Many of our students start college toward their final years of high school. That being said, it’s important to get a head start on your graphic design or animation portfolio during your earliest years. Quite a few of our graduate’s reports that they started playing around in Photoshop and the Adobe suite when they were kids and pre-teens. We know many of you would like to start college before graduating which is great, but it also makes sense to build your portfolio when before you get there. Here is some insight to why.
For the kids attending schools in Palm Beach County or South Florida, you’re probably introduced to opportunities to do graphics or animation already. Think about what your goals are and we’re not talking just for the week. Although short, medium and long term goals all need to be considered, think for a moment what your ideal work environment will look like. Do you want to become a ninja freelancer who works from home? Do you want to work for an advertising or marketing agency creating ads? Whatever your heart is passionate in, is the direction you need to always be heading in.
If it’s an ad agency, do your research for companies that are producing campaigns that you admire or think are well done. Start to replicate those types of ads by designing mock versions of them. Put yourself in that ‘what if’ scenario. What if the art director of a major agency asked you to put some creative together for their client? Just imagine that if you handled a different project each week. You’re challenging yourself and your adding to your portfolio.
When you go to your first interview you’ll have a decent collection of assets to show your potential new employer. This field is one that relies on what you can show someone, not just tell them. The more examples of work you have, the more experienced you’ll look.
Depending on the types of companies you’d like to design for, your projects could show strong builds for those verticals that will appeal to the clients in those chosen fields. If you want to design for cosmetics, why would you work on projects that are driven toward automotive? You get the picture.
Enter into any design contests that you have time for. This is another way for you to develop your portfolio and may even lead to an award winning design.
The more you can do at the high school level, the better off you’ll be in college. Your internship programs and other college milestones will rely on it, so why not start right away.
Design with passion and meaning and you’ll be well on your way to targeting the career of your dreams.
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