Or: The tumultuous life of a designer and her virtual portfolio.

The time has came for me to write my first post. I first wondered what could be the possible subject of this pamphlet, since I’m still not sure about the main theme of the whole blog itself. And then, as bright as a shining star, came the idea… Let the first post ever be a post about the portfolio— and this way, a post about the genesis of this blog. At least, I know what I’m talking about.

Life and death of a portfolio.

As a young designer, you’re often asked to show your skills trough a portfolio. Most of the time, you just wonder about what to show and how to display it in a “graphic-designer” fashion. As you don’t have a lot of work to show, you tend to put everything in the same basket, good work and bad work, hoping that the quantity will prevail over the quality. (You’re not naive, you’re just desperate.) 
Assembling your work, getting it print, learning to present it correctly… All this is quite time and money consuming. “Must be hard work” would say Frank N Furter.
And then… They (your future employers) ask you to send them some work by email, or better, to share your website link, before they ever meet you. Damn! Your life was a lie, paper is not that fancy nowadays.

The beginning. Getting it done.  

Getting a website on the rails is surely most time consuming that any paper showcase. Especially when you don’t know anything about coding, huh? Diving into the dark waters of CSS, PHP of even worst, Flash, can be a bit horrifying at first. Of course, there are a great number of ready-made solutions for you to get your work online. But, as a creative person, they wait for you to stand out of the crowd. To get that little something that proves you’re a fully capable designer, from conception to programming. And, then, you’re stuck with it: you’ve got to get your hand in the mechanics, and make your own site — original, nifty, and incredibly beautiful, that is. 

2 options :

- you know how to program a compliant website, and you wonder why I seem to cringe at the sole idea of editing a CSS. 

- Or, like me, your a total newbie and you’ll try to make a website, every possible way, that you’ll let down over a week since it seems that you don’t get this stupid button to work. But because you’re a bit obsessive, you dig your way trough the twists and turns of the internet. At the end, the site is probably not incredibly original, nifty nor beautiful — but it’s online, and that’s quite a relief huh? And, surprise, this is not a portfolio anymore…  

The blog as a new way of procrastinating.

I’ve never been into blogging before, until my job asked me to take care of the corporate blog. I finally found it as a new way to procrastinate actively. Because, oh yes, I forgot… There’s a breed of designer that is quite lazy. You wanna do a lot of things, but days are too short and you never find the time to do whatever funky activity you planned during your work day. Activities like drawing, making a new design, or making a new portfolio. That’s why the portfolio page here is still empty. I much more prefer to talk to say nothing…   

And that’s the main reason behind this blog: it’s far more easier to complain and do nothing, than to do something useful. But then, everyone knows that, and in the difficult path to do nothing (and share the results), I hope I won’t be alone.
(Errr, I guess this is not the best way to achieve success and glory, but at least, one could say I’m being honest. )

Then, my future and dear readers, I hope you’ll help me in this quest to transform the nothing into something (notice the semi-spiritual ambition).
♦ Share, laugh, and design. And don’t forget to relax !!

Zélia