Thompson Brand Partners: Portfolio Crit

I decided to go to Thompson Brand Partners as part of the portfolio crits by studios. I made my way to the studio itself which was a positive experience, as we sat down as a group of six in the conference room to go through everyones portfolio's with everyone in the room. This was quite daunting actually and made me feel very nervous to talk to the two guys, and then in front of five of my peers too.

The experience was good because we went to them, and instead of a university environment, we were in a professional one, where we could sit around the table and talk in a semi formal way about everyones portfolios. The two guys that worked their talked briefly about their own professional experience, and gave us some publications they had been a part of from previous agencies. Some of their work was on the walls, and were similar to the art boards we create for the degree, although they focused solely on the designs rather than the research. I took some inspiration from them too, so that was nice. The premises was small, but an ideal size for a small agency. They took us on a micro tour, a and the long thin building was separated into four main sections: presentation room, break room, design room, and accounting room. It was useful to see this set up, and so the small size of the agency was suited to that close knit environment.

So, to my portfolio: I showed them my website, as my portfolio had not arrived yet, and I didn't want to present bits of laser printed paper to them. They got my website up on the big screen at the back of the room, and so I went through each of my projects. They explained to me that my album cover design was where their eyes were initially drawn to.

I went onto talk about my recent branding projects, SNAP Bistro and The Veg Loft. I talked about how I would like my portfolio to be more focused on branding and editorial and layout design, rather than the album cover design, and they said that it can comprise of both. They commented on how they the logo designed for The Veg Loft.

I also like the design of the logo too, and was pleased they noticed it. They went onto mention that the copywriting should be made more of a feature of, and should be brought out of their original contact and shown on their own. I never thought of taking aspects of a brief out of it's original context so it was useful information, of which I acted on.

They didn't really notice my photography work, which is prevalent across three of my briefs, so this was slightly disappointing, but another studio or designer may pick up on this, so I am not too worried that it's something that shouldn't be there. Overall I felt quite encouraged, though didn't feel as complimented as my peers, which may mean that my portfolio needs some work, of which I will act on anyway in the next few months.