InspiRAYtion 23: How to put together an inspiring portfolio

By Rayomand J Patell

This is going to date me, but I began with a portfolio that was actually a large physical black case that held Art Pulls. These were very, very valuable because they had been professionally printed on high grade paper and would have your work in all the analogue glory the Print era could muster. Much later high res (short for resolution, not raise as some say) printing changed all that but I’m beginning at the beginning.

Along with Art Pulls, came VHS tapes for the few commercials you’d done and audio tapes for the few radio spots you’d done and that was the analogue era which then slowly shifted to DVDs for films and then suddenly we entered the Mac Book Pro era to show off our work on a clear screen as jpegs or pdfs and we all hoped to God PPT wouldn’t crash (it would always, because Microsoft on Apple was always dodgy till fairly recently).

And from lugging our Mac Book Pros around, some embraced having a website of their own work carefully curated and then everyone moved on to Behance and ilk. And suddenly, everyone became formatted into boxes on Behance.

So here’s the thing. It’s not about the form of your portfolio. It’s about what’s in there that you’re showing, that sells the ultimate product: you.

And I see a lot of portfolios where that just doesn’t happen.

Here’s how to play it.

Take the top ten mediums. Do work (if you read my past week’s column, you know it’s about what you can create, rather than what your agency can sell) that displays your mastery over the medium singularly.

A film spot. A radio spot. A print ad. An outdoor campaign. A website design. A mobile app. A banner ad. An Instagram reel / carousel / static post. An SEO idea. And so on. Do ideas for each medium that demonstrate you get the discipline of Advertising and understand how to mess about creatively and push the envelope in each medium. Really push it. Like in Outdoor you should be at the level of the ‘It Also Sticks Handles To Teapots’ Araldite static version or the British Airways boy waves at airplane overhead innovation. And so on. That way, the person on the other side of the table knows you know your advertising history and have tried your best at going up against the greats.

Once you’ve done that and you’re happy, turn your mind towards integrated work.

Take a brand, get a core idea like “you’re not you when you’re hungry.” Get your own idea like that. No pressure.

Now, go to town with it.

What’ the film that leads people to the website. What’s the social that kicks in. What are people seeing on digital out of home, at the mall, at the airport and on their mobile screens… how are you bringing it all to a crescendo at launch and then taking it into digital conversations that pan out for the rest of the quarter or year even.

Really master the art of bringing the same core idea together in an integrated manner and you’ll learn what being a creative leader is all about faster than any school or course can teach you.

You may botch up on some mediums. But you’ll learn an invaluable lesson. How to think across the board like a General of Creativity, marshalling his Army, Navy and Air Force to win in the marketplace battle. And if you can demonstrate that convincingly in your portfolio… of individual ideas that showcase the strength of your craft followed by the magnificence of your ability to think up core creative ideas and deploy them in an integrated manner, why then this world and all it holds, will be yours. Just because you’re young and doing only banners shouldn’t stop you from playing CCO. Because how else are you ever going to be one?

Till we meet again! Have an inspiring week ahead, plotting and planning the most banging version of your portfolio.

Read More: InspiRAYtion 22: The Portfolio - show me what you can create, not what your agency can sell

Rayomand J Patell is an advertising veteran and InspiRAYtion is a weekend column on everything about advertising and marketing.