All Posts: Show All

Workbook Radio Episode 7: The Art of Portfolio Reviews

Posted on

We’re getting into the subject of portfolio reviews in this episode of Workbook Radio.

In this continuing discussion, Workbook Rep Heidi Goverman talks to panelists Shawna Bigby Davis, Jessica Mirolla, Suzee Barrabee, Glen Batkin, and Kenneth Zane. 

Heidi kicks off this free flow discussion with the subject of portfolio review do’s and don’ts.

HG: “Portfolio reviews! Everything that everyone is here for. Do you guys have a do’s and don’ts of your portfolio reviews? All of you are in the thick of it a bit right now.”

SB: “Can I call out somebody in this room? Martin (in attendance), I met with you and you sat down, and you gave me the three things that you were expecting from the review. And I thought ‘wow’ that was amazing preparation and it helped me focus what my thoughts were.  That is just the greatest thing for us.  If you say what’s important to you and what you’re looking to get from the review. It was awesome.”

HG: “Well, that actually brings up an interesting point…do you guys get nervous before portfolio reviews too? (off panel reaction) No. Not at all. All right. Nevermind.”

SB: “I would say excited.“

GB: “Yeah I definitely get excited, for sure.”

SB: “I want to see your work.”

HG: “You’re excited?”

SB: “Yeah.”

GB: “I always ask the question, which I’m glad that [Martin] asked. I’ll always ask the person across from me going ‘what do you hope to get out of the next 15-20 minutes?’ so that we don’t waste, not so much wasting time, but is there something really specific? Let’s get right to it, as opposed to having a nice conversation. That could be had at any time after that. But if you’re really looking for something…“

HG: “Specific.“

GB: “Yeah, let’s get right to it.”

HG: “You don’t have a lot of time. Let’s do this.”

KZ: “That’s really funny though because I’m so used to doing these. I volunteer a lot during the year and I’ll look at books. When someone comes to the office at headquarters and show me the portfolio, I start looking at it and I have to keep stopping myself because I’m about to give feedback! Because I’m so used to people saying, ‘hey so what do you think I should do? What would make this better?’ I just looked at a portfolio and the first six pages, I hate to say this, they bored me. I thought it was awful, I was [thinking] I can’t believe you actually reached out to us to look at this book when you know what we’re looking for. And then all of a sudden, [the second part of the book got me thinking] ‘oh my god! Oh my god!’ and I was dying to say ‘hey, why do you have these first 8 pages here?’”

GB: “Why didn’t you though? In the nicest way?”

HG: “You should.”

KZ: “I know. I feel like it’s just here in this type of environment people are expecting and then then there when the reps are sending them, it’s a little inappropriate.”

HG: “It’s hard! That’s a hard thing to know. We did a portfolio review and one of the guys was like, there were a couple of things that were just, stuff that he could fix really easily, but I didn’t want to give him that feedback because it wasn’t the right setting. But I don’t know I think I’m on the fence, I think people would want to know that.”

KZ: “Cuz I know a lot of people who would be gutted and would [feel] dismissed.”

JM: “I’m finding that what I have to say, it varies from what they’ve heard from other people. So again, knowing what you want from me is important. I was sitting down [at a portfolio review] right before this, and there were beautiful images, and I was like ‘this one is amazing!’ and we started talking about it and he was like, ‘Really? The person I saw before you was not interested at all.’ So yeah, we all have our personal tastes. So, if you want me to go through and tell you what I like and don’t like, happy to do so. And if you have a question for us like, ‘Hey, do you like the order of my book?’ or ‘What do you think are my strong points?’ If you’re really building it or starting something new, like, ‘Hey I’m working on this personal project. This is the direction I’m heading.’ Feedback.”

SB: “Really quickly. I always preface: I’m only one person, and I have an opinion. Also because I work in advertising, I have a commercial lens to what I’m looking at. If you feel strongly about your work? Say so. It might not be my taste, but it might be somebody else’s. And if you can talk about your work and your passion and why you did the photo the way you did? I think that’s great. Everybody’s going to have a different lens that they view your work [through].”

HG: “I love you guys.”

Heidi asks the panel where the best places are to study up on reviewers.

HG:  “Doing the research on you guys. I think that obviously we read your bios and so on. I think stalking on Instagram, that is where you get some information? I don’t recommend stalking them any other time! But before a portfolio review, they’ll get a sense of what you’re working on, correct?”

SBD: “No.”

GB: “My LinkedIn maybe.”

SBD: “Yeah.”

KZ: “Not really.”

SB: “I have a site.”

HG: “Go to Suzee’s site.”

Heidi asks the panel if this is the only time to see some of these reviewers, or if they take additional meetings.

 HG: “We already went over who takes one-on-one meetings. But is this [events] where you take more time? Because you’re doing this, you probably won’t do book reviews for a few months?”

SB: “Not really. It’s my job. It’s my passion. I like it. If I have time, yes.”

SBD: “That’s probably true for me, though.”

HG: “Okay, so you would just come to a show.”

SBD:” Once a quarter.”

HG: “Once a quarter go to a portfolio review.”

SBD: “Or like once a month.“

HG: “In your agency.”

SBD: “Right try to chunkify it.”

HG: “Fair enough.”

So what is the ideal review time? The panel responds.

HG: “So the time restrictions on this kind of event. Is that tough? Like all of a sudden, you don’t have enough time, cuz you want longer? The last review you did, Shawna, I know it was a 20-minute review.  How are other reviews? 20?”

KZ: “20.”

HG: “So it’s the same time frame. Do feel like it’s enough time? Not enough time? You want more time?”

GB: “I think it’s about right.”

HG: “20 minutes is perfect.”

KZ: “I think it’s perfect. I did one that was a half hour and after 20 minutes the person was bored with me he was like, ‘Okay Ken! Do you want to grab a coffee or something?’”

Next up, the panel discusses the overdone apology and filling silences.

HG: “Apologizing. When the artist apologizes. Right? Happens though?”

SBD: “(in agreement) Hmm.”

KZ: “Oh yeah.”

HG: “Where they explain it like, ‘Oh, this wasn’t the right shot.’ No?”

SBD: “There’s a lot of like, ‘Well you know I had a vision but it didn’t come through for the client’ or this, that, and the other. Don’t need it. It’s in your book. You love it. Talk about it.”

GB:  “Or take it out.”

HG: “I think that goes to filling silences. I’m a talker, silences are somewhat uncomfortable to me. So [during the review] just kind of let you guys look [at the book] and let you lead the way [of the conversation]?  Is that fair?”

SB: “I’ll ask questions.”

SBD: “Agreed.”

Finally the panel discusses book length, book format, and the overall goal of a portfolio review.

HG: “Book length. What is our ideal book length?”

KZ: “That’s tough. I mean, don’t show me this.”

HG: “You don’t want 160 pages.”

KZ:  “Yeah. I saw someone’s work yesterday and I was like, ‘I want to see more!’ It’s about finding the balance. But not too much! One photographer came in at the portfolio review here two years ago and he actually sat down with 5 portfolios.”

GB: “Five?!”

KZ: “Five! I’m not exaggerating. Like, ‘Here’s my kids book, here’s my lifestyle book. Here’s this, here’s that.’ And I’m trying to go through them quickly just to get an idea. I finally looked at him and I said ‘What do you like doing?’ And he goes ‘Oh, I have a personal book. But you’re not going to like it, so I don’t want to show it to you because you work at an ad agency.’”

“He pulled out this personal book, blew me out the window, and I just went, ‘Why the hell have you not shown this?!’ So it really helps if you can edit yourself but I know it’s difficult because we all need another set of eyes on our work. But really edit. Present what you feel is your strongest work to us.”

SBD: “What you love.”

KZ: “Because it’s not going to be in a book like this [big book].”

SB: “And don’t forget, if we like your work we’ll go to your website.”

KZ: “Oh yeah!  Absolutely.”

HG: “I actually glossed over this question, which is do you prefer physical prints and printed book or iPads? I know that sometimes people present both, especially if they’re showing motion. Do you have a preference…”

SBD:  “I love the iPad because I can go at my own pace. What I don’t enjoy: I love big beautiful prints; I  do. But there’s so much, sort of like, care and precision that goes into them, that I’ll have times when people tell me like, ‘Here, put on these white gloves so you can turn my pages.’ Or (laughing) they’ll ask me to delicately take the edge, or it’s bound so tight in the middle that I can’t crack it open. So if it’s a piece that’s fussy and you’re asking me to do a lot of work? Then just show me an iPad and let’s get past that. But if it’s used so I can actually turn the pages, printed materials are better.”

HG: “You guys are all nodding.”

JM: “I love printed books.”

GB: “So do I”.

JM: “Because I look at emails and digital all day.”

HG: “You do that on your own.”

SBD: “Yeah the printed stuff is gorgeous.  Just make it so that I can see it.”

JM: “Yeah there’s…“

HG: “Don’t be fussy.”

SBD: “Yeah.”

SB: “My whole thing is: just make sure that you’re presenting your work to make it look fabulous. I have seen instances where the prints were rainbow-oid.”

HG: “How do we feel about plastic pages?”

GB: “[No] just because the lighting sometimes is a little tricky. I love matte papers where the inks really soak into the paper and it feels lush and rich and Rembrandt.“

HG: “Even if it’s brand new it has that…you can see.”

SBD: “Yup.”

HG: “So that guy brings up six books for you to see. Is that effective? Maybe you just needed to see the private book. The next person just wants to see the kid book. Is that a helpful thing? Not the expectation to look through all of them.”

KZ: “If it’s kids and adult, absolutely because we have different divisions, and if we’re shooting kids, and we’re shooing adults. My creative directors are not going to want to waste time. They’re going to say, ‘Hey, let’s get you.’ They’re going to want to see the kid’s book.”

“But I saw a really beautiful portfolio today too, from the same artist. They were separated out. After looking at both books, I was like ‘these could be integrated perfectly.’ There was no reason to [separate them]. So it really depends if the work compliments each other, brings it together. Because you might  look at a TRAVELER ASIA or VOGUE and there might be a portrait shot of jewelry next to a Nike…just how they work together.”

HG:”(To Glenn) Did you have something to add?”

GB: “No I was just nodding. Personally I think there is a flow to your book that’s just as important to the work. I think the care and feeding of that book has to be thoughtful from end to end. I think the idea (not that anybody would do that) but random, no knowing what goes into what…I think is wrong. I think it’s like a good book or a good story or film. I think you really have to bethinking about the flow of all that.”

SBD: “But just like a good film, you need to have an editor and a director, and they can’t be the same person.”

GB: “That’s a good point.”

SBD: “So rely on a second set of eyes to help you make that edit.”

HG: “Which brings us to this: knowing what the point of a review is and why that’s important. [Do meeting goals stay the same] do you all consider that the thrust of these reviews? Or does it depend on who you’re seeing?”

KZ: “It depends. I think to Sue’s point and everyone’s points earlier, if you sit down with us right away and let us know what your expectations are and what we can do to help you? Just let us know as soon as you sit down.“

 

Make sure to keep up with Workbook Radio updates on our Instagram!

0:00 / 0:00