Advertising rules our modern world.

Think about it: how do you know about so many products today? Advertising. Coca-Cola – independent double-blind taste tests find – is actually an inferior product to Pepsi. But yet people still prefer to buy a can of Coke than a can of Pepsi from a vending machine. Why? Because of the advertising dollars Coke put into its product to make it inseparable from people’s minds.

 

In essence, they created a portfolio of happy moments that people had with Coke. Suddenly people started combining the two in their minds. Good times were had with Coke.

It’s best seen at this time of year. For many people, Christmas isn’t Christmas until they see the Coke advert. That’s a pretty weird way of looking at things.

Advertising works, then. But the likelihood is that you don’t have the time, money or inclination to spend millions advertising your skills as a logo designer. You want something cut price which still does an excellent job of selling your skills.

After all, the LogoMyWay community is nearly 15,000 strong. That’s 14,999 other people you have to compete with – and that’s just on this site; there are countless other logo designers across the world plying their trade.

That’s why you need a portfolio. Of course, on LogoMyWay there is a built-in portfolio tool, which allows you to upload a photo and pen a small biography. It’ll contain all your logo designs for the community in one easily accessible place.

That’s a great way for people who trawl through LogoMyWay in search of a designer to find you. But you might want to supplement that with another outside portfolio, where you can show off the designs in a more unique way.

Freelancers of any kind need a portfolio. It’s the thing you direct people towards when making pitches for work. The ability to drop in a casual “by the way, if you’re interested, please take a look at my online portfolio for examples of my work” is something which immediately separates the wheat from the chaff.

I have a portfolio for my writing (which is currently getting revamped; the work in progress can be seen here). It’s basic – some might say it’s even ugly – but it does the job. People can see a wide selection of my work at their own pace. They can learn more about me as a person and as a worker.

It doesn’t even matter that the original version hasn’t been properly updated since 2010 – as I said in my book, ‘Confessions of a Freelancer’, it’s more about the fact that it’s there than anything else.

The same principle applies for a logo designer. They don’t have to be particularly impressive – designer Luka Pensa’s porfolio is, frankly, boring – but it does show off his work in a simple, readable manner. But it shows that he has experience and some skill.

They can be as complicated or as basic as you want. I mentioned above I’m redesigning my portfolio. The current version is outdated and was hard-coded; that makes updating it difficult. I’m migrating to Tumblr for my new site, but WordPress is an equally powerful free tool which has plenty of portfolio templates on it.

It’s just important to have a presence online, and to show off your skill. Otherwise, people won’t know you exist. It’s the first rule of branding and advertising: you may have the best product in the world, but if nobody knows about it, nobody’s buying it.