Portfolio Feedback 5 - Dayjob

http://day-job.org

Whilst in London we visited Dayjob, an illustration collaborative who work from a studio in Peckham. Their work has a beautiful handmade feel to it, and the studio had a really fun friendly atmosphere. Some of the girls had a look at our portfolios and gave us some great advice.

One point they made was that there was a little too much work in my portfolio, and I should select maybe 15 pieces that I feel are my best work. They pointed out a few that they recommended I keep and a couple that I should remove.

Another piece of advice was that it is best to include work that you want to keep doing, and so some of my pieces that are things that I wouldn't want to do again shouldn't be in the portfolio. They recommended making personal work in the style, and using subjects, that I would like to take into my career and include them in the portfolio.

There was also still one slightly blurry/pixelated image which they made a strong point about, as having something like that in your portfolio tells a client that you cannot work basic computer skills so I will redo that image to ensure it doesn't happen again.

They agreed with Fig Taylor, in that my work has quite a conceptual feel to it that would be best suited to editorial work, which is great for me as that is what I would prefer to be doing.

Some other pieces of advice that the girls gave us as a group were:

• to constantly enter into as many competitions as you can as it provides you with a brief to work with when you don't have paid work (to keep the creative juices flowing!) and works as a kind of practice of your craft, as well as providing you with great exposure and gets your work out there at the very least.
• to get a studio! All the dayjob girls agreed that having a studio has a really positive effect on your work. As well as motivating them to do work, rather than procrastinating or getting distracted at home, it allows them to bounce ideas off each other.
• they also recommended working a collaborative way (obviously!) as having people with different skill sets around you really enhances your own and other peoples work. Also it makes you more functional as an employee as there is a lot more you can offer to clients