Leave-behinds communicate beyond language barriers
I’m going to Buenos Aires on Wednesday, and I only speak enough Spanish to order food. It’s a good thing I’m a designer and rely heavily on visuals, right?
See, every year SND, the Society for News Design, holds an annual design conference, and this year’s destination is Argentina. I was lucky enough to be one of six students who received a travel grant from SND, and this Thursday will mark my first trip to South America.
Designers from all over the world are attending but, not surprisingly, many of them are native Spanish speakers. This should be a great opportunity to network before May graduation, but while my work can speak for itself, the challenge is finding the best way to present it.
I don’t want to haul a print portfolio around. It’s bulky, pricey to print, and time-consuming to look through. I would also have to sit down with someone and actually talk to them for a while, and the language barrier might be an issue.
Enter the leave-behind.
Photo: Andrea Zagata's ...
Photo: Andrea Zagata's ...
Leave-behinds are exactly what they sound like — a small sample of your work you can leave behind at an interview, or in my case, give away to people at a conference.
Leave-behinds are a standard of the design industry, and can vary from something as simple as a postcard to more gimmicky things like puzzle pieces to be put together. The goal is that a leave-behind will be cool enough for someone to keep, but not obnoxiously overdone. The more gimmicky leave-behinds often end up in the circular file.
I wanted my leave-behind to do three things:
Give an accurate representation of the variety of work I do.
Be small enough to fit in a pocket.
Make someone want to hire me.
When I was thinking about what I could do for a leave-behind, my mind instantly jumped to a project I did in an advertising class last spring.
The professor had us build several projects in an accordion-style paper fold. I hated this assignment when I had to do it for class, but it’s exactly what I needed for Buenos Aires (Thanks, Henry Brimmer — I owe you).
My mini-portfolio is composed of five, 3×3 inch squares, printed front and back. The first square is a title, or introduction to who I am. Following are four samples of my work; different newspaper pages to start. On the back, I include illustrations and screen shots from my interactive projects. In case you weren’t counting, that’s eight samples all contained in a nice, folded 3×3 in square.
The last panel includes my contact information and graduation date.
Now nobody has to sit down and take time to look through my portfolio to see my work, and the best part? I don’t have to speak very much Spanish to hand someone a piece of paper.
About I Shot the Serif
The State News Visual Editor Andrea Zagata blogs about the world of visual journalism.
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Commentary
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Dad
(09/21/09 8:47am)Report
It sounds like you have things in order Marge. I am leaving after work today for Detroit for a wellness grant acceptance kick off at Ford field. Have fun in Argentina, but don’t take a job there when you graduate.
Mom
(09/21/09 10:32am)Report
Ditto, except I am not traveling to Detroit. This looks great.
photonator
(09/21/09 8:42pm)Report
leran to tango and bring back some malbec for that brimmer guy mentioned…