How to Create a Physical Portfolio of Your Work

This post about how to create a portfolio book is sponsored by Blurb. All opinions are my own. Thank you for supporting this blog by allowing me to post occasional sponsored content. All sponsored posts feature products or services that I truly feel would be of interest to you.

I was updating my online portfolio last month and realized it’s been forever since I had updated my physical portfolio. When I was looking for jobs out of college I always had a tangible portfolio and really felt like I wanted to create something like that again.

My original portfolio was more like a scrapbook of actual printed pieces, like postcards, brochures, and stationery sets, but this time I decided to go in a different direction. I decided to use digital files, like photos and mockups to design a professionally printed and bound book.

A tactile portfolio is still very relevant if you work with local clients, are attending meetings where you pitch your services or you can also print multiple versions to mail out to potential clients. That extra touch can really make a difference.

I’ve used Blurb in the past, so was familiar with how easy they make it to create books and magazines in print and digital formats and I really wanted to try out their brand new Layflat paper type! The Layflat option is really great for portfolios since you can go edge to edge across an entire two-page spread without losing any part of the image to the center fold.

The first step was to prepare all of my images for the book. This meant gathering mockups and photos of my work that I wanted to include and making some new mockups for branding projects that I didn’t have imagery for yet.

Next, I downloaded the free Blurb Bookwright tool which made creating the book SO simple. Once I had my images ready, I just imported them into BookWright, selected the size, format and paper type (you want to be sure to select the Layflat paper) and then it was as simple as dragging and dropping my images into place on the pages. Blurb also has other tools for you design experts out there, like their Adobe In-Design plug-in for even more control over your book.

When I got the book in the mail I was really impressed with the quality and it was so rewarding to see my work all together in this professionally printed and bound format.

Have you ever thought about creating a book of your work? What kind of book would you create?

Want to create a book but need some inspiration? Check out the unique book projects by Blurb’s community of photographers, designers, and creative makers here.