Creating your Portfolio on Faces of Design - Step by Step
4. Managing and Editing Portfolio Contents
6. Editing an individual Image
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1. Introduction
"Which images should I pick?"
Try and think about it this way: What do you want to show?
Which skills would you like to communicate via your Portfolio, and which of your projects will help you present these skills in the best possible light? What is the scope of work you have done so far, and what would you like to follow up on in the future? Make sure you create a selection of pictures that shows as much detail as possible of each project.
Every project has many different angles to it - may it be the concept behind it, the development of the idea, or the finished product or design. For each project you show, consider which of these aspects are crucial to the project, and try and illustrate them accordingly!
Of course showing a physical product online can be a challenge - so make sure to add close-ups of surfaces, textures and shapes, if this will help the recipient's appreciation of the product you're showing. And remember: you can always explain in the descriptive texts what you can't show in the images... for example where ideas came from, what inspired you, which challenges you had to tackle along the way. Which are the techniques, computer programmes, or materials you used? Was anyone else involved in the project, and how did you work together?
"How should I arrange these images?"
First piece of advice: start off by thinking about it before starting to upload! It will be much easier and quicker if you consider the structure and order in which you want to present your work first.
Why not create a folder on your computer where you replicate the structure you want to give your portfolio? It will be much easier to play around by dragging and dropping images on your computer than when you've already placed them in a folder structure in your online portfolio.
This will also be a good opportunity to think about the order in which you would like people to look at your images - remember the images will be displayed in an alphabetical or numerical order, so you may wish to number them to make sure they turn up in the right order.
So what would be the right order? I can't tell you, it depends on your project; but consider this: you can tell stories through the order in which you present your pictures. Do you want to tell a story about how a project developed? If you're presenting an interior, maybe you can arrange the images in a way that feels like walking through the space? Or maybe you would like to present images in colour clusters?
Try it out on your computer! And when you've decided, simply name the files accordingly, and start uploading them into your portfolio on Faces of Design.
By the way - since you can choose which image is going to be on the 'cover' of each folder, you can even create 'cover' images which you simply upload into the same folder. Makes the whole thing look even smarter...
Would you like to have some inspiration to get you started?
Why not shuffle through some of the work that other members of the community have uploaded already:
 | 2.1 (of 5) To access your portfolio, you log into your account on FoD and click on "Portfolio" in the navigation on the left. It's the first link below "My FoD". The first thing you see (*image on the left) is what your portfolio looks like at the beginning - it's empty. Now click on "Edit". |
 | 2.2 (of 5) You can now edit your portfolio: ... you can change its title |
 | 2.3 (of 5) ... you can choose who can see the content of your portfolio by selecting one of three options: Inner Circle: these are people whom you have invited to join your Inner Circle here on Faces of Design. This is a setting you should choose if you only want to share your work with a very select group of people. Outer Circle: all people with whom you have chosen to be connected with here on Faces of Desig. Public: all users of the site. |
 | 2.4 (of 5) ... you can add tags - which makes it easier for people to find your work if they are looking for something specific! |
 | 2.5 (of 5) ... and you can add a descriptive text. Remember, this is still at *Portfolio* level - this might be general statements about your work and the contents of your portfolio - you will have the chance of adding a description to every single album or image if you like!
Click on "Save and Continue" to save the changes you've made. |
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3.1 (of 6) Now you can manage the content of your portfolio - most importantly, you can create sub-folders to show separate projects, and add images. First, we will create a sub-folder (an "album") called "Chairs": I click on the "Add album" button. |
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3.2 (of 6) For this new album, I can do that same as for the portfolio: I can create a title for it (in this case "Chairs"), I can decide about who can access it, I can tag it, and I can give it a description. Then I click on "Save and Continue" to save my changes.
By the way: you can always make changes to this later, so if you'd rather get started uploading images, don't worry, you can add tags, description etc. later! |
 | 3.3 (of 6) Now I have a new folder inside my portfolio. To add images into this folder, I click on "Add multiple images" |
 | 3.4 (of 6) If I want to allocate the same tags to all of these images, I can simply enter them at the top now, then I will not have to do it for each image separately - but I can always change them at a later stage if I want to. |
 | 3.5 (of 6) Now you upload your images. Simply click on "Browse" and pick the images you would like to upload.
Please note the infos about file size and maximum upload!
Click on "Upload" to send your images to the server. |
 | 3.6 (of 6) Now your images are equipped with a watermark to help protect your intellectual property rights, and preview thumbnails are generated automatically by the system.
Click on "View" to see your first portfolio album! |
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4. Managing and Editing Portfolio Content
 | 4.1 (of 5) At the top level, your portfolio now looks like this. To manage its contents, you first click on "Edit" and then on "Manage Contents". |
 | 4.2 (of 5) This brings you one step down in the structure of your portfolio: in this case to the sub-folder "Chairs". If we had uploaded images at the same level, straight into the portfolio, we could also manage them here. |
 | 4.3 (of 5) I can now once again change the access rights for this album, add tags, and I can select which image should be shown as the 'cover' (or "Album thumbnail") for this album - this can be random, so you get a new image every time the page gets refreshed, or you can choose one of the images inside the folder. Don't forget to click on "Save changes" when you're done! |
 | 4.4 (of 5) Now of course you can do the same thing for the images inside a subfolder. You simply click on the name of the folder, then click on "Edit" and on "Manage contents" to get there. |
 | 4.5 (of 5) And then you can delete images, or you can move them into another folder, and once again you can tag them.
And always remember to click on "Save changes" afterwards! |
 | 5.1 (of 5) As mentioned before, you can add descriptions to each level of your portfolio - no matter whether it's your portfolio overall, a sub-folder, or an individual image. You have a limited number of formatting options for these texts, visible above the text field. These are similar to standard Word functionality, and they also allow you to add images into the description by clicking on the image icon. |
 | 5.2 (of 5) The description will be displayed below the respective thumbnail previews, or straight belw the image it has been added to. |
 | 5.3 (of 5) When you click on the image icon, a small extra window pops up; in this, you click on the "Upload" tab, and simply select the image you would like to add from your computer. |
 | 5.4 (of 5) Using the options on the left, you can rescale the image (note this isn't going to allow you huge changes - the image resolution will not look as nice any more), add a border or some space around it, and you can choose in which way the image should align with the text. Then simply click on "Okay" to save the image and its settings - you can always come back to this window by right-clicking on the image with your mouse, and selecting "Image properties". |
 | 5.5 (of 5) Please note: when you add images into the description text, they will *not* be equipped with a watermark, and they should have a maximum width of 700 pixels! |
6. Editing an individual Image
 | 6.1 (of 2) When you're looking at an individual image, you can always make changes to it without having to go all the way through managing the contents of your portfolio. You simply click on the "Edit" button below the header... |
 | 6.2 (of 2) ... and then you can change its title, replace it with a new image, move it into another folder, as well as adding or changing tags and a description.
And don't forget to save the changes you've made! |
