Rough and Ready Folios

Why is it such a struggle for designers to share? We spend our entire lives pouring over research in order to create our designs and yet when it comes to talking to people about it, sharing what we know and how we got there, we've got a bit of a mental block.

Thinking about our lecture from Richard Harper on Monday afternoon, he talked about how when we go to pitch to someone we only ever show the glossy images or finished products and don't show any of the rough and ready bits in between, when really the thinking's the interesting part and the articulation of these ideas is where you're probably going to impress people. Recently I revisited my 4th year portfolio. It was just as Harper had said, glossy images with little if no explanation. No quick and dirty.

When I've been asked for my folio I send my CD-ROM CV with all my images in an order which I think is cohesive...but I don't have any info about my thinking apart from ambiguous titles and material lists. But why not? What am I scared of? At the degree show and New Designers I loved talking to people about my work and what I'd based it on and how I'd made it. It was easy and it was fun and after I talked to them people understood my work. Ask me to present the work formally and I'd have freaked out, but that informality was wonderful and being able to go into more depth was wonderful and it made me feel proud about my work because of the meaning behind it.