Portfolios vary depending on what you’re presenting, but they’re all very similar in nature. They usually consist of a cataloged presentation of a product, creation or publication. Perhaps one of the most important things in a successful portfolio is to have a consistent structure. You should also pay attention to the details even if you’re not following any kind of traditional setup for your portfolio. It’s best to have a printed version of your portfolio and an online version of your portfolio. Your portfolio however is not just a collection of the cool stuff you’ve made throughout the years; it’s the window to your creative world and what your audience will perceive and judge your art from no matter what your medium may be, so it must be taken seriously.
On my spare time I do fine art paintings and last night, I went to an art gallery in Miami for an official portfolio review. It was with the owner and curator of The Wallflower Gallery in Downtown Miami. It was definitely an intense session that involved detailed constructive criticism of each and every one of the artwork I presented. My printed portfolio consists of an introduction about me, followed by my official artist statement. Then I included a list of every place I have exhibited and shown my work at followed by a list of places my work has been published. It is all neatly organized in a leather binder with plastic sleeves for every page to protect it from humidity. The cover has a design I created as well with my name and contact info towards the bottom. Finally, I included pictures of all my work cataloged by name, size and medium.
As the gallery owner when through my portfoilio, we discussed in details the technique, line, color and what was being conveyed through each piece and also how they all related to my artist statement. One thing that was mentioned was that I should include the year I created the piece with the other information about the artwork and that I should organize them in a chronological order so that you can easily see the progression of my work. I will be sure to update it in the future but all in all I got a pretty good review and they’re interested in organizing an exhibition for me. I however being a perfectionist and my own worst critique believe that I have a lot of work to do on my portfolio. But I did manage to get a good response. and that should be one of your goals when creating your portfolio.
Again I stress that attention to detail is key and also having a good structure to your presentation is important even if you’re simply reinventing the structure of your portfolio. In general, the success of a portfolio does not completely depend on how well-organized it may be, but also on the strength of the artwork presented. Be sure to only pick your best works and if it’s visual art that is being presented be sure to also have decent sized pictures of your work so that the details can be seen. Taking these simple steps and applying them to the creation of your portfolio though tedious will surely make your portfolio successful and in turn will also make your work more marketable and attractive to those you present it too. Visit our online portfolio here at J.M. Field Marketing to check out some of our latest designs!!
http://www.jmfieldmarketing.com/creative-services/portfolio.html
I am on a much needed vacation right now. I am spending time looking for a new place to call home as well as spending time seeking out good deals shopping. I have bought some nice items that I realized I would not even be using so the other day I posted a free ad on Craigslist seeking a needy person who could not afford to buy clothing and shoes.
I got a phone call from a woman in Reno who has a 17 year old son who has a handicap that she cannot afford to buy new shoes or clothes for. Ron and I were up in Reno in a few hours and met the woman and her son to give her some of my great finds. To see the joy in this boy’s face when he saw his new pairs of Skate shoes was simply the best part of Christmas for me. To listen to his story of how he works out in the back yard and now can sport a pair of Diesel shorts to wear when working out simply brought back memories of how it feels to be young and not part of the "in" crowd.
I gave the lady and her son a big hug before I left. The Mom looked like she was ready to cry. The boy was simply so overjoyed that I actually cried myself once I got back in the car to leave.
This to me is the simple meaning of Christmas. The story of Mary and Joseph having no place to go but being brought gifts by the 3 kings should be a warming message to all about the real meaning of Christmas.
Peace to YOU this holiday season and please remember those who have nothing to give.
Peace/Love/Ken
Last holiday season we sent out custom designed cards to our clients, but this year we are doing something a little different. At our company we like to treat all of our clients like family, so we have designed a holiday recipe book filled with delicious family recipes from our very own employees.
Some of the recipes included are Pumpkin Bread, Tilapia Ceviche, Scallop Rumaki, Rasta Pasta, Oreo Pie and Homemade Peanut Butter Cups, just to name a few. It’s all neatly organized and separated by category and type of dish. I definitely know our clients will be happy this holiday season with our custom designed recipe books. I’m even looking into it for recipe ideas to cook during the holidays; some of these recipes are irresistible. Mmmm! And I can’t wait to try some of them!
If you’re thinking about giving your clients something for this holiday season, it's still not too late to give them something really special. Here at J.M. field Marketing, we can give you a custom designed printed piece and we can also pack and ship or deliver it for you. All you have to do is give us a call and we’ll take care of everything.
Recently, I have been working with a few travel companies to help them increase their sales. I am encouraged by the number of progressive companies that recognize the need to try new and innovative solutions to the challenges they face today. They are open to new marketing and sales ideas that may be outside the more commonly used methods. While there may be a little short term risk to these new ideas, these progressive companies see that the long term gain far outweigh these risks.
On the other hand I am seeing companies that are not open to new ideas and continue to operate as though it was five years ago. These are the old thinkers that keep waiting for things to fix themselves.
In the world of travel suppliers, products are a perishable good. If the bed is empty tonight you will never be able to resell it. This perishable goods phenomenon is very real and provides a very real case for constant urgency. Having the ability to recognize sales shortfalls or occupancy challenges before they are a problem is a crucial skill for today’s executive. Having the knowledge and skills to correct the problem is becoming rare.
I have witnessed firsthand companies developing creative solutions to these challenges with no effective means of communicating it to their prospective customers or sales distribution channel. There is so much clutter in the traditional marketing venues that your best offer is only one offer in a sea of offers. Knowing how to get your best offer into the hands of your customers is critical.
One company that I know has been providing a solution for this is eGroup Communications located in Miami, Florida. I have used their services while working on the supplier side and I have found their services to be very effective. They have extensive electronic (email) lists of retail travel agents and corporate buyers that can be accessed within hours. When I identified a potential inventory problem, I created a promotion and send it to eGroup so that the preferred travel seller could have it on their screens within hours. This targeted promotional message was sent in an exclusive email to the customers I chose, within hours.
In my role as a sales consultant it is my responsibility to find new and effective ways to grow my client’s business. It is the responsibility of the client to accept these new methods of solving old problems. Visit www.sixdegreesconsultingcorp.com for more information.
posted a photo http://pi.pe/80ceck
Key to the calendar. Yellow: days when Vox worked normally. Pink: days when the compose screen took minutes or hours to load. Red: days when Vox would not allow me to compose at all.
I’m sure most of you will agree that putting up with a compose screen that will not load for hours or days since October 28 is being pretty patient.
In that time, Daisy and Six Apart have been great at trying to help me troubleshoot why this is happening. They have confirmed that there is something wrong and that, even at Six Apart HQ in California, they cannot get the compose screen to come up when logged on as me.
A number of solutions have been proposed, but despite carrying them out, the loading delay remains intolerably long.
It’s as though the Six Apart servers (after becoming self-aware!) know it’s me and fail to serve the compose page. No code is downloaded.
I remain convinced that whatever is happening to me is connected to what happened to Patricia (who has only made 50-odd posts on Vox, but has exactly the same symptoms) and Ninja (who can no longer compose with this site without switching to Internet Explorer—Vox is the only site which he has to make a browser switch for). I also believe the bug is connected to the one that locked out all the Australians I knew on this service in August 2009.
We also have the mysterious period between November 16 and 18 when the site operated normally, and the compose screen came up on demand. What happened on those three days? I had more tags in my account than when the site first blocked me from composing, and possibly more neighbours. Yet for those days, everything was normal here.
I have never suggested seriously that the block was malicious (though it was fun to entertain some outlandish theories), but it does seem to be rather coincidental that I come across bugs on Vox, Blogger, Facebook and other services continually. Many have been documented on this blog. I just never thought that among the last regular blog posts, the bugs I write about would be Vox’s.
One day I am sure they will find the error, or there will be a new version of Vox which remedies it. The underlying code is updated a lot more frequently with incremental improvements than Team Vox will have us know. Until then, I will check in here periodically—to read your posts, delete spammers, and administer the many groups that I run—but we will have to say farewell to my regular updates. I will also click on ‘Create’ from time to time to see if the bug has been fixed, and, if the site ever lets me, post the odd private neighbourhood or friends-only entry.
Finally, you could say, my disappointment outweighed my patience. As some of you read in a private post yesterday, this is a good time to move on.
Vox is, after all, still in beta, if its terms and conditions (revised a few months ago) are to be believed, so there’s no point my getting mad about this. It is what I signed up for in 2006 when I began as a Vox beta tester. Three years on, it appears I was still in the same boat, but with a less reliable site.
Thank you for all your friendships over the last three years. I have enjoyed it and everything this blog has offered. You can still find me on Facebook (a site with far worse issues than Vox ever had), Tumblr and at my main blog, where I am already ramping up the posting I do. I have a campaign site for the 2010 mayoral election here in Wellington, and will offer occasional commentary at Lucire’s web edition. If the Vox cravings get too much, I might enter the odd thing at lucire.vox.com, but even that account began to fail a few days ago.
This is not a total farewell. In the words of Gen Douglas MacArthur, ‘I shall return.’
A sunny day in Wellington, even if it took over half a day to get a compose screen on Vox. I’m already blogging more on Blogger, so I suspect these posts will become fewer (and not out of choice). This was around 5 p.m. today:
Not sure how many hours it has been since Vox was capable of loading a compose window for me. I lost count. I no longer believe that deleting tags has helped, especially as it is now 2.20 a.m. and I had no access to Vox all evening. Please write me with your next theory, Vox.
As a result of the return to terrible load times, Kimmie’s theory about a dodgy neighbour might still be true. I haven’t deleted everyone from my neighbourhood and started from scratch, which is arguably the next step, if I have sufficient time to waste.
I have downloaded Firebug (thanks to my friend Andrew Carr-Smith) to see what data Vox loads on to my browser in the times I get a blank compose screen. Answer: none. Nothing even begins to load.
I still think the Vox server knows when it’s me, Patricia or Ninja, or any of the others who might have left here without telling us why, and fails to serve any compose screen to us. I still reckon that there is something peculiar about our accounts that the programming does not like.
