Customer Reviews

Designing Creative Portfolios

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

This book should have been retired 57 years ago, when it first came out. Re-released in 1994 with four new pages pertaining to electronic portfolios, this book is useless for someone needing visual aides for creating a portfolio. A few drawings are used to show how to store your portfolio under your seat on a plane. Now that's handy advice! There's even a drawing of a Viewmaster (remember those?) and how to use that as a portfolio tool. This book is a joke.

This neat little 70+ pages book was a disappointment. Perhaps because I was looking for something else. I am writing this review because I don't want someone to make my mistake. See, I was looking for a book that would be full of colored photos and diagrams; I was looking for pictorial examples and suggestions of "creative" portfolios. I really wanted to SEE the ideas. What I got was black and white, mostly text with a few pages of hand drawn sketches and clip arts. I think it's a pretty good intro to "how to create a portfolio", but it still lacks a lot of information. One thing, it generalizes how a portfolio should be created. It seems to assume to you can get away with having one good portfolio. It never talks about how you should diversify/change your portfolio according to where you are submitting it to--a graphic design firm vs. a publication firm vs. web developing firm vs. newspaper. One of the biggest failure is in its information about submitting a porfolio for grad schools. It talks as if all Grad programs are looking for a certain type of portfolio. It never even told the reader to READ carefully, each school's portfolio requirements. Hmm..I don't recommend this book.

If you're in a design field such as architecture or graphic design, and looking for some inspiration or direction to help you with your portfolio, look somewhere else. This book is a waste of trees. The pictures are almost non-existant, and those that do appear are nothing more than clip art. The text is matter of fact and never strays from the blatantly obvious.

If you are in a design area, architecture, graphic design or the like, don't waste your money. The word creative does not apply to this book at all. There are very few illustrations, all of which are horrible and the text rarely strays from common sense. I turned to this book to gain some direction and inspiration and recieved neither.

If you are planning on working in graphic design, I'm certain that you are aware that your portfolio presentation will make or break your interview. This book does an EXCELLENT job of showing you the basic requirements in a portfolio and even tells you how you should go about presenting your work.

It is my hope that Amazon.com bulk orders this book so that other people don't have to wait a month before using it!

Although other texts by this publisher have been outstanding, I found this one to be uninspiring. My main complaint is the lack of images. A book about portfolios should show many successful samples.

However, given that it is 97% text, the information stated there is important and well written.

this is a very good book. I received it in a timely manner.

Unsure of what else to do besides mount my work on stark black pages I set out in search of some reference material. Since this book is called Creative Portfolios I assumed it would give me a taste of how other designers make their portfolio's stand out. Boy, was I wrong. Thankfully I checked this out of the library instead of wasting money on it. This book is mainly all text and is obviously extremely outdated. Don't waste your money.

Berryman has helped to define the arts. His guide is insigtful and fun. The handlettering is a little hard to read but the information inside is absolutely first rate. Whether you're a student, a professional or just interested--this is the book to start with. Required for my graphic design students.