Category: Behance Network

Bring a “Behance Portfolio Review” to your City!

It’s that time again – the next Behance Portfolio Review Week is coming up from October 29-November 5. Last May, there were 153 events in 46 countries – almost 4,000 creatives attended an event to get feedback on their creative work. This is your chance to get personalized feedback on your creative work from the Behance community.

You’ll be able to attend a Portfolio Review event in your area, but right now, we’re looking for event organizers to step forward and plan a Portfolio Review in your area. Read the below, and then
Start Planning Your Event.


 

 

 

Behance Curates: Choosing a Striking Project Cover

This post is part of a series written in collaboration with the Behance Curation Team, the experts on staff who select projects to be featured in Behance’s main Gallery and 12+ Curated “Served” Sites. Click here to see more posts from this series.

In the coming weeks, we’ll explore different aspects of the project creation process, and outline how to create the best project possible. Last time, we looked at general factors that go into “What Makes a Project Feature-Worthy.” Now, let’s dig into the nitty gritty of Projects, staring with Project Covers.

The cover image is the face of your project. It’s the first thing people see when they encounter your work, so it’s your best opportunity to invite people to take a closer look.

When choosing a cover, select an image that highlights the look and feel of the project. The cover needs to be appealing–it should make people want to click to see more–but it also needs to be a solid representation of the project. If it’s a great image but doesn’t translate what’s inside, people may be disappointed when they get to the main content.

A few more things to keep in mind:

  • Stay visual. You have plenty of opportunities to explain your project in words with the description and fields, there’s no need to add text to the cover image.
  • Consider including a full size version of your cover inside the project. If people love the cover, they’ll want to get the chance to examine the whole thing.
  • For motion graphics, especially in ads, choose a screencapture that showcases the narrative of the piece.


For excellent cover inspiration in your creative field, visit theserved.com for a curated look at the best projects (and covers) of the moment.

The Huffington Post Covers Turkish Student’s Final Project

Murat Palta, an illustration student based in Istanbul recently joined Behance and uploaded his final school project, a series of illustrations that reinterpret popular film posters in “oriental Ottoman motifs.” Palta’s first project on the network hit home with a lot of Behance members and other creative enthusiasts (receiving over 92K views and counting) and was even picked up by a journalist for a recent Huffington Post article complete with a full slideshow of Palta’s work. Talk about instant exposure!


Check out the full article here and Palta’s project here.

Most Appreciated Projects on Behance

Appreciations are a way to send genuine kudos to another creative professional on Behance. This is our community’s way of curating the network, so that the best projects gain the most exposure. Here’s a look at two of the most appreciated projects on Behance this week:


Bruce Mau Design, along with Studio 360, decided to create a campaign for Canada, as attempt to change the way Americans think about their country. This bold project includes a series of visuals placed between two red bars (borrowed from the Canadian flag) and a heavy-hitting sense of humor. And as one of this week’s Most Appreciated Projects, they’ve been quite successful in spreading the word so far. See the full project here.


Jon Foster’s Fantasy project, a series of commissioned illustrations and paintings, has the network talking. Blending bold and soft colors, realism and dream-like elements, Foster is considered one of the top concept artists with a strong sci-fi following. Visit his full portfolio here.

Behind the Project: NYC From Above

In this series, we’ll look deeper into some of the projects on Behance.net that were especially admired in our community. This time, we spoke with Navid Baraty, an Engineer turned Photographer whose Behance project “Intersection” has been picked up everywhere from National Geographic to CBS New York. We spoke to him about how he get access to these incredible vantage points, and his process.  Follow Navid on Facebook or Twitter.

What was your inspiration for this project?
The idea first came to me after lunch one afternoon in 2009 in a Tokyo skyscraper. I looked down at the street below and noticed an amazing scene of geometric patterns dotted with umbrella-wielding pedestrians. I really couldn’t believe how geometric it all looked from above. It was almost as if someone designed the Tokyo street with my vantage point in mind. I realized that all the perfectly parallel lines, precise angles and thoughtful proportions were really a reflection of Japanese culture and its meticulous attention to detail and artistic presentation.

When I moved to NYC in 2010, I wanted to continue this series and see what New York looked like from above. Everyone walks around Manhattan looking up at the city, but very few get to look down. Watching NYC from above, you really get a sense of the energy and flow of the city–the constant stream of yellow taxis lining the avenues, the waves of pedestrians hurriedly crossing at the change of traffic signals, little figures disappearing into the subway stations, the chorus of honking horns and sirens. It’s all so rhythmic.


A photograph from Intersection | Tokyo

Can you describe your process in creating this project?
There’s been a lot of wild speculation as to how I create these photos. Some people think I have a side job as a helicopter pilot or window washer. When Flickr featured them on their blog, they assumed I was walking around Manhattan with a camera attached to a kite. Some have even called me Spiderman. I actually just take all of these on building rooftops and lean over the edge. A lot of times I have to wrap the camera strap around my arms really tight and extend my arms way over the edge to get the angle I want.

Did anything interesting happen as a result of the success of this project?
My Intersection series is definitely one of my most popular sets of work and has been featured all around the web–everywhere from National Geographic to CBS New York to My Modern Metropolis. I’ve had lots of people contact me about the series through my website. Most recently, BMW licensed one from my NYC series for an upcoming print campaign.

Did you go through many versions and iterations before coming up with these final pieces?
I take many photos of the same intersection or stretch of road from lots of different angles. When I get home and do the edits, I decide on which work best. I also tend to do more iterations when I’m extending my arms out over the edge since I can’t actually look through the lens. It can definitely take quite a long time before I get a photo I’m happy with, sometimes hours. I’ve been on a roof for a couple of hours before waiting for the light on the street to be just right. I’ve found the shots work best on overcast days.

Read more →

Most Appreciated Projects on Behance

Appreciations are a way to send genuine kudos to another creative professional on Behance. This is our community’s way of curating the network, so that the best projects gain the most exposure. Here’s a look at two of the most appreciated projects on Behance this week:


Richard Allenby-Pratt set the stage for this personal project by composing a fictional story, set in 2017, that results in a desolate Dubai. Allenby-Pratt brings his narrative to life with a series of digitally altered images that got our members talking. Check out the full story here.


Inspired by the popular photo app, Instagram, Markus Gerke designed a pair of sunglasses that would shoot photos and provide filters like the app. Although this project is conceptual only, the positive reaction from members shows that there’s definitely a market demand! See the full project here.

Great opportunities this week: Diane von Furstenberg, Shapeways, TripAdvisor and more

Behance JobList hosts the best opportunities in the creative job market from top companies across the globe. Here’s a roundup of fresh postings on the JobList this week.

For daily updates on the latest opportunities, follow @BehanceJobs on Twitter

Senior Designer at TripAdvisor (Newton, MA)
Why this job is awesome: You will combine your design skills to help create online products and interfaces.

Product Manager at Shapeways (New York, NY)
Work with a small group of Product Managers to make this 3D printer’s users’ jaws hit the floor.

Art Director/Sr. Designer at University of California Office of the President (Oakland, CA)
The U of California Communications team thinks that higher education and great design belong together, so they’re telling the UC story in new and innovative ways.

Graphic Designer at Flint and Tinder, LLC (Brooklyn, NY)
The popular Kickstarter-funded men’s undergarments manufacturer needs design help ASAP in their Williamsburg office.

Graphic Designer at Diane von Furstenberg (New York, NY)
DVF.com is looking for an experienced designer to oversee projects from start to finish in an incredibly dynamic work environment.

Victory Lap: Confidence in ideas, redesigns, and college graduations

Small or big, serious or silly, there are a lot of amazing success stories in the Behance community. That’s why we’ve started Victory Lap Fridays — a new series where we ask Behancers to celebrate their latest creative victory by sending us a tweet. Here are just a few of the #VictoryLap tweets we spotted last week.

Did you have an awesome week? Take a #VictoryLap — tweet to let us know about your creative accomplishments!

@doublest0p

@sposhe

@jd_meador

@BOVERUSA

Behance Tips in The New York Times: Showcasing your Work Online

NYT’s “Career Couch” feature this week published advice from Behance CEO Scott Belsky on showcasing your work in an online portfolio – why it’s important, and how to get started. We pulled out a few key takeaways below, and check out the full version here.


Q. Some of your colleagues and friends have created Web sites listing their professional experience, credentials and samples of their work. Should you have some sort of online portfolio, too?

These days, one of the first things a recruiter or hiring manager does after receiving a promising lead is to search for the person on Google. Creating your own Web site or displaying your work on a larger platform gives you some control over what is found. Even if you aren’t looking for a job, keeping an online portfolio can be a way to keep track of your accomplishments and industry activities.

 

Q. What does an online portfolio typically include?

It usually includes samples of your best work, including articles, reports, PowerPoint presentations and links to blog entries. Portfolios are especially useful for work that can be presented visually, like photography, illustrations and ad campaigns.

An online portfolio can also illuminate your thought processes. Scott Belsky, chief executive of Behance, an online platform for creative work, says that when managers look to hire or promote someone, they want to see more than just experience. “They are also looking for that person’s process, how they do their work, who they collaborate with, how they test ideas,” Mr. Belsky says.

Some portfolios show an early version of a project, the final version and the iterations in between, he says, or reveal a process by telling the story of how the project was accomplished.

Q. Where on the Web should you place your portfolio?

Platforms are available for creative professionals to display their work visually, including Behance, Carbonmade and Dripbook; depending on the platform and package, the cost ranges from free to about $40 a month.

Platforms like these can be lead generators, too, as they are often searched by people looking to hire, Mr. Belsky says. You can also register a domain name — often for less than $10 a year — and create your own regular Web site. Designing your site can cost thousands of dollars if you use a Web site designer, or less than $50 a month if you use a site building tool.