Page templates - A page template is a page that can be customized, it would include text, fonts, style, images and so on. There are several important purposes of page templates, I will begin to start listing them below:
- Planning/ sketching - It is always useful to plan and sketch out your work; this allows you to have a reference and also see how your work will potentially look. You can also change anything on your planning at any time, this will make it easier being able to look back at your planning's while creating your final work.
- Creating own - It is important to create your own as you know more about yourself than anyone else, this includes colours, fonts, and the overall layout, all of this adds together to show your personality.
- Skills and capabilities - Throughout your pages it is important to show off the skills you have in your own work field, by doing this you are able to also show the capabilities and the potential you have. You could include images of your work, for example if you're a photographer you should show your own personal favourite photographs and explain what makes it a good photo, i.e. composition and camera settings.
File formats
File formats are the type of files and settings that are recommended for portfolio production, the correct settings and file types used for within the portfolio pages have to be correct to avoid any problems.
Resolution - The resolution should be at the settings of 300 dots per inch (DPI) this would ensure there is no distortion when printing as the quality of the file is at the maximum.
Images - All images should be saved as either a JPEG, TIF or PNG file type, all of these file types are suitable for portfolio work as they are recommended file types for printing. I would recommend a JPEG file as this file compresses the data to be smaller in the file by using lossy compression. The image quality stays high enough within the portfolio pages.
Printing
Printing is one of the most important parts when it comes to portfolio production, the pages you print are for the final portfolio, this makes selecting the correct colour mode essential.
CMYK - The portfolio work created has to be in the colour mode CMYK in order to print, this is the only colour mode that allows us to print onto paper. Please make sure you select the CMYK colour mode and not RGB colour mode in your Adobe Photoshop settings. The RGB colour mode is used for electronic displays such as CRT, LCD monitors, digital cameras and scanners. CMYK is a four color mode that utilizes the colors cyan, magenta, yellow and black in various amounts to create all of the necessary colors when printing images. The K colour, or black, is used to completely remove light
from the printed picture, which is why the eye perceives the colour as black.
Saving
When working, it is important to keep saving you're work as you go along, it is a quick and simple process and can prove to be very important if anything was to happen such as the computer crashing. A easy shortcut to do this would be to press (Ctrl+S).
Audience needs
Easy to read - It is essential that all work is easy to read, this way the reader won't get board of sentences dragging on too much, always remember to be clear and to the point.
Professional - Always remember to write in a professional manner and have a professional layout, this will present yourself as a professional person to the audience which is key for a good first impression.
Visual style
Colour theory - Depending on the subject of your portfolio, a suitable colour that fits is necessary, looking into colour theory may help you when choosing correct colours for your portfolio. A few examples i can provide would be, blue is a mandatory colour, it is a colour that most people would like, it's a safe colour to go with. Green is an action colour, if you're an active outgoing person and you write about this in your work, this colour could be the right choice. The final example i will give is red, red is a colour that stands out, and is also seen as danger, this colour could be suitable depending on who you are. Looking into colour theory will explain more and help you decide on colours.
Shape theory - Like colours, there is also a theory to certain shapes that when used could better your portfolio. Shapes can be used to show progression and continuity, for example a circle is a shape that shows continuity, by using a shape such as this the portfolio pages would have a better flow to them. Arrows are another good shape, arrows show progression, by adding these in a portfolio, it could demonstrate the progression of your portfolio pages. Please look into shape theory for more ideas.
