and orga­nized to fit the theme of the site (updated 11.25.2024):

  • Graphic Design (ART 218, 355 among others)
  • Web Design (ART 442, 318)
  • Motion Design (ART 378, 355) 
  • Brand­ing (ART 355, 318)
  • Typog­ra­phy (ART 218, 205)
  • Spa­tial Design (3D, AR ART 335)
  • Prob­lem Solv­ing (ART 412)

While it seems anti­quated, printed mate­ri­als can be used to inspire and engage to drive poten­tial employ­ers to online resources that are eas­ier to update. Hav­ing mate­ri­als in all media forms also allows each poten­tial employer to view work or cre­den­tials in the media form of their choice. This is espe­cially impor­tant when the deci­sion is made by sev­eral peo­ple at sev­eral dif­fer­ent lev­els and times.

All media forms should receive con­sid­er­a­tion before com­mit­ting to a final solu­tion of par­tic­u­lar sec­tion. Con­sider the entire life cycle of the project, includ­ing all media con­tsraints, color and typog­ra­phy. Make a deci­sion for web tech­nolo­gies, and decide between a CMS and stand alone sys­tems. Make mobile friendly ver­sions using plug-ins or frame­works. Con­sider pro­duc­tion tech­niques and expenses. Com­mit to pro­vid­ing access to nec­es­sary equip­ment to keep set updated and con­sis­tent, espe­cially after leav­ing school.

Some help­ful links:

Part Four

Pre­pare the pack­age for in-class cri­tique, as sched­uled at ran­dom by the course instruc­tor. Sub­mit the entire pack­age to the appro­pri­ate drop­box before the pub­lished deadlines.

Assessment

  • The fol­low­ing rubric posted on D2L will deter­mine assign­ment score: Assign­ment 06:04: Port­fo­lio Pro­mo­tion Package
  • The fol­low­ing rubric posted on D2L will deter­mine Whole Per­son Assess­ment (WPA) scores: WPA-AGRD-Pro­mo­tion Package

Techniques

Print, Pho­tog­ra­phy, web design,

Supplies

As needed to com­plete project, paper print­ing, server space, web site

Deadlines

As defined by cor­re­spond­ing cal­en­dar item, drop­box, dis­cus­sion or con­tent topic description.