Portfolio surgery with Chris Jackson, Elmwood

Today was my portfolio surgery with Chris Jackson from Elmwood. I went into this one with a lot more confidence than with Tom yesterday, because now I know what to expect. It was different, of course, to the one I had yesterday but equally as helpful. Of course, there were contradictions to the advice that Tom had given me but that is to be expected.

Again, he liked the custom folder rather than having a generic black portfolio, and his favourite out of my work was the Tea Hugger brief again. This one is proving to be pretty popular, I must have done something right here. There were a couple of things that he thought could have been pushed further, such as the Tree Surgeon identity so he suggested removing it, as well as the Fedrigoni brief. While it was a nice piece of graphic design it didn't fit in with what I was going for. He also suggested spreading my bigger briefs across a couple of pages. Also, more in context shots and product shots to show how something worked o folded down or was constructed.

When I mentioned embellishing the pages a little, he suggested only doing it to the folder rather than the pages. He found the blue logo a little distracting on the pages as it was so that's something I need to address, perhaps fading the logo out and having it full colour on the folder and business card alone.

I mentioned the tea bag that I discussed with Tom and he advised against it, saying how it would be too gimicky and there was the risk of the tea bag bursting. The advice I got here was more about letting the work speak for itself.