Instead of titling your portfolio like the latest celebrity scent, why not just use your own name? Here’s my rationale:

When applying for a job, you want your potential boss to remember one thing—your name. They are hiring you, not “Beyond Imagination” or “Passions” or “Reflections” or “Curiosity.” In short, your name is your brand. Presenting any brand other than your own creates confusion and dilutes your name.

So don’t be tempted to overbrand everything. Keep your portfolio simple, and don’t bury your own beautiful name. Love it. Own it. Flaunt it.

Even if you’re not looking for a job, it’s the best way to get useful feedback on your portfolio—even if the reviewers make you cry. Just remember, you are more than your portfolio.

Here are the 11 12 AIGA chapters hosting portfolio days this year. If you live close to any of these cities, don’t hesitate to register and show off your work. The fee is about $10–$35 depending on whether or not you’re a student AIGA member.

• Detroit, MI
  March 29, 2008

• Chicago, IL
  April 2, 2008

• Pittsburgh, PA
  April 10, 2008

• Cleveland, OH
  April 11, 2008

• Minneapolis, MN
  April 11-12, 2008

• Baltimore, MD
  April 19, 2008

• Indianapolis, IN
  April 19, 2008

• Los Angeles, CA
  April 26,2008

• New Orleans, LA
  April 26, 2008

• Seattle, WA
  April 26, 2008

• San Francisco, CA
  May 31, 2008

• San Diego, CA
  May 31, 2008

Please let me know if I’ve missed any cities.

If you’re in the same boat and need to swiftly put up work to show friends, family, and potential employers, try one of these free services. No HTML experience needed.

Coroflot
Created by industrial design site, Core77, Coroflot hosts portfolios as well as job listings, which means you’re more likely to be seen by recruiters and employers. You can also create and join groups with other members of like interests. It’s totally free, and you can upload an unlimited number of images.

CarbonMade
It’s quite easy to upload images and setup projects on CarbonMade, but customization is limited. You can’t change the portfolio’s theme beyond switching the background color from black to white. The free version is limited to 5 projects and a total of 35 images. Unlike Coroflot, CarbonMade has no job hunting/listing services. The paid version ($12/month) allows 50 projects with 500 images and 10 videos.

Flickr
I know Flickr is supposed to be about “photos,” but you can also use it to collect other types of images such as illustrations, sketches, diagrams, and design work. Just upload your work, create a set, and voila! An instant portfolio you can share. Best of all, it’s free. That beats paying for an expensive and constrained portfolio hosting service like Portfolios.com. A basic Flickr account gets you 100MB/month upload limit and a maximum of 3 sets. Paid accounts ($25/year) gets you unlimited uploads and photosets.

DeviantART
DeviantART is “the largest art community in the world.” With 4.5 million members, I believe it. However, designers don’t have as large a presence as illustrators and fine artists on the site. The free account is loaded with features, letting you upload images and create galleries in a cornucopia of categories from Anime to Typography. You can even make some money by selling prints of your work. The paid account ($30/year) removes ads and includes a few special features like advanced journals and large thumbnails.

Update (August 9):

ViewBook
Sylvain just pointed out this free site in the comments. It’s quite nice, minimal, and easy to set up. Also free :-):

These gimmicks show technical prowess and cleverness but reek of overcompensation. When designing your next online portfolio, don’t get too fancy. Just get to the point, and show your goods up front.

Here are 10 portfolios that do just that. Instead of a traditional slideshow or storybook format, they collect all the work on one page. Simple, straightforward, and much more impressive.

1. Kind Company

2. Edwin Tofslie

3. Seth Weisfeld

4. Commonbrand

5. OkapiStudio

6. Allen Antonelli

7. Jon Quirindongo

8. Robert Scully

9. Serial Cut

10. Spike Press

Many of these examples came from One Page Folios.

Inspired by this post? Please bookmark it in del.icio.us. Thanks!

What’s an easy way to improve your design portfolio?

Make your work look real.

Did you design a killer poster? Show it hanging on wall or on a billboard. If it’s a magazine, take a picture of someone reading it. A web page? Put it in a browser and show it on a monitor. In other words, don’t just show the design work, give it a context.

In many cases, you won’t be able to physically place it in a real-world setting. For example, most of us can’t afford to rent a billboard to post design work just to take a picture of it. Thanks to the miracle of Photoshop and digital cameras, you can easily fake your way to looking real.

Just go outside, take a picture of the real billboard, and use Photoshop to composite your design work with the picture you took. Designers call this staging.

If you’re lazy and have some extra cash, check out LiveSurface, a library of high-resolution Photoshop templates for staging design work in seconds. It includes images for common objects such as books, CDs, boxes, and shopping bags. The library also has well-photographed outdoor shots of bus shelters, billboards, taxis, and storefronts.

All templates come pre-masked, with shadow and highlight layers, ready for you to place your design work.

Each template also impressively uses Photoshop’s vanishing point feature to automagically transform and adjust your flat design to the right perspective of the photograph. Check out the video demo.

Here’s an image of the vanishing point grid:

Now, that’s a time saver.

If you’re curious, here are a few spreads from my portfolio:

Symantec Desktop Icon System

Adobe Enterprise Product Imagery

PC World Website

Yahoo! Go Identity

Update(Apr 18): Some of you wanted to see more shots of the actual portfolio. Here you go:

Want to see the full portfolio? Download the PDF.

On June 2nd, I’ll be reviewing student portfolios at AIGA’s annual portfolio day in San Francisco. If you’re in the area and want my opinion about your design work, make sure to sign up.

It’ll be my fourth year reviewing and the work generally ranges from dismal to promising. I’m direct, but I promise I won’t be Simon Cowell. ;-)

If you don’t like me, you can choose from 91 other reviewers including my colleagues at Dubberly Design Office: Hugh Dubberly, Mark Roudebush, and Ryan Reposar. Folks from Apple, frog design, and Landor will also be there.

I got my first big design job at MetaDesign through Portfolio Day, so I totally recommend this to any student looking for a job. More importantly, it’s a chance to get several sets of eyes to look at your work.

Portfolio Day costs $25 bucks for AIGA members, and $40 for non-members. Download the registration form here.