Appendix A. Resources
A bountiful collection of portfolio resources is just a few mouse clicks away. Although I’ve grouped these sites under headings for ease of use, you’ll find that some sites, particularly those for associations, actually offer listings or information in other categories.
Copyright and legal issues
These sites address intellectual property and the law. They’re good places to check in for help with registering your portfolio content and keeping your nose clean when you’re not sure what you can, and can’t, legally do.
Copyright Website | BENEDICT.COM
This site is dedicated to intellectual property issues of all sorts. It has a copyright wizard that painlessly and quickly walks you through the process of filing a copyright on your work.
DigiMarc | DIGIMARC.COM
Digimarc is the developer of the best-known method of embedding watermarks in digital images. The site explains how the technology works, and allows you to enable the service plug-in.
IPG Art Law Center | WWW.ARTLAWS.COM
The Art Law Center offers intellectual property and other legal services to creatives. The site has a collection of standard legal forms, useful articles, and links.
Nolo | WWW.NOLO.COM
Nolo believes in the democratization of the law—anyone should be able to get the information they need on legal issues in clear, sane English. Their website and their publications demystify the sometimes Byzantine workings of law, and their copyright section is particularly good.
United States Copyright Office | COPYRIGHT.GOV
This is the site for the U.S. government’s copyright office. It’s a well-written, easy to navigate site for downloading relevant publications and registering your work.
Group sites and forums
This group of sites is particularly handy for posting your portfolio for feedback (taken with a grain of salt, I hope), or for marketing to potential clients or employers. Some are specific to one or two disciplines; others are open to all creatives.
Animation and modeling
Animation World Network Television | WWW.AWNTV.COM
An animation-only competitor to YouTube, where you can submit a video of your work and hope to find it in the Featured Content section. This site is a cornucopia of every length and type of animated content. It has its own reviewers and an active community of registered kibitzers. Artwork is searchable by tagged descriptions, and theme-based playlists help you find your favorite type of content. There are also tips and tricks organized by category in the Channels section.
CG Channel | WWW.CGCHANNEL.COM/
This glossy site is dedicated to all forms of computer graphics. Besides providing news and interviews, it boasts a large and vital community that revolves around its forums. The Cool Links forum allows registered users to post links to their own sites or to others of interest, and then open them to critique and discussion. In addition, you’ll find the CG Art portfolio area and a recruitment section with job listings.
CG Society | WWW.CGSOCIETY.ORG
The Society of Digital Artists runs this site, which is a hotbed of industry news, articles, workshops, forums, and galleries. The forum is very light on the flaming and heavy on useful feedback because they are moderated.
Gallery of 3D.com | WWW.GALLERYOF3D.COM
Less glossy than some of the other sites devoted to the 3D community, this site is exactly what its name implies. It displays member animations and 3D renderings. Anyone can become a member and post their work, but the site also profiles some members and places a few in the Cream Gallery. Among the forums is one (3Dartwork > Critique) dedicated to peer critiques.
InsideCG.com | WWW.INSIDECG.COM
The computer graphics community is full of enthusiasts, which may be why there are so many good sites and forums for them. Industry focused, this site has a large community following, in part because of a good jobs listing.
Flay.com | FLAY.COM
Flay has been around for, in Internet terms, a long time—since 1996. Similar in format to other forum-based CG sites, Flay offers a particularly strong Jobs section with the most recent (and most likely to still be unfilled), at the top.
Fine arts
Absolutearts.com and World Wide Arts Resources | WWW.ABSOLUTEARTS.COM and WWAR.COM
This is a marketplace and portfolio site for fine artists. It offers a mailing list of dealers and galleries for artists trying to get a show or representation, and it has a large gallery and portfolio database. The basic portfolio of eight images is free. They also offer a 40-image portfolio and a premier, juried version—a mind-boggling 3,000 images—for a yearly fee.
ArtistsRegister.com | ARTISTSREGISTER.COM
This site, run by WESTAF (Western States Arts Federation), positions itself as a marketing tool that connect artists with both art buyers and galleries, non-profit organizations, and participating state agencies. Membership is by application, and requires a membership fee.
ArtVitae | WWW.ARTVITAE.COM
A multilingual portfolio site used by artists in both the U.S. and Europe, the site boasts a substantial database of artists’ CVs and their portfolios. For an annual fee, you can use their template to quickly get your information and a sampling of your work online, or you can design, create, and manage your own portfolio but use the site as a home address. One nice touch: Their ArtPostcards service allows both visitors and artists to email postcards of work—a nice way to do a cold-call email.
Art in Context Center for Communications | WWW.ARTINCONTEXT.ORG
This is a nonprofit site that creates a library of artists and organizations. They will put you into their searchable database for a small registration fee, that is renewable, for a small discount, annually. Because it’s part of the art community and not a commercial venture, it attracts many academics and museum curators.
Game design
GamaSutra | WWW.GAMASUTRA.COM
The premier site for people interested in the game design world, whether it be for educational opportunities, jobs, opinions, or feedback. Friendly, informative blogs and a truly excellent job list put this site on the required list for anyone wanting to make a living as a game professional.
Gamedev.net | WWW.GAMEDEV.NET
The forums are the draw here. This site is dedicated to making you a better game developer, designer, or artist, with extremely active posting, particularly on the technical forums. The GDNet Lounge is a comfy gathering space for like-minded pros and wannabes. It is impossible to visit this site and not learn something useful.
Graphic arts and design
Behance | WWW.BEHANCE.NET
A strange grafting of social network, professional resource, portfolio site, and design magazine, Behance has quickly become a destination that rivals the more established portfolio options. You must be invited to join by another Behance member, with the idea that only serious creatives with a network will find their way in. Even without joining, the range of quality portfolios and the other online content makes this a good site to visit.
Communication Arts | WWW.COMMARTS.COM
Communication Arts is a magazine whose site includes one of the very best job and portfolio listings for the design professions. Jobs can be viewed by location, title, or discipline. In addition, using their template, you can create a portfolio of up to 27 images and a profile, and post for a fee in their Creative HotList section. The site also provides occasional articles of great value on career and other professional topics.
Coroflot | WWW.COROFLOT.COM
Coroflot is a cross-disciplinary professional development site for creatives, although it is most frequently used by people in the related areas of graphic design, interaction, and industrial design. It provides a comprehensive listing of design firms and organizations, a very good job board, and a portfolio site used by professionals around the world. You create a free portfolio by uploading your work into sets using their template, which includes a link to your own portfolio site if you have one. The site also has forums devoted to design careers and practice. Coroflot is also connected to Core77, a design magazine (core77.com) with informative and often fascinating articles on design issues.
Professional organizations
Not at all comprehensive, this group of associations represents the best-known and most useful organizations for creatives. Most offer a variety of member benefits, including career help and job listings.
ACM (Association for Computing Machinery) | WWW.ACM.ORG
Far more than its name might suggest, the ACM is the home of the special interest group (SIG), known as SIGGRAPH. This group can be an extremely valuable networking resource for creatives in animation, modeling, and interactivity. Another good group for web professionals is SIGCHI, which covers areas of human-computer interaction and usability.
AIA (American Institute of Architects) | WWW.AIA.ORG
The defining organization for architecture, AIA has a site that offers extensive career and job search support. Their “Find an Architect” database allows potential clients to search the member listing with very specific criteria. Architects looking for a firm can post a résumé on the site. In addition, there are several articles and links for professional development.
AIGA | WWW.AIGA.ORG
AIGA, the professional organization for design, partners with Aquent to provide an excellent job posting area for graphic design and related positions in the U.S. Although anyone can search the listings, you must be an AIGA member to post a job-seeker profile. The AIGA site also hosts a lively collection of forums, and sponsors discussion lists on design theory and practice.
American Society of Media Photographers | WWW.ASMP.ORG
Professional photographers, particularly those who shoot for advertising and editorial clients, will find help with business issues, a listing of local chapters, and a friendly network of people at this site. They have a gallery where they feature members’ work, and a good database for photo buyers.
BDA (Broadcast Designers of America) | WWW.PROMAXBDA.ORG
This site is the international resource for creatives in broadcast design and promotion, and marketing executives in electronic media, to connect with others through the message boards, create a link to their portfolio site, or search for posted jobs. You must be a member of either BDA or Promax International to register, to post, or to access the job board.
Graphic Artists Guild | WWW.GRAPHICARTISTSGUILD.ORG
A multidisciplinary organization for industry creatives, particularly designers (graphic, web, and so on) and illustrators. This site is particularly useful for freelancers and small studios, with Guild chapters in many cities in the U.S. In addition, the Guild offers a portfolio site for its members only. Areas range from cartooning to graphic design to video/broadcast design.
Industrial Designers Society of America | WWW.IDSA.ORG
IDSA is for industrial designers what the AIGA is for graphic designers. It covers a variety of disciplines related to ID: from furniture to consumer electronics to usability design. Included on the site is a listing of employment opportunities, as well as ID firms. The site offers links to each of the local chapters.
Rhode Island School of Design | WWW.RISD.EDU
Most art and design schools have websites, and offer services to their students. I single out RISD’s site, however, because it is particularly full and rich. It provides a comprehensive list of extremely useful links—on topics ranging from a listing of job banks to company profiles—for its alumni, who must register to use the site.
Society for Environmental Graphic Design | WWW.SEGD.ORG
If your interests lie in the real world of three-dimensional environments—from exhibit design to architecture to ID—this site is what you need. It has a job bank with very detailed postings and a new referrals section where SEGD members can provide profiles for potential clients.
ADC (Art Directors Club) | WWW.ADCGLOBAL.ORG
By far the most important of the Art Directors Clubs that can be found in some major cities is the New York City flagship. It is a terrific international resource for professionals in advertising, interactive media, design, and communications, with a public job board of international postings.
Specialized resources
Google has become the default search system, both for its own directories and for those throughout the Internet. However, there are several independent sites whose databases contain specialized information for creatives on the research prowl: directories, listings, career information, and helpful articles.
InfoDesign | WWW.INFODESIGN.ORG
This international listing zeros in on resources for information designers. It has live links to an alphabetical listing of firms from the U.S. to Japan, links to information designers and information architects, and a jobs section.
CreativePro | WWW.CREATIVEPRO.COM
This is the mother of all directories for creatives. You can find every creative association in the U.S., as well as a comprehensive listing of agencies, firms, publishers, and suppliers.
The Firm List | US.FIRMLIST.COM
Looking for a web-design firm who might be looking for someone like you? If so, this is a good first stop. Listings are sorted by state, then by city/town.
Career sites
With so many local or national career sites, it would be folly to try to list them all. Everyone is familiar with sites like Monster.com. But there are other, more targeted sites that are also worth a careful look. I’ve provided three very different sites from which to approach a job search: a targeted creative recruitment firm, a creatives-only company, and a large, extremely rich general site.
Roz Goldfarb Associates | WWW.RGARECRUITING.COM
Roz Goldfarb Associates is a recruitment firm in New York City specializing in creatives of all sorts. Most of the jobs listed on its site are for established professionals, not entry-level candidates. They are broken down into job categories, and the number of postings in each area is listed—a fast way to see what types of positions are generating traffic.
The Creative Group | WWW.CREATIVEGROUP.COM
The Creative Group is a staffing firm for marketing and advertising creatives. It has placement offices in a variety of cities around the U.S. The website allows you to search for opportunities by location and job description, as well as by keyword. Each local area posts a small portfolio for their featured artists on the main website.
Vault | WWW.VAULT.COM
All careers, all jobs, all the time. The Vault is not a creatives’ site, but it has research on over 3,000 companies (great for targeting an audience) and a daunting collection of message boards where you can read what people who are (or were) working at these companies have to say about the experience.
Software self-help books
You’ll need to master at least one software program in making your digital portfolio. There are many excellent books to choose from as companions in your learning process—and there is usually more than one that covers a topic effectively. What follows is simply my personal pick of books that I think cover their topics well.
AFTER EFFECTS FOR FLASH, FLASH FOR AFTER EFFECTS | Richard Harrington and Marcus Geduld
A particularly smart book for the motion or animation person who wants to be able to work with both Adobe Flash and Adobe After Effects to create a reel and portfolio.
The Zen of CSS Design: Visual Enlightenment for the Web | Dave Shea and Molly E. Holzschlag
A truly well-designed website needs formats and good typography. With style sheets, you can attain these goals. With this book, by the creator of the CSS Zen Garden and web guru Molly Holzschlag, you’ll actually know what you’re doing, and why you’d want to do it.
JAVASCRIPT AND AJAX FOR THE WORLD WIDE WEB: VISUAL QUICKSTART GUIDE | Tom Negrino and Dori Smith
I’m prejudiced, because the authors are good friends. But I thought the book covered the subject beautifully even before I knew them. If you need a little website scripting, this is the book for you.
WEB DESIGN IN A NUTSHELL | Jennifer Niederst
A clear and concise explanation of how to make a website, from soup to nuts. The author knows what she’s talking about, and she organizes it beautifully.
THE CREATIVE DIGITAL DARKROOM | Katrin Eismann and Sean Duggan
A book that takes you into the more complicated and creative realms of image editing. Particularly useful if you are looking for techiques to enhance your scanned printed materials or photographed 3D art.
DIGITAL CLASSROOM SERIES FROM WILEY
This is a great series for a relative beginner who wants to understand the basics of Adobe CS software. Each is a well-considered training package, particularly the books that cover Adobe Photoshop, Flash, and Dreamweaver.
VISUAL QUICKSTART GUIDES FROM PEACHPIT PRESS
The books in this series will help you master the software they cover. They are classics: inexpensive, well-organized, and easy-to-follow references.