Tern Heads Talk- Creating a Strong Portfolio

This week we had a talk from Tern Heads, a company founded by 4 creatives to help improve access to creative jobs (Tern Heads - Find creative interns & junior talent across the UK, 2022). The company is run by Samantha Fairbrother, a graphic designer, Paul Butler, Head of Business specialising in TV and motion design, Robin Auld and Alice Letherbarrow. I enjoyed Paul's perspective who lectures on a Digital Media course at Brunel University, his positive outlook was very motivating and put everything into perspective. It was reassuring to hear that clients aren't expecting you to be perfect, instead, looking for the potential and to see your passion for the projects. They were also joined by guest speakers Leo Young, a graphic designer with a branding company called 'Good Nugget', and Andrea Dona, creator of 'Hot Line Design'. This was founded to discover new projects in an informal environment, helping people to voice their projects and get feedback without the pressures of social media and the competitive market. The talks are in smaller groups where agencies are invited and people talk about their experiences with projects, what went well and how they actually got the work. I loved this concept as it helped nurture talent, helping people learn about people and their projects.

It was interesting to learn about everyone's backgrounds and intentions for starting their businesses, as well as their combined passion for helping link young creatives with jobs in the industry. This is something I have been worried about after graduating as there is no set job role that I would want to go into. It is hard to find jobs as a freelancer starting in the creative industry so I enjoyed learning all of the tips for setting up a portfolio from the perspective of possible clients. During the presentation, I took notes to look back on as there was lots of useful information and points to consider for the portfolio I'm currently making as part of my final hand-in.

Employability and Jobs

• Tern Heads is a company that advertises jobs, opportunities, and paid internships. 
• It also hosts events to help give people an insight into day-to-day life as a creative and how professionals approach clients with projects and portfolios. 

Portfolio Do's

• Expanding your idea, thinking about how your work can be promoted to reach a bigger audience across social media, print and digital. Could it be videos, promotional material, or websites?
• Having a narrative, needs to be clear to communicate to an audience so people can understand without the need for text. 
• Be honest in presenting a case study, specify your role and involvement, whether it was a team or you were the creative director. Give people credit for their role while being honest with how you've been involved.
• Thinking about how an audience will interact- the user journey and your contribution to the project. 
• Out of the box ideas, inspirational and motivational concepts. It's hard in an industry where clients will 'water-down' a brief or take out stylized elements but it's important to keep sharing your personality through your work. Self-initiated projects will always have more lenience and be more exciting.
• Need to see the-making-of, who/why/how the client needs to understand how you've approached their brief and creatively translated the information. Looking at the context and demographic, rough work also shows the potential of a project through creative thinking.
• Create a unique USP, they want to be able to understand your thought process and brand identity.
• Personal exploration. Sharing your personality is just as important as you are the person they will be collaborating with, need to be understanding, confident, and able to take other opinions on board.

Portfolio Don'ts

• Don't overcrowd pages, let the work speak for itself, no borders or clutter. They are looking at your skills in composition and laying things out correctly, considering the fonts, colours, negative space.
• 'Scattergun', make sure your portfolio shows exactly what they have asked for, refine your portfolio to show that you are what they want. 
• Apply for agencies that align with your work, don't just apply to all of them and hope one comes back. It has to be targets to particular company, no blanket statements, needs to show youve researched the company in advance.
• Don't put everything in, thinking about 'less is more' motto. Kepp it simple with 4-6 projects but a range. Range of styles and skills to show diversity. Start with projects you feel comfortable about, most passionate therefore can talk about them more so you are less likely to run out of things to say.
• Don't forget the audio, both clients and the general public love animated content, the power of the moving image is stronger than a flat image that people scan over. People are drawn to things that move, more engaging and likely to peak interest.

What Employers Expect

• Websites, PDF's, a showreel with moving images (could be more for graphic design or animation jobs). Usually a taster is 3 projects then more when you meet them in person. This needs to be approach with passion and care, looking at design principles as you would approach an illustration. Needs to show the potential.
• They are not expecting you to be an expert, its got to be exciting and fun, able to see the passion and potential to expand.

Overall, this was a very informative talk and I feel I learnt a lot through hearing alternate perspectives from all career backgrounds and experience levels. Moving forward, I want to continue to improve my portfolio and website, looking at how I can add moving images or gifs to create visual interest.

Tern Heads. 2022. Tern Heads - Find creative interns & junior talent across the UK. [online] Available at: <https://ternheads.com/> [Accessed 20 April 2022].