AIGA Alaska 2021 Portfolio Review

April 29 // 6-8 pm (+1 hour open discussion)

Online via Zoom // Free!

Registration Required

Through this program, AIGA Alaska intends to provide students or emerging designers with honest feedback from design professionals in a casual environment. The end goal is to help students or emerging designers ease into the design industry. This practice is meant to be informative—any criticism of works presented in the portfolio must be constructive.

This year’s Portfolio Review will feature reviewers with extensive backgrounds in the graphic design industry. In light of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, this event will be held via Zoom. Students, we encourage you to be confident while presenting your work. Professionals, we encourage you to be helpful in both critiquing the work and offer advice on how the students present themselves during the process. To all, we hope you are relaxed throughout and have a great experience.

We advise registrants to have their portfolios prepared in PDF format to present to reviewers as if they were printed pieces using Zoom screen sharing.

Ticket Options

Student or emerging designer (interviewee) — for participants to register to have their portfolios reviewed. Open to design students or designers with limited professional experience (under 2 years). You will be asked to indicate your level of education during registration.

Design professional (reviewer) — to register as a reviewer. You will be asked to indicate your level of experience and current employer/company name during registration.

We are not reviewing established designers' portfolios during this event. If you would like to inquire about the possibility of professional/peer reviews for established designers, please contact AIGA Alaska with your ideas.

SCHEDULE:

The event will start with introductions and continue to have two rounds of reviews with a general session in between. Prepare to take notes as this program WILL NOT be recorded.

5:55-6:05 sign-in greetings

6:05-6:15 AIGA Alaska introductions

6:15-6:30 reviewer introductions

6:30-6:50 review session 1

6:55-7:25 general session

7:30-7:50 review session 2

7:55-8:00 closing remarks

8:00-9:00 open discussion "CASUAL HOUR"

The above schedule is subject to change as timing may be advanced or delayed while the session is in progress.

PORTFOLIO GUIDELINES:

• Create a digital portfolio in a manner in which it may also be printed later (a PDF is strongly suggested).

• Showcase your best work—6-12 projects recommended—focus on quality over quantity. If you have less than 6, just explain your reasoning, no big deal. Any more than 12 will just be way too much to go over in less than 20 minutes.

• Overall page count at designer’s discretion to optimally portray each project. You don’t have to cram everything into a single page, but try to keep things concise.

• Include a résumé. In a real-world setting, you will never show your portfolio without also demonstrating your qualifications, education, and work history.

VIDEO CHAT GUIDELINES:

• Please enable webcams so interaction is face-to-face.

• Present portfolios via screen-share.

• Please make sure that the device you are using is plugged in or the battery is fully charged.

• Dress as you would for a real job interview; business casual clothes are recommended. (This is not a job fair and no guarantee of employment is offered or implied; but several UAA students have secured post-graduate jobs through contacts made at AIGA’s portfolio review, so please view this as an opportunity to network with potential employers.)

CHECK YOUR ZOOM APPLICATION:

Before the portfolio review, please ensure that your device is equipped with the most recent version of Zoom (5.6.1 as of March 29, 2021) in order to avoid technical difficulties. Learn more about Zoom compatibility and installation at https://support.zoom.us/hc/en-us or simply download the latest version at https://zoom.us/download

SPECIAL ACKNOWLEDGMENTS:

The review session pairs will be matched in advance by AIGA Alaska using information from the registration process. Only registered participants will be guaranteed space in the review sessions.

The 2021 Portfolio Review is sponsored by Mad Dog Graphx www.thedogpack.com

When & Where
Thu, Apr 29, 2021 6:00 PM - 8:00 PM AKDT