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Hey Right Brained Human 👋🏼 !

Welcome to another week of Being Right Brained – Inspiration and ideas for designers and creative folks to work, think, and feel better. (In case you missed my last newsletter, see the full archive of past editions here)

🎈A small request: If this email landed in your "Promotions" tab, please take a moment to drag it to the "Primary" tab. This will ensure that it reaches you on time and doesn't disappear into the abyss of emails.

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#1 Don’t be shy. Put up a portrait photo, and show your face. I trust someone more when I see their picture than an illustrated self-portrait. 👩🏽

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#2 Think carefully about the emotions you want to evoke in clients when they see your work. Do you want to instill confidence, inspire creativity, or convey reliability? Demonstrate this through a clear, crisp bio. Remember that the tone and style of writing you choose are as much a part of your work as the designs you showcase.

For example, when I hire someone, I don't just look at the technical skills shown in a portfolio. What I really value in a designer is straightforwardness and self-motivation. These qualities are very important to me. That's why I'm interested in portfolios that not only show impressive work, but also effectively convey these personal qualities. 🤔

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#3 Show images but tell a story. A beautifully stitched project that clarifies the goals, problem statements, and solutions, always helps. Use more visual guides and cause less visual clutter.
Cue: Make the said person find the most useful information within a project, fast. ⏳

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#4 I am always biased towards a simple, easy-to-navigate portfolio.

Google drive links with a gazillion pdf files or a dropbox with unorganized folders create a sense of overwhelm for a person going through multiple applications or portfolios. 🔍

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#5 If you are beginning your career or transitioning, showcase your work on a community-driven work showcase platform such as Behance or Dribbble. Be a part of their community and engage with people who inspire you. 🌎

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​#6 If you work in a non-visual role such as User experience or product management, dissect your creative process, insights, and impact of your work.
​Here’s an example. 💡
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📖 A great book for layout inspiration:
​Art of Looking Sideways​

I got this one in 2013. It was my first book ever! It is an inexhaustible mine of anecdotes, quotes, images, curious facts, useless information, oddities, serious science, jokes, and memories, all concerned with the interplay between the verbal and the visual and the limitless resources of the human mind. 👻
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👉🏼 Go through it for some ideas to unblock the mind and get inspired by the layouts and visual storytelling!
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💬 A quote and a question:

“Human behavior flows from three main sources: desire, emotion, and knowledge.” –– Plato

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👉🏼 A question to think about: How can you design a working showcase that initiates someone's desire to work with you, connects with the recruiter or the client emotionally, and showcases the depth of your knowledge in the most efficient way?

Over to you now ✨
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​p.s. Many people on the internet are claiming that they can help you with your portfolio but none of these people have led or hired for design teams, been in the industry for over a decade or cracked interviews at companies like Google and Uber - I have.

This is why, this January, I am launching 1:1 Portfolio review sessions where you and I will work together to build a portfolio that goes beyond work showcase.
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So if you're a designer looking to switch to freelance or transition this year? Register now to get your portfolio reviewed, no matter which stage it's at.
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Thanks for reading. This is an honest, algorithm-free, completely reader-supported publication. If you’d like to support my work, buy my e-book or tell me what you think about my content here.​
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Stay creative,
Apeksha
Right Brained Human

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