Your step by step guide to obtaining a full time, salaried graphic design position
No degree? No Problem
Whether you have a degree in hand or are fully self-taught, the steps and strategies included in this ebook fully apply to you. Why? Because it’s a myth that a degree yields a design job. In the end, it’s your portfolio of work that will land you your full time gig. Your portfolio proves to a future employer you are capable of executing the work they would hire you for and that’s what matters most to them, not the school you did or didn’t attend.
INTRODUCING
FULL TIME GRAPHIC DESIGN
A COMPREHENSIVE GUIDE
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Strategizing your Portfolio
Full Time Graphic Design contains a full, comprehensive strategy to obtain a job based on your strengths as a designer via the Portfolio Formula. Traditional colleges have you compile all of your work together to prove you’re a jack of all trades, but fail to help focus that same portfolio on your greatest strengths. The Portfolio Formula stresses the importance of being well-rounded, but calls attention to the details which will distinguish you from other applicants.
The Right Fit
Obtaining a full time graphic design position doesn’t automatically mean happiness. Obtaining the right position, in the right environment, with the right culture, will. These are factors never discussed (or discussed enough) in a traditional college environment, but will have a long term affect on how your grow and thrive as a designer.
In Full Time Graphic Design, we break each component down and create a personal creative brief to evaluate your skills, qualities that make you unique, and cultural aspects that will make that job offer all the more fulfilling.
The Reach
Getting your foot in the door is hard if you don’t know someone who knows someone. An entire chapter is dedicated to tactics for composing the perfect cold email to get you noticed apart from your competition, from a first impression, to the right person’s eyes on the project you need them most to see. Sample email draft included that you can steal for yourself!
SET UP FOR SUCCESS
INCLUDED RESOURCES
Portfolio Project Checklist
Knowing what to include for each project is essential in speaking about it and presenting it best. This checklist covers every major component so you’ll know you’re not leaving anything out.
Resource Links pdf
A full pdf document with every link mentioned throughout the entire book categorized and clickable. Additional links included for helpful portfolio building and design-specific online job boards are all packed in.
Personal Creative Brief
In the second chapter, we go over how being well informed and dissecting problems leads to better solutions. A creative brief is essential to being well informed and we can look at the search for the right job from the same perspective. Enter the Personal Creative Brief: a problem solving outline categorized specifically to discover your strengths and what you can play to your advantage(s) when searching for a job.
Audio Book
If you choose the ‘Mid-Level Designer’ or ‘Senior Designer’ options, you’ll receive an audio book in the download, read entirely by me. If you have time to kill at work, in transit, or just hanging out at home, hit play and get the content immediately. The audio book is delivered as an mp4 file that can be played via quicktime, Windows Media Player or installed into your iTunes library for easy on-the-go availability.
Design Deliverables List
If you’re ever unsure if your portfolio projects vary by design area/discipline enough (packaging, branding, web design, etc.) or if you’re including the right components for those projects, this pdf covers it all. Pick and choose which design areas you’d like to focus on in your portfolio, and feel confident knowing you have rock solid projects throughout your entire portfolio.
Portfolio Evaluation Form
If you choose the ‘Senior Designer’ option, a full portfolio review (up to 8 projects) by me personally is included. The portfolio evaluation form will allow you to define the perspective of your portfolio and I’ll complete the rest as I walk through each of your projects, providing feedback based on your preferred direction.
THE IMPORTANCE OF GETTING IT RIGHT
A PORTFOLIO IS YOUR GREATEST TOOL FOR CREATING THE GRAPHIC DESIGN CAREER YOU DESIRE.
READY TO GO FULL TIME WITH GRAPHIC DESIGN?
Full Time Graphic Design comes in 3 sizes – perfect for any designer looking to strategize their portfolio and stand out from the competition
$37
JUNIOR DESIGNER
- Full Time Graphic Design ebook (pdf)
- Personal Creative Brief
- Resource Links pdf
- Portfolio Project Checklist
$57
MID-LEVEL DESIGNER
- Full Time Graphic Design ebook (pdf)
- Personal Creative Brief
- Resource Links pdf
- Portfolio Project Checklist
- Design Deliverables List
- Full Audio Book (mp4)
$97
SENIOR DESIGNER
- Full Time Graphic Design ebook (pdf)
- Personal Creative Brief
- Resource Links pdf
- Portfolio Project Checklist
- Design Deliverables List
- Full Audio Book (mp4)
- 1 FULL (up to 8 projects) Portfolio Review + Evaluation by me personally
portfolio review may be redeemed up to one year after purchase
A Different Perspective
— Teela Cunningham
Unlike a college environment with a professor fully removed from the design field advising your portfolio development, I’m just like you. I am a graphic designer who had 0 connections to the design world when I was learning, just a passion and hope I would get noticed by the right people.
I graduated in 2008, when the US was experiencing one of the greatest recessions in recent history. I was graduating – without real-world design experience, with a portfolio of fictitious clients in hand. In Full Time Graphic Design, I’m sharing the strategies I used that led me to obtaining my first job in 2008, and combined it with all that I’ve learned since then.
I’ve had the great honor of working on projects associated with Coca-Cola, Visa, the 2014 FIFA World Cup, three Olympic games and countless small businesses. But I started somewhere too – a 22 year old holding onto a portfolio and the hope someone would take a chance on me. I want to help set you up better than I set myself up back then, and I’ve included every bit of it inside.
A STEP-BY-STEP PORTFOLIO FORMULA
Putting a portfolio together can be overwhelming. The Portfolio Formula takes the full process and applies it specifically towards your strengths in 6 easy-to-accomplish parts.
ONE STEP CLOSER TO FULL TIME
A comprehensive guide 8 professional design years in the making. There’s no need to learn this the hard way. Pick up Full Time Graphic Design today and start working smart – instead of just hard – toward that full time job.
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