The Studioblr Collective

The Studioblr Collective is a place for the artists of the studyblr community (studioblrs) to find help and anything else they may need!

[aescademic]

BLOOM ANTHOLOGY, vol. 1

Bloom is a newly established mixed media anthology and international digital collective curated around a selected monthly theme, run by students between the ages of 17-24. We are focused on sharing short form prose, poetry, photography and artwork in the form of monthly issues. Through this, we hope to build a platform to highlight and uplift the voices of young hobbyist creatives.

instagram / find out more / join our mailing list

[studioblrcollective]

Quick Tip!

Know the differences between kerning, leading, and tracking. Each one is crucial for optimally spacing typography. We hope that the diagram helps your understanding as well!

[allydsgn]

Ahhhhh

My professor bought my portfolio from me and we talked at her place and I’m still so happy that I was the portfolio she bought to show to other seniors for inspiration 🥰🥰🥰

[chocopudinn]

currently making a nintendo videogame-inspired design and the colour palette is killing me

[samothrce-blog]

hiatus: over

hey gang i’m back n better than ever !! exams are all done n i’m feeling rly good abt the rest of my studios this year :))) as soon as i get my results, i’ll be posting some of my final pieces, so stay tuned

a quick update:

- hephaestudy > samothrce for those who missed it

- new layout, new tags (still tracking#heyachilles tho)

- might be less studyblr content, i’m now using this for my portfolio inspiration folder

how are you all doing? tell me about your day/week/smth good to happen to you recently, i’ve missed u guys :’)

[floral-studies]

2.3.19 // 🎧 LPOTL

There’s so much to do today! I thought I’d have a day off, but it seems like I won’t! Lots of orders are in right now, and I have a lot to work on for upcoming projects. So, it looks like I’ll be putting in some extra work today!

[a-blrofonesown]

One More Day of Productivity, Day 156

Sunday, February 3, 2019

So I just spend like 45 minutes redoing my blog theme. Fiiiinally found one that didn’t make my content look like a potato. If you’re on desktop, you’ll notice the brand new addition of my face on the sidebar! If you’re on mobile, my face is technically also includes in the header image, but it’s kind of overshadowed by the SHEER BRIGHTNESS of the South Carolina sun.

Anyway, today was really good! I’m trying a new thing with my planner, continuing on from that 20-minute rotation idea I had last week. In order to make sure the most important thing gets hit first, and also acknowledging that the most important thing is prone to shifting, I grabbed some arrow flags and assigned top 5 priorities. Tomorrow I’m going to be spending most of the day at the library—actually reading books! It’ll be great!—so we’ll see how this system works.

[studioblrcollective]

Quick Tip!

Every creative mind has different fuel. Figure out what space and tools you need to be the most productive. This includes music, how you sit or stand, and even the activity around you.

What's your ideal work environment to be the most productive? Reblog and let us, and others, know! Maybe you’ll help someone else figure out how they’re most productive!

[studioblrcollective]

Graphic Design Portfolio Sites

Key things to remember when creating a portfolio website Main Writer: @allydsgn | Allyson Arrogante

Welcome to the Spring Semester, when most design students have either started looking into jobs or even started interviewing for them. Design conferences are holding job fairs and design communities are hosting reviews. Portfolio, business cards, and business-casual outfits either ready to go or in progress, students are trying to make sure they check off every box for what they need to be the best candidate graduating in town this semester.

Studioblr Collective is here to help you check one of those boxes off, and that’s your Portfolio website. Some students use their portfolio website as their portfolio book as well, bringing iPads and laptops to interviews and conferences to click through, so we found this topic to be a big necessity to write at this time of year.

What are we covering?

Why should you have a portfolio site

What should be on your site

How to format what’s in it

How and where to build your site

Disclaimer: you will hear different advice from different people, so please, as always, when you hear advice take what you think applies to you and leave behind what you think does not work. Be responsible for your decisions and believe in them, don’t do something just because someone else told you to.

1. Why Should I Have a Portfolio Site?

To those that do not have a lot of time or experience building a website, building an online portfolio that is supposed to encompass and showcase work in its best light may seem daunting. Some may find reasons to not put the time and effort into one, but it can be through Behance, Dribbble, or your own site. Whatever you choose, you should have an online portfolio that’s easily accessible and identifying to you and your work.

The first, and probably most obvious, reason that you’ll want your work to be 24/7 accessible and easy to find is for potential employers. If they put your name into Google, or stumble across you on LinkedIn and other social platforms, they should be able to find your website: the reliable go-to place to see what you think is your best work and links to all of your other profiles that they are probably interested in seeing. With this said, make sure that whatever you hand out or send to people has your website’s URL on it.

It’s not only a great gallery and showing your best work, but it is also a reliable way to get a hold of you. When you hand out a business card or tell someone your name, an impulse for those interested in you is to look you up later. This could be potential employers or other designers that just want to connect, which could lead to opportunities later. Hook up your professional email to your site to make sure you’re separating your junk mail and spam from the emails you actually want to read. Being timely in your responses also helps you look reliable, professional, and interested.

2. What Should Be On My Site?

Some common mistakes are to include too much or too little information about you and your work. Here’s a list of necessities to make sure you check off:

Your work should be in the spotlight

Context for you and your projects

Resume

A Little About You

Your Brand

Your Contact Information and Other Profiles

Some of these seem obvious or vague, so let’s jump into the details.

3. How to Format Your Website

Overall, your website should be treated as a portfolio piece in itself. Typography, color, hierarchy, brand system, and so on should be considered when building this site. Just like a website you’d make for a school project, you should be sure that your website experience is consistent, meaningful, and intentional. Your site should be responsive and it should be easy to find the things we listed above. Now, let’s talk about how to format and what to remember about the specific parts of your site:

Your Work:

Only your best work should be featured. Your “average” work will distract from your “wow” work.

“If your portfolio looks and feels bare, that’s because it is”

List projects as campaigns if they have multiple parts, not separated, so viewers can see the system that you built. This format will help you tell the story of the campaign. Your pieces speak louder when together.

Use mockups that are clear, show your work in context, and in its best light

Your work (logos specifically) should be clear to see and analyze with appropriate clearing space.

The process is beneficial to show your thinking/ideation process

Walk through your process per project and pace out your work for easy digestion

Make it clear what people are looking at and what to expect

Context:

As we said above, you should walk through your work, to provide context as to what helped you make certain decisions.

Some things to include per project should be who it was for, the challenges you faced, and how you felt you solved their problems.

If it was a team project, you must say so and list who else you worked with. It is not right to claim a whole project for yourself if you only did a part of it.

Keep descriptions simple, clear, and straightforward. You can add some flavor words for the sake of branding, but don’t get convoluted.

Put relevant text by relevant pictures to help drive your points mentioned.

Resume:

Make a link or button that clearly leads to this as it’s a heavily sought after link when recruiting.

It should be a PDF so that it’s easy to print out if a physical copy is needed for files. A typed and coded page is optional, just be sure it’s formatted well so that it is easy to read and matches your branding.

Use the version of your resume that enforces the kind of work you want to do. Some people have different resumes pertaining to certain types of jobs, so the one that everyone can see at all times should be for the job that you are looking for the most.

This could also be a good place to link to side projects or other online endeavors you’re a part of to show your involvement and what kind of projects interest you.

A Little About You:

A short, sweet, and catchy couple of sentences will do when it comes to personal interests.

Also, use this moment to talk about what kind of work you like and what you want to do. Recruiters will be able to see if you’re the right fit for their position or not.

A picture of you, or some sort of image you resonate with, helps give a visual aid to remember you by.

Your Brand:

This is used to keep everything consistent, not to overpower your work.

Your logo or name should be clearly visible on most, if not all, of your pages. The more your viewers are exposed to it and stays consistent, the easier it’ll be for them to recall you when they see your branding elsewhere.

How you talk in your text and how you display your work also follows your brand. Be aware of what you’re trying to say, how you want to say it, and the tone you want to use to express yourself.

Your Contact Information and Other Profiles:

Make sure a way to contact you is clear on the home page or in your navigation (this can be your email actually listed near the top of the page or a “contact” page that people know to click on.

On this page, it’s up to you to use a contact form or not, but either way, your main form of contact (most likely email) should be clearly listed on this page.

This is where you would put your other profiles for people to check out as well, such as LinkedIn, Instagram, Dribbble, Behance, and so on.

4. Where to Host and Build your Website

Here’s the fun part: development.

As a designer and not a developer, you are obviously not expected to code your site from the ground up. However, if you’re looking into becoming a web designer or partly get into development, it could be a great project to show off those skills. No matter how you choose to build, just remember that you need a domain name and a hosting plan. How you decide to build your site, and what functions you’re planning to have within it, will change if there is a variable third cost: the website builder’s subscription to use their service.

Let’s walk through the options:

Code Your Own Website

If you’re a web developer, this would be a great showcase of that ability on a smaller scale by your own rules

Full control comes with full responsibility. You have to figure out how to do everything on your site or at least hook up to it.

No subscription cost if you know how to develop without a builder and you update files through an FTP server.

Development will take longer.

WordPress/CMS

Good experience to work with WordPress since a lot of sites with bigger databases use this.

More “quick” functionality with the plugin library, but can also get more complicated as you deal with other people’s code and functionality to get things to work how you want them to.

WordPress has the option to upload a custom theme with custom post types if you want to do more than just display your portfolio. Another reason why a developer may want to use this instead.

There are some costs associated with WordPress if you’re using their themes. They also have plans with varying amounts of features where you can choose what’s best for you.

Evolving In-Betweens

Want a CMS with some advanced styling but don’t want to code? Sites like Webflow and Bubble are pushing the boundaries on drag and drop builders by giving you advanced customization.

These sites take more styling attention versus something like Squarespace with a starting template but offer more customization per element.

Some basic front-end styling knowledge would help when making decisions considering formatting and layout.

Subscriptions are not avoidable and should be reviewed for what features you want or need.

Squarespace and Other Site Builders

Most site builders are very intuitive and have great user experience as they are built specifically for those that don’t want to code.

Themes are somewhat customizable with styles, google fonts, and Adobe fonts options. They also will usually include custom CSS and code injection for those specific custom pieces.

Be aware of all functions you want and what functions are available at which subscription plan price. (example: if you want to sell products on your site as well that costs extra per month to host on Squarespace, and other similar website building sites)

There is usually no way around the subscription cost.

Adobe Portfolio (that hooks to Behance)

Very intuitive and easy user experience

If you’re already using Behance then you can easily and quickly sync up, which is great. You can also hide certain projects from your Adobe Portfolio while having them still visible on Behance so you can choose the best work.

Currently has very limited functions, so be aware, again, of what you want and what’s available.

Themes are limited and fixed to an extent, but by default are nicely designed.

Comes free with an Adobe subscription, but you must have one in order to use this service.

In Conclusion

You should have a portfolio site so that people looking to hire or network with you have a reliable place to see your best content, all other relatable profiles, and have a way to contact you.

This website should feature your best work, not too many or too little projects, and should be showcased on a campaign basis, not by its pieces. It should also hold relevant information about hiring you such as your resume, contact information, and a little bit about you. All of these things should be encompassed in your brand’s experience, but not overwhelmed by it.

Your projects need context which can be done with supporting text, walking through its process and pieces, and by supplying information such as its challenge and proposed solutions. Also, make sure that everything is displayed clearly, or can be found easily.

No matter how you build your site you’ll need a domain name and a hosting provider. The third cost that could change depends on what functions you want on your site and which way you choose to develop. Website builders will have subscription fees based on the features you want to have.

The Studioblr Collective hopes that this was helpful and encourages any of our readers to ask questions or provide feedback: we’d be happy to respond!

Have fun and keep up the good work, designers!

References:

Personal Experience

https://www.creativelive.com/blog/5-graphic-design-portfolio-mistakes/

https://99designs.com/blog/freelancing/how-to-build-graphic-design-portfolio/

[studioblrcollective]

Quick Tip!

Not sure what to draw in your sketchbook? Fill a spread of your sketchbook with multiple species of one creature or multiple angles of one animal! This helps you train your eyes and hand to interpret perspective, texture, and color.

What kind of exercises do you do in your sketchbook? Reblog and let us, and others, know!

[studioblrcollective]

Welcome to Studioblr Collective 2019!

We’ll be posting articles, quick tips, and artist features every Saturday, alongside answering questions that come into our inbox as a team!

For those already following the blog and familiar, we’ve been around for a while now, but have been inactive for some time. We have rebooted for 2019 and can’t wait to share what we have in store!

Here’s the team:

Allyson - @allydsgn​

Abby - @abby-studies-art​

Dana - @studiolunare​

Lily - @pixels-study

Rain - @pastelstudyplace

Yumi - @mayuluh

We hope that you enjoy our content and that we help along your creative journeys!

[studioblrcollective]

2019

Hello all, Allyson here!

The Studioblr Collective has been quiet for some time and that’s completely my fault, but the plan is to start anew in 2019!

We’ve got some great volunteers in the Studioblr Chat Discord server that are willing to help me with producing content and sharing great things about the art and design world. Personally, now that I’m graduated with a full-time design job, I feel even more qualified and more available to share some things I’ve learned and help direct this content in a more professional direction. I’d love for this to be a bigger blog and possibly site one day, but for now, articles, tips, features, and more on a Tumblr blog (and we’re planning also an Instagram) will be what we’re planning to achieve in 2019.

If anyone is interested in joining in this escapade you’ll have to be okay with using Google Drive and join the Discord server (sorry that’s where we’re discussing things) and let me know that you’re interested. You’ll get a role on the server for it to access the channel and stuff.

Responsibilities include helping write/brainstorm content and help to answer questions that we receive through the blog. We’ve gotten some asks already that I feel unqualified to answer, so I do need this team in order for this blog to continue being as helpful as it’s been in the past.

Anyway, happy 2018, and can’t wait to see what unfolds in 2019!

- Allyson ( @allydsgn )

[studioblrcollective]

[priyanshmangal]

Ways to Ideate!

Priyansh Mangal | Thursday, June 7th, 2018

Hello, everyone! I feel that as either final projects come along or as you start summer ones, it may be good to address the different ways I’ve learned to get inspired or to ideate! Here’s a quick list of tips that could possibly help creatives out!

Visit your subject matter! Say your project is to design branding or a poster (or maybe just make an illustration) for… a movie theatre or a coffee shop. Go to that theatre or that coffee shop! You may know how these places look like and you may go there so frequently that you could draw it from memory, but being there and in the scene will definitely get some ideas rolling. Instead of the cliche “oh, coffee shop means I need a mug” or “movie theatre means I should use popcorn”, you can grab a lot of creative ideas from the vibe of areas as well!

Do your research! This sort of goes hand in hand with visiting your subject matter. We’ll continue the coffee shop example… where does coffee come from? Is that company known for something specific about their coffee? What makes their coffee so great? Make sure you’re still in the essence of coffee. Why do people go to coffee shops? Ask all the questions that you can because your answers may spark something.

Make an inspiration board! I used to be against this when I was younger because I thought I would get an idea in my head from someone else and then accidentally copy them. The trick is to gather everything that inspires you, take what you like, leave what you don’t, make something, and then make sure it doesn’t look like any of the pieces you gathered. You can take an idea from something, but that doesn’t mean you have to do it exactly in that way. For example, say you like how the smoke of the coffee makes the name of the shop. Why do you like that? It’s typography integration with an aspect of the coffee. Maybe the coffee itself instead of the smoke? Maybe it’s done in a different way. Understand why you like it and then make it happen!

What do you want to say? The connotation is very important no matter what kind of art you’re doing. A feeling or an idea should be expressed, so make sure you get that down before you start to say you’re stuck! Maybe you need to look at it in a different way. Maybe instead of saying “What do I love about coffee?” say “What do I hate about coffee and how is our coffee not like that?”. Solve a problem, say you love something in another way, say why people should care about what you’re selling, make sure you’re saying what you want to say.

Word association (it’s almost like a game)! Say your words are “coffee” and “shop”. Now, get out a blank piece of paper and write all the words you would associate with these terms. Things like “beans”, “liquid”, “black”, “brown”, and so on will probably be the first things that you think of, which is completely okay! But how do you make an interesting or original idea? You keep going past the obvious and maybe you find something that you wouldn’t have thought of otherwise!

Literally just put down everything. Even if it’s an instant throw-away idea that would not work in a million years, write it down and draw it out! Exhaust all of your ideas and make sure to get all the bad ideas out of your system and the good ideas onto paper!

And that’s all I’ve got at the moment! Feel free to reblog and add your own tips too if you have them! In this day and age, there are so many ways to get inspired and I’m sure I didn’t list all of them!

I hope this helped get you out of your creative rut and helped you get moving!

Written by Priyansh( @priyanshmangal ) Designed by Priyansh ( @ priyanshmangal )

[studioblrcollective]

Hello, could you please either delete or edit this post to where you are not trying to claim that you wrote our post?

Thanks!

[studioblrcollective]

Studioblr Chat is LIVE

A Discord Server for Art/Design enthusiasts and students! Get feedback and be with other artists in this fun and laid-back chat!

Thanks to those of you that showed interest! We’ve got a few people in there already, but let’s add some more!

The link above is the invite link, if you have any issues let me ( @allydsgn ) know!

Here’s some features of the server:

My “This Place is Cool” Pitch:

I mean… a chat for art students, that sounds neat, right?

Seriously though: make connections and network!

See what other schools, and even countries, are doing in their coursework to inspire yourself

Share ideas, art, social media, and opinions with like-minded students

Finally, a place to geek out about a typeface or color choice!

Text Channels:

#critique - need some feedback? Upload your project and get feedback from other art students and even people outside your field

#academic-help - Art history, Color Theory, Philosophy of Art and Beauty, and other cores like Math, English, Science, and so on still affect us art students, so why not get some help here?

#resources - I know I find helpful links, so if you wanna share yours that you find share them with us and others will do the same!

… AND MORE!

Voice Channels:

critique room: Talk through a concept or some feedback through voice if you think that’d be easier!

studio space: Get together in the same space and work on projects at the same time. Ask some quick questions maybe and have some work partners to inspire you to get a project done!

… AND MORE!

Who’s Invited?

Art/Visual Students

Students interested in art

Studioblrs

Graduated Artists/Designers

If you ask I’ll let you know!

Tagging those that previously mentioned they were interested:

@mayuluh @cocoamilkystudies @studynigdaisies   @lastpolarbear (hm, this one won’t link?)  @egodoesnotequatetoarrogance @lindzpng @jolinedesigns

I’m also open to suggestions and adding some moderators! Come on in!

- Allyson ( @allydsgn )

[printstudies]

Is this still open?!?!?

[studioblrcollective]

Yes! We're still up and running and you can join whenever just click the link! :)

[studioblrcollective]

Studioblr Chat is LIVE

A Discord Server for Art/Design enthusiasts and students! Get feedback and be with other artists in this fun and laid-back chat!

Thanks to those of you that showed interest! We’ve got a few people in there already, but let’s add some more!

The link above is the invite link, if you have any issues let me ( @allydsgn ) know!

Here’s some features of the server:

My “This Place is Cool” Pitch:

I mean… a chat for art students, that sounds neat, right?

Seriously though: make connections and network!

See what other schools, and even countries, are doing in their coursework to inspire yourself

Share ideas, art, social media, and opinions with like-minded students

Finally, a place to geek out about a typeface or color choice!

Text Channels:

#critique - need some feedback? Upload your project and get feedback from other art students and even people outside your field

#academic-help - Art history, Color Theory, Philosophy of Art and Beauty, and other cores like Math, English, Science, and so on still affect us art students, so why not get some help here?

#resources - I know I find helpful links, so if you wanna share yours that you find share them with us and others will do the same!

… AND MORE!

Voice Channels:

critique room: Talk through a concept or some feedback through voice if you think that’d be easier!

studio space: Get together in the same space and work on projects at the same time. Ask some quick questions maybe and have some work partners to inspire you to get a project done!

… AND MORE!

Who’s Invited?

Art/Visual Students

Students interested in art

Studioblrs

Graduated Artists/Designers

If you ask I’ll let you know!

Tagging those that previously mentioned they were interested:

@mayuluh @cocoamilkystudies @studynigdaisies   @lastpolarbear (hm, this one won’t link?)  @egodoesnotequatetoarrogance @lindzpng @jolinedesigns

I’m also open to suggestions and adding some moderators! Come on in!

- Allyson ( @allydsgn )

[studioblrcollective]

Please reblog for support! :)

[pipseroo-deactivated20190324]

hey look its me! no april fools here lol

[musicalluna-draws]

Meet the Artist what’s-in-my-bag thing for @studioblrcollective