designing for the workplace

The process of designing for ones professional life can be very sticky. I find myself faced with this dilemma now. I need to start creating a portfolio of my work for when I begin interviewing in January. One does not want a portfolio that has no personality, just blank white paper. On the other side of the spectrum however, I have seen several girls who have gone before me whose portfolio looked more like a do it yourself scrapbook page than a professional tool. When we are designing these books it is important for us to remember that as recent graduates we need to set forth a more professional appearance in order to be taken seriously. Therefore we need to design these books with the message that we are competent professionals. We must strike a balance between personality and professionalism. In order to do this I think it is a useful tool to look at businesses and the designs they choose. We should do this because many businesses have paid a great deal of money to have someone design something that not only shows they culture of the company but still let the viewer know they are serious.