Wednesday 23 November 2011

Portfolio visit: 'The Chase'

Last week I had a portfolio visit at 'The Chase' with Associate Director Lise Brian. Lise had came to college last year to give a talk about creating and presenting a portfolio and how to go about contacting agencies. I based much of the construction of my portfolio around that talk, so when it came to organizing portfolio visits 'The Chase' seemed perfect.

I'd never been to 'The Chase' before so I was really nervous (I tracked the place down about an hour before I went in for fear of getting lost or being late) but once I got there the people were friendly and welcoming and after a bit I felt completely at ease. It's an amazing place too, I was particularly impressed when I saw that an entire wall was covered with a giant 'Mona Lisa' and another which presented a quote that neatly sums up their design philosophy:

"There was once an old Indian craftsman who carved elephants from blocks of timber. When asked how he did it, he would reply, ‘I just cut away the wood that doesn't look like an elephant.’"

So, then I started to show Lise my work and talk her through my portfolio; I didn't have much experience of this so was worried that I might find myself unable to talk about my work properly. I think I did OK though; Lise seemed to like my portfolio, once I'd finished she called over a colleague to have a look through it too, which was encouraging. They both seemed to like the idea behind the 'Why Are Girls Always Right?' project and the 'Heroes' piece that I did for 'Music'. They also seemed to appreciate the booklet I gave them (even if it is was somewhat rudimentary) when I explained that the whole notion behind it had been inspired by their talk.

I left 'The Chase' that day feeling far more confident and positive than I had that morning. It was a useful, positive experience and one that I really enjoyed. Thank you to Lise Brian and cheers to 'The Chase'.

No comments:

Post a Comment