DD2000 - Design Practice: Fig Taylor's Talk

We had the renowned Fig Taylor come in to talk to us a few weeks ago to discuss portfolios and the creative industry as she works for the AOI (Association of Illustrators) and is extremely knowledge on the subject. She began by explaining that clients in the UK and Europe are spoilt for choice; there are more illustrators than there are jobs allowing them to ‘pick and choose’ whereas in places like Australia the opposite is true. Another point she raised was that as an illustrator you should have a strong recognisable style.

Next Fig went onto talk about portfolios and what should and shouldn’t be included in our own as she looks through them professionally. She explained that its preferable for new illustrators to meet clients face to face get to know them and what they are looking for. In portfolios we should have our work ordered with the best work at the front, all work must be neatly presented and well organised with some sort of order or categories. She told us that you generally have about ten minutes to show and sell your work to the client, so to limit the amount of work in our portfolio and that whatever we have in it, it will be assumed we can and want to draw; conversely anything that’s not shown they will assume we can’t or don’t want to draw. We also need to only present work that we can quickly and easily reproduce; anything that took considerable time to create wouldn’t be practical for clients or deadlines. We were also told that the ideal size for portfolios is A3 or A4 as there usually isn’t a lot of room to present, and that the work has to be mounted but does not have to be black or white so long as the colour chosen accentuates the work.

Digital portfolios should have the same amount of care and organisation spent on the as printed portfolios and the same layout; also taking equipment such as laptop, charger, dongle and USB’s  was encouraged– not to assume that the client will provide them. Fig also told us to research the area that we want to work in and to contact lesser known magazines to understand what styles they generally commission.

I found Fig Taylor’s talk incredibly helpful and insightful, It helped me to understand more about what clients will be looking for and how to layout my portfolio as well as what to include.

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