Sleep Deprived
Sleep? What the hell is that? It doesn’t exist in my world anymore. I’m sure if it did I would have gotten a memo.
Ugh, sorry I’m not myself. I haven’t gotten any decent sleep last week and I’ve been awake more than 24 hours. I’ve worked on the layout for my portfolio all weekend long and I worked on it some more until early this morning. I had to be at the printer by 8am and I actually made it there around 9am. Damn.
Anyway, I’m taking a rest from portfolio preparation stuffs. I’ve been feeling jittery from all the pressure. I only got three more days to go before our portfolio show in school. You see, in this shindig we get to show off our work to prospective clients and would-be employers. It’s also a way to jumpstart a freelance gig. But man, the preparation is a pain in the arse. *sigh* I guess it wouldn’t be a pain if I had the temerity to start doing it when the quarter started, like two months ago.
It’s hard for me to get ideas when I’m thinking way ahead, you see. When I start early I have the tendency to change my mind in the middle of things and that ruins all the preparation I made for that very first idea. It sucks but I do it anyway. Let me explain what I’m talking about lest I be accused of being too cryptic.
The show will feature my work, which comes in the form of a portfolio book. This is what people will look at when they come to your table. It will present your artwork alongside your written case studies so it has to have one coherent, consistent and most importantly, well-designed look. I came up with “Design Matters” as my self-promotional piece back in my first quarter and I decided to stick with it. So the whole concept of my book revolves around “Design Matters,” which reflects how design matters to me. One of my classmates observed that the phrase has two meanings - one, design matters meaning the actual printed design pieces, and two, design is important. I told him, yes, I conceptualized it that way but the latter takes precedence over the former. My goal is to make a positive impact with my design.
Anyway, the second thing we needed to come up with is a theme for our table. Of couse, one could just place a nice tablecloth on a table, put some free candies and then leave his book there for people to browse through. Yes, that works fine, too. It’s very minimalist. It shows that one’s work should take the centerstage and all other things are just distractions. I’ve pondered about that idea, too. I mean, it’s less work and less stressful. Plus, you don’t need to bring any props at all.
BUT, as a creative person, I simply refuse to go that route. Man, this is the time we will show our stuff and what we are capable of, so why do it half-heartedly? I’ve read books about how to present design portfolios and looked at how some big design schools are doing their portfolio shows and there were a lot of neat and creative ideas that students came up with. One student, she tied her self-promotional pieces (her personal logo as a designer, her business cards, her letterheads) with her table’s theme, which is the 1950’s. She dressed up as a waitress in a diner and gave away souvenirs in small tin lunchboxes with her logo and a CD-format of her portfolio to prospective employers and clients. She got five job offers that day of the show. Now, how cool was that!
So that’s going through my sleepless mind lately. I’ve got something definite, which replaced the original idea I had. Now all I needed to do is to go about gathering props and other things. So I’m now making a list and started sketching how my table would look like. Darn, if only I don’t have my other classes to worry about. I have the beta for my Flash-based portfolio and my Starbucks ad campaign for my other class due on the 15th, which is the day of our Portfolio Show. Argh!
Syet. Miss na miss ko na ang aking kama at ang malupit kong unan.
P.S.
MABUHAY KANG MALAYA, PILIPINAS!