Industrial Design Portfolio Tips
There seems to be a consensus among Industrial Design professionals recently that a gap exists between what lecturers are telling students, and what consultancies and brands are looking for with regard to design portfolios. In an effort to close this gap I gave a talk at this years New Designers Exhibition at the Business Design Centre in London.
Your design portfolio is your passport if you’re hungry for a career in the world of industrial design. I’ve met a number of ‘recruiter-types’ I didn’t particularly like, but I agreed with the one who said something along those lines. It’s true. Smash your portfolio, and you’ll not just get you’re foot in the door – but probably land the job you want most. Fail to make impact with your design portfolio, and prepare for a job on the outskirts of design (designing nothing) – which I imagine isn’t your aim. You want ‘a proper design job’. Sketching. Prototyping. Solving problems. Launching products, with the title of Designer. I get it – so hopefully this post can help you out with some product design portfolio tips.
Paying It Forward (From Some Big Hitters)
I don’t pretend to know everything, but I have built a decent network over the last 8 years and had direct feedback and guidance on my own portfolio from some pretty big hitters from the likes of Nike, IDEO, Seymourpowell, Fuseproject, Ziba, Native, Johnson & Johnson, Dyson, Joseph Joseph and more. I’ve had interviews at a lot of design businesses and want to compress some of this learning to help others.
Talk @ New Designers 2016
With this aim, I delivered a talk at this year’s New Designers Exhibition, partnering with Alex Brownless from Arts Thread to share some of these insights. I’ve been reviewing graduate portfolios at New Designers with Arts Thread for the last few years, and it’s clear there is a gap between what lecturers are telling students, and what employers want. So, from the generous feedback I’ve received on my own portfolio and career journey, here’s the talk of me passing some of that on to the grads at this year’s New Designers Exhibition. I hope you get something out of it!
About the author: Nick Chubb is an Industrial Designer at IDC, designing consumer products and medical devices for some of the world’s largest brands. He has a 1st Class Masters Degree in Product Design and was selected by Develop3D as one of the Top 5 New Designers in the UK.
Hi, I attended this talk and found it really useful. So many of the points I have been working in to my portfolio and am already seeing the results with more interviews lined up! Thanks and great post!
Hello your article is really helpful, it also helps us in our design school admission interview and portfolio making. I also found article on portfolio making but need your inputs in that article. Please suggest your tips for portfolio making in that article NID CEED Help