Refine your portfolio

In assessing your portfolio and refining its content, it is crucial to approach the task with a discerning eye and a commitment to showcasing your best work effectively. A personal logo will help identify you as a creative business and not just a worker who has some samples of past work.

Begin by critically evaluating each piece, considering its relevance to your current design aesthetic and professional goals. Weed out any projects that no longer align with your branding or target audience to maintain a cohesive and impactful portfolio. Focus on quality over quantity, emphasizing projects that highlight your strengths and versatility as a designer. Strive to strike a balance between diversity in design styles and a consistent thread that ties your portfolio together cohesively. By honing your portfolio in this manner, you can present potential clients with a curated selection that demonstrates your expertise and creativity effectively.

When considering the software to use for presenting your design work, it's essential to choose a tool that aligns with your specific needs and preferences. Industry-standard programs like Adobe Creative Suite, which includes Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign, are popular among designers for creating high-quality presentations with a professional touch. Additionally, tools like Sketch and Figma are well-suited for UI/UX designers looking to showcase their digital designs effectively. For those focusing on 3D modeling and rendering, software such as Autodesk 3ds Max or Blender can help create immersive presentations but there is also what I call the Best Tools I have on hand. It begins with imagination and a lot of elbow grease. Ultimately, the best software for presenting your design work will depend on the nature of your projects and your familiarity with the tools available.

I personally use: Adobe Creative Cloud:
For Graphic and Layouts: Illustrator, Photoshop, InDesign, Acrobat
For 3D Concept Art: Stager, Illustrator has a 3D feature for making basic models that you export into Stager. We’ll talk more on this later.
For Video: Premiere, Audition, After Effects, Media Encoder and Quicktime
For A.I. I use Adobe Firefly (not to be confused for Ai which is the file format or abbreviated way of saying Adobe Illustrator) Remember we are trying to maximize wit the tools we have on hand. If I wanted to and had a large budget and if it called for it, I would use Midjourney through Discord. But since I’m thinking you’re looking to save money and still produce great work then I’m only talking about scrappy ways to do it. Your imagination is your biggest tool.

I’ll be putting together a more comprehensive list soon and show examples of what can be done with them and also things to avoid.