While Jordan was away on holiday, I was getting all the emails sent to our ‘hello@nakedcreativity.co.uk’ email account. We get all sorts sent to this address, from people trying to sell us cleaning services (we’re not that messy!) to the ones we like to receive (new business enquiries).
However, by far the most frequent email we receive are speculative emails from established designers, recent graduates, or school students looking for work experience with a graphic design agency.
Now, we do much more than just graphic design, including extensive website development, and email marketing. But we perform very well in Google local search for terms like ‘graphic design’, so a lot of new enquiries arrive via this. So, along with graphic design enquiries for new business startups, rebranding and the other design we get involved in, we get loads of CVs and portfolios.
With our new team in place (me included), we’re not actually hiring at the moment, but we are always on the lookout for new talent. We keep details of everyone who sends us a decent CV so we’ll have our own database of applicants when we are ready to recruit again.
So, for people applying to Naked Creativity, and to anywhere else, here are some tips that will help your CV and portfolio stand out.
Please explain things in your portfolio!
We get some great examples of work, either Uni projects, commercial work, or exploratory work. But we hardly ever get an explanation of the project. We’re not after a case study, but we would like to know what the brief was, your involvement in the project, and any successful outcomes.
Don’t be too repetitive.
We don’t need to see loads of examples of the same sort of thing. Keep your portfolio short and sweet by focusing on projects which show off a range of skills. Because we are a small graphic and website design agency, all of our staff work on lots of variety of projects every day, so it’s good to see that you can do the same.
Use design sparingly.
There will be examples of design on every page in your portfolio, so keep your portfolio design clean and simple to allow the design examples to stand out.
It’s also nice to receive something tailored to us, explaining why you think you’re a good fit. We’ve got plenty of information on our website to check names, personalise your email, and find out a bit more about what we do and where we came from.
And finally, please proof read it! Designers are all perfectionists, and typos glare out of the screen at us!
Good luck applying for jobs with us, or anywhere else.