This is not the first time I’ve created a portfolio.  It is the first time I’ve used Adobe InDesign, and I have to admit that I enjoyed using the software to make a cohesive project.  I do not normally add pages about projects in my portfolios, but this time I did which was a little interesting. After sharing my adventure with all of you in my blog, I wasn’t really sure what more to say on each project.

Would you like a peek?

This week I learned about Master Pages, which is basically just a template you create. I love templates because I love my products to be cohesive.  Master Pages works for making a happy Ozma.

I spent about ten hours working on this project, between learning how to create a master page and designing what I wanted my basic template to look like as well as assembling everything.

For my portfolio, I took some of my recent challenges and placed them inside, but there was one that I hated. I’m sure you can all guess which one that is! I trashed that and started over from scratch.

If you guessed it was the Microsoft Word challenge, you would be right! That was utter rubbish and I’m embarrassed to have it even appear on my blog, however the information at the top is of utmost value.  Never, ever, ever is anyone trapped in some sort of Buffy the Universe Hell Dimension where they are forced to use only Microsoft Word.  The horrors! The pain! The eternal torment!

I spent a couple of hours remaking the event ad in flyer format.  I wanted to remain true to the challenge’s principle and only use a word processor.  I choose Pages which is on my Macbook, iPhone, and iPad.  A far truer challenge than horror-stuck with solely Microsoft Word would be something more akin to this: You are at your son’s doctor’s appointment when an email comes in requesting a flyer in the next hour. All you have is your phone. What can you create?

No lie. It’s happened to me.

For the new event ad, I used basic fonts and kept the theme of the ad the same. Thankfully, with Pages, I had far better layout potential and in just a couple of hours on my computer, I had a beautiful project.  Comment if you would like a blog entry solely about it, but feel free to check it out in the Scribd file.

It’s good to know all of your options because there’s always a need for work in the visual arts. I spend a lot of time dealing with web related things as well as press releases, and that calls for visual design knowledge, but there’s a vast world filled with the need for these skills from your child’s birth announcement to work for your favorite charitable organization even if you aren’t working in graphics arts.  Having a portfolio of work means you can show potential employers, clients, supervisors, leadership committees, and others your work so they can know if they want you working for them.

For this portfolio I used the Champagne & Limousines for the body copy and Janda Celebration Script for the Headers.

My colour scheme is monochromatic and I, to no surprise to anyone, chose purple.  Not only do I love the color and consider it my signature, I knew it would match well with several of my designs. After determining a colour scheme, I knew I wanted everything else to stay simple.  I did not want my template to detract from the work in my portfolio by having too much.  I know others produce lovely work that’s quite fancy, but I trend towards a more streamlined and simple aesthetic.  Sometimes less truly is more.

Let me know what you think of my portfolio in the comments, and I’d love to hear your thoughts on my new Event Ad!

Obligatory video below, video versus screencast since I printed this out:

–Lady O