The requested I come in to meet with them about web banner ads, website redesign, landing pages and some print/ad work. They found me online through yelp and saw my portfolio site, but requested I bring some work. Should I bring my laptop to show web work? Print out screens? What do you guys think?
Posted Apr 19, 2011, 7:39 PM UTC
you should ABSOLUTELY have a portfolio or be able to link them to your portfolio site. do not bring your own laptop, it screams unprofessional.
Ok. bringing your own laptop is NOT unprofessional . i know many that do it, infact my last full time in house position I brought along my laptop and hooked it up to their projector to show my work in my interview. The key is to have a presentation ready to go. ALWAYS show the medium in the method it was meant to be seen.
Printed screen-shots suck because they are 72 dpi where as prints are 150 minimum. That means you have to print them small, or have pixelation. Both are bad in my opinion.
my mistake. it is not unprofessional, but bringing it and not having something ready to go instantly is.
As far as printing web work I think that if you can get a decent job done by a small printer then its worth bring it in. I came into my interview for a print job with a print portfolio and here I am sitting here not 2 months later doing 90% web and email work. The other 10% is video stuff. Point is you never know.
They've seen the portfolio site. So, you're saying PRINT screens of banners and sites I've done?
I would probably say bring some high quality prints of key frames of some of your work, I can imagine that showing up without representation of your work would not look so great, even if they've seen it online. There might be another person interviewing you that did not see your work. You said that its print work as well, you can bring those.
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I was in such a position when I first started. I brought both a tangible book, and also my laptop, if they wanted to see any functionality for some online work I had done. I think covering your bases with bringing both is a good idea. Even if you don't have to use the laptop, having it there puts you at ease.
Thanks, I think I'll be bringing the laptop with web work suited to them in a PDF I can click thru, and prints of work suited to them in a book I can flip thru.
If you do print work, bring actual samples of printed work, bringing your laptop along is a god idea too since you can put together a presentation specifically for them. I like to put together samples that are relevant to the client I'm meeting, instead of the generic assortment of samples I have on my website. ---edit--
If you can avoid printing out screen work, don't do it. Present it in the manner it will be used by the client. I.E. Website should be shown on a screen, a print brochure should be shown printed out and folded. etc.
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This was kind of what I thought.