So you’re a recently-graduated artist or writer, and now you need a job. But that diploma in your hand isn’t enough; sure, it’s a physical and legal proof that you’ve been sufficiently taught and geared-up for the field you’ve chosen and for the real working world. But what your diploma fails to showcase are the actual skills and capabilities you possess which differentiate you from the other, new grads in your industry who carry more-or-less the same diploma that you have now.

Or perhaps you’re a veteran art director or journalist, but due to circumstances, you suddenly find yourself out of employment. It’s not easy, but at least the years of experience you’ve got tucked under your belt makes the whole job-hunting experience less hard. But aside from experience, you need something else—some proof that it’s the company’s loss if they don’t hire you.

I’m pretty sure you’ve guessed it: yes, a portfolio. It is, sometimes, a prerequisite prior to graduation. Or perhaps an experienced friend in the same career path as you are gave you that friendly tip early on. I’m guessing, however, that the type of portfolio you currently process is the traditional type which you lug around, bring with you during job interviews, and create copies to send to potential employers. A portfolio is a given, being a visual or literary artist, you simply need one. It is a necessity. And you certainly can expand the number of people who will get to know your strengths and what you are capable of doing through your portfolio.

The most efficient medium to use, in terms of costs, time and effort would of course be the World Wide Web. What with its fast & easy accessibility, coverage and infinite number of possibilities—use the Internet to your advantage. There are actually a number of useful sites that would help you kick-start your online gallery: DeviantArt and CarbonMade are just two of them. They’re free, user-friendly and even people who are not inclined towards art visit those sites occasionally. For those starting to carve out a niche in the online world, these places would be the best ones to start.

However as you gain more experience and skills, free sites are not enough. The next step is to create your own—that would definitely give you a feel of seriousness and professionalism, sort of saying “I really know what I’m doing” in a confident manner. Aside from that, you could also add web designing to your already growing list of capabilities, with your own website as testament to what you can do.

Now for the design-savvy, but not at all into coding technical web language, invest in at least Photoshop and Dreamweaver, and add to that the useful plug-in called SiteGrinder. It’ll save you precious time of manual coding; time which you could use to further hone your personal art. What it does is to take the layout you’ve made in Photoshop, and convert it to HTML and CSS, making your life easier.

If you’ve got your whole site up, and you feel like you’ve mastered the art of web designing, take things a notch higher and incorporate multimedia content t your site. Videos, music, an interactive interface, special effects and animations will definitely make your portfolio more substantial. Get yourself Dreamweaver, and PSD2FLA plug-in, which will make your Flash files openable and editable in Photoshop. You need to learn only the basics of Flash, and you can pretty much manipulate it in Photoshop afterwards.

Even if you feel that you have no need for an online portfolio, creating and keeping one would be a wise decision. At least, in that way, you would have a digital back-up of all your works, and you can view your progress throughout the years much easier rather than pulling up old canvasses, boards, books, papers, etc. just to compare them with your recent works.

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