Working On Your Portfolio

Okay, I guess I'm a little slow getting to the Ipad party. Everyone I know has one, including my hubby who falls asleep with it on his chest. :) I'm here now and having so much fun with this great tool.

One of my big goals with it was to get my portfolio loaded on it in an easy to use format so that I didn't have to carry around this BEAST anymore. Do any of you out there have one (or more) of these?

If you've been in the business for the years I have, you've collected a "few" images of your work. Having a quick and easy way to pluck certain projects to show a future client is key in getting a job. Of course, having a website or pin boards you can pull from out in cyber space is great too, but with a customized digital portfolio you can really add lots of information about a job and then pull up exactly what you want instantly. You can organize it to tell a story about a project, your style, the way you work, whatever you choose. When having a one on one meeting with a prospective client, this is a great way to sell yourself. Even in the middle of a presentation if you want to refer to a past project, you can use this tool to access information instantly.

My sweet intern, Kristen Finch (she is awesome!), googled some reviews of the best apps out there for portfolios. She came up with this one.

Portfolio

It's very similar to just organizing your photos in files, but it's slicker and more impressive. I've found it very easy to use, which is saying a lot for me! We've just about loaded everything on there now and I love having it all at my fingertips. I highly recommend it!

You just scroll through your jobs or categories on the left.  I put a photo of my studio on the main page.

I scanned a bunch of my sketches to include and plan to put some of our CAD drawings on there as well. I would like to have a category that describes the step by step process of how we work. 

You can hide certain projects or do slide shows...even to music. I thought this would be great if you are in a showhouse to put on display in your room! I have a presentation for a spec house coming up this week and I've built an idea book there, something I don't really want out there publicly yet. After I review some of my past projects with the builder, I will go to that ideabook to show him the style I see for his project. I know you can build ideabooks on lots of sites and share them anywhere in cyberspace, but if you don't want it out there yet or if you are meeting someone one on one and need immediate access to your images organized in a presentation format.....this works beautifully!

Another great app Kristen found is this fast image loader. It works so well and is soooo fast.

Photo Transfer

We're playing around with Photo Measures right now as recommended by another designer friend and are loving it too.

There's such great technology out there to help us do our jobs. We've just got to keep up with all of it!

Do you have any favorite apps that help you with your business/life?