How to Ask What an Art Director Thinks of Your Portfolio
10 questions art directors inquire themselves nearly your UI/UX design portfolio before they hire you
From an Fine art Director.
Every bit an Art Manager and Mentor, I've seen probably a hundred Portfolios from Designers I've had to either veto or build upwardly. I honestly call up what spooks students and junior designers the most nearly Portfolio design is they'll only… never know. When your application is passed over — you'll never know if it was defective any one slice, not plenty information, too much information, or if the whole thing was simply fine… and… that'south life.
But look where are my manners? Ah proficient day to you, my proper noun is John Burnett, UI UX Designer, Art Managing director and 1-on-ane remote UI UX Blueprint Mentor in games and apps. What if you could have insider knowledge nigh the controlling procedure an Fine art Director follows? Far better to make a strategy knowing your opponent's end goal then to construct in the blind.
To that end — in this Age of wanting to give back generously to students (and soon to be students?) I've made this cheat canvas on what questions I always ask myself (as both Art Director and Mentor) when I await at your piece of work.
- Is my lightning-quick impression of you a good one?
- Where are your Skills and Abilities?
- Is the work tonally appropriate?
- How much of this did you do?
- Does the work show progression?
- Is this real or simulated stuff?
- Does the Portfolio prove a diverseness of work?
- Are you a Bad Engineer?
- Are you a Bad Artist?
- Practise you accept any relevant extras?
An Art Director would ask: Is my lightning-quick impression of you a good one?
- Fine art Directors are powerful fine art-whisperers, discovering worlds most you the instant we meet your piece of work. In fact, we've likely made up our minds past the time the light hits the back of our retina.
- No need for long-winded case studies. In fact, nosotros are hiring you specifically for your piece of work to speak for itself. If your Portfolio is unintuitive, cluttered, or blissfully unaware of its audience — well then, I hope you've explained that in your example study every bit well.
- Art Directors can also tell if your Portfolio has a rich variety or just a bunch of filler. If y'all're going for a digital part, brand sure you're not presenting a majority of print piece of work. If all I see are wireframes, why would I risk the art-heavy UI role on you lot? Oh, and mobile and console games are worlds autonomously; be sure yous are applying with at to the lowest degree a few examples of your awed respect for the disparity.
An Art Director would ask: where are your Skills and Abilities?
- Art Directors will expect at your Portfolio like people look at nutritional information on the back of the box. Make things easier for them and for you: immediately bear witness them that you solve their kinds of problems (or stop things from going too far if you don't accept the expertise!).
- If I'm hiring a web designer, I absolutely desire to see Wordpress as a skill immediately. If I'one thousand making a game in Unreal and I only see Unity, I can't get any further with you. If I have a two-week, $8000.00 UX gig for a mobile rpg and you accept no wireframing experience, GG nerd. That's my 8 grand in two weeks now.
- Fun fact, some students come up to me only knowing Illustrator, an absolute no-no in game UI UX Design. The supposition you know Photoshop is so innate that information technology's quite possible nobody would bring this upward during the entire interview procedure. Imagine getting hired only to horrify your Strike Team with your inability to even open a .psd — allow alone edit ane — to say nix of your ability to enchant one.
An Art Director would ask: Is the piece of work tonally advisable?
- Information technology'south tricky to describe, but an Fine art Manager can tease out whether your style(s) would be congruent with the projection slate. If a company lists a singular project y'all'll be working on, brand sure the mood and tone of your work fits
- If you're applying to make something similar to Fall Guys, but all your work looks like Silent Hill — I can't run a risk the projection on the possibility you lot'll grow into information technology. If you've fabricated lots of coder-facing apps that are ugly as sin, I tin't be confident that you'll make my clinic app beautifully user-centric just because you lot really want information technology this time.
- This is why a broad variety of platforms, genres, and emotions are so of import. Don't give Art Directors like me a moment of reflection to say, "None of this fits."
An Art Director would ask: How much of this did you do?
- Games and apps are huge undertakings, so it's okay to exist a singular, shiny gear in a g machinery. But if I removed your gear, would annihilation shutter to a terminate? How do I know what proportion of the piece of work was yours versus the team?
- Art Directors are very good at sniffing out what likely wasn't your contribution. Iconography and line-weights are a few piece of cake ways for an AD to rail your scent in the wild. If there aren't any personal anecdotes almost challenges or processes, why are you writing in the showtime place?
- Always include a standalone judgement that lists your duties on the projection (Conceptualization, wireframing, iconography, art asset creation, integration [Unity, Unreal], etc. etc.). Explicitly land your Herculean feats & labors.
Art Manager would ask: Does the work show progression?
- Don't throw away those sketches and wireframes! You throw that in a pot and babe, you got yourself a stew! Sketches and wireframes testify a clear process, attractive to vanilla UI UX Fine art Directors, simply irresistible to Game Art Directors — as UI UX exists almost entirely in their blindspot.
- Additionally, sketches and wires solve the problem of authenticating your work. Think of them similar creative receipts.
- If at that place'due south anything slightly more than important to an Fine art Director than the end result, it's a working process. If we can come across iterative growth that solves more bug than it breeds, that'southward the unfair reward I'g hiring for my Team.
An Art Director would inquire: Is this real or fake stuff?
- The challenge for all junior designers is how to showcase professional work when you lot've never been a professional before. This isn't an impediment, and junior-level roles obviously skirt this issue, simply it is still definitely noticeable.
- Very few Art Directors are going to Google the projects you're showing, since we're not here to authenticate the projection (and we categorically don't have the fourth dimension or involvement) — nosotros're here to quickly vet your adroitness.
- Yes, a existent projection showing existent skills functioning in the real world is the platonic. Only false projects even so demonstrate your skill, and the whole point of a portfolio is to go y'all better work than what you have at present.
An Art Director would ask: Does the Portfolio show a multifariousness of work?
- Art Directors volition fast-track you considering you accept something hauntingly similar to what they're working on at present, or you're a potent generalist. Y'all'll rarely luck out on the erstwhile, but you can e'er build towards the latter.
- Don't be ashamed of eclectic, unrelated work, and so long equally it sets a high quality bar. In fact, a variety of work at a high level of craft counts for much more than a competent portfolio with a narrow focus. Nosotros want a Shapeshifter — evidence us how well y'all fit your containers.
- Game Art Directors in particular are very interested in the technological breadth of your work. PC, panel, mobile, web, video, HTML5, Unity, Unreal. Each platform and tool presents unique challenges — meeting all those challenges head-on shows me y'all belong in mobile infantry (which fabricated me the human I am today!).
An Art Director would enquire: Are you a bad Engineer?
- Don't let your piece of work highlight rancidly terrible UX. Are you showcasing ridiculous navigation, are your systems painting Coders into a corner, did you make a bad Designer'southward idea even worse? Do not make pretty, broken things.
- If you had nothing to practise with the UX or wireframing and yous remember it's stupid-bad, dear God, say so! Label it "Customer'due south Wireframe", "Original Client Supplied Draft", "Inherited Concept and Design" annihilation that says, "Get the f-, No! I had nada to practise with this!"
- Call back: app and spider web-centric Fine art Directors will accept an eagle'd eye for UX flaws, much more your average Game Art Director. That said, Game Fine art Directors all the same accept an encyclopedic knowledge of games, and they'll know when something is ruinously amiss
An Fine art Manager would ask: Are you a Bad Creative person?
- Your mileage on this 1 varies wildly if you lot're in Games or Apps. For vanilla app design, you tin become away with non being a specially skillful artist for an entire career. But in game design, you'll definitely need to evidence some Journeyman competency with Photoshop.
- For all UI UX Blueprint, yous'll desire to demonstrate Artistry. That means using very little to great effect. Uncomplicated shapes, line, gradients and typography tin can build you an empire — especially when technical bumps shatter the more than elaborate designs.
- Remember, UI UX Design, specially for gaming, depends mightily on color theory and limerick to employ the eye to guide the eye. That effectively helixes art and engineering together — meaning if you are a bad artist, you're likely an equally bad information builder — and every AD can detect that.
An Art Director would ask: Do you lot have whatsoever relevant extras?
- Fluff and irrelevance are detrimental to a Portfolio, sure — but there are some extras you tin throw in that highlight your enthusiasm, and therefore, the presumed ability for yous to "police" yourself.
- Standing or gratis education, particularly Mentorships, bootcamps, and online classrooms should absolutely be mentioned. They evidence proactivity, familiarity, and aggression (you wanted to solve the trouble!). Don't always be ashamed of wanting to be slightly more today than what y'all were yesterday.
- Blogs and publications are also slap-up additions, particularly if you have compelling titles that are industry related. Don't expect for ane Mocker-Minute anybody is going to read your web log, just knowing you are academically familiar with design is a cistron in how much y'all'll grow all on your own.
Whew! That'southward it! Now you know how the magic trick is washed. I hope this helps you amend empathize Portfolio design by seeing it through the optics of its silent audition. Take intendance of yourself out there — portfolio design is actually a pretty grueling and personal affair. Remember: it's not well-nigh getting the task eventually, it'south about being good for you enough to practice it when information technology happens.
Source: https://bootcamp.uxdesign.cc/10-questions-art-directors-ask-themselves-about-your-ui-ux-design-portfolio-before-they-hire-you-9eb99b8b7be9
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