Transcript

Welcome to the Behance Blueprint course thank you for taking the time to enroll and being a part of this course. I actually created this course because I found out I was making a critical mistake with my portfolio as a design professional. I thought as a designer all I needed was to have great work.

As long as it looked good, that was all I needed to earn respect from different clients as well as my peers. I soon found out that I wasn't satisfied with the type of clients I was getting or the type of work I was being asked what to do. I felt like my design skills were a bit of a commodity.

I tried many things to solve this problem, I learned new design skills, I read tutorials online, I even studied tons of books, just trying to learn what the problem was and why I couldn't really solve it. But then I even took it a step further and enrolled in a Master's in Business Administration class just to learn the business side of things but that wasn't the solution either. I then discovered that the solution was more heavily dependent upon my presentation skills.

It didn't matter how good I was as a designer if I couldn't communicate to others how my skills could create value for their businesses. So to that end I had to really learn how to best present my work in a visual manner that did show what that value was.

My goal for you is that by the end of this course, you'll be able to learn what the blueprint framework is and you'll be able to apply it to your own portfolio projects and know the exact design elements you need to create a stunning portfolio that actually helps you get clients and bridge the gap between an amateur and a professional. My name is Nathan Allotey and I'll be your instructor for this class.

So, what is the blueprint? It is a framework which will serve as a guide of the creative elements you should always include in your portfolio projects in order to present your best work. The course will cover the following areas, I've separated it into three areas.

(1) talking about your mindset and becoming a professional, in which we'll talk about the overall purpose of the main platform we're speaking to Behance the top mistakes that are made on the platform but how you can overcome these mistakes in act as a professional and then we'll get into a couple of skills that are essential if you're really going to have a great portfolio.

(2) we'll actually get into preparing your project, this is what I would call the essential part of the course, this is the actual framework. Everything from creating context to the defining statement, discussing branding, all the way down to more detailed elements of the framework, such as iconography, brand artifacts, and even discussing how you should display your work if you do creation on the web. Going from there we're getting into, how do you gain exposure?

(3)we'll look at the upload options that you need for the Behance platform, what you should do when you upload a project, and how you can build and extend that community and prepare your profile for when clients actually reach out to you, how they can best get connected to you and then even talk about how to post to other social media platforms and really just increase your reach.

There are many more topics and subjects that I could discuss and make a part of this course but really we have to think about two things:

(1) what are our goals and what audience are we trying to reach. So, if our goal really is to increase exposure in our portfolio or our goal is to get clients there are specific accidents that we need to take. And who is our audience? Are we trying to have a client view our portfolio project and then reach out to us?

(2) Or are we trying to see and connect with different agencies that exist out there and we want to collaborate with them on projects?

Regardless of what your goal is the elements we're going to discuss in this course meet both goals. I expect you to use what you learn in this course as a solid foundation and once you've established that foundation build on top of it and then take it a step further.

I'll recommend different techniques, resources, and other design elements you should include your portfolio. But as I just mentioned this is a start and then it's up to you to take it beyond.

I'll be here for full support whether you have any questions or you want to ask me a question as a part of the community, reach out and I'd be more than happy to help and also help you transform your portfolio and start getting closer to becoming a design professional that gets respect from clients and moves closer towards their goals.