The Perfect Portfolio

What is a portfolio and why does it matter? Radu covers the difference between academic portfolios (showing your learning journey) and professional portfolios (tailored to win jobs). You'll learn what content types to include—sketches, models, technical drawings, renders—and how to target your portfolio to potential employers, academic institutions, or clients.

Selecting projects for a job application at a residential-focused firm. Radu demonstrates choosing your strongest work first, then matching projects to the employer's sector. You'll learn to order projects by relevance (residential schemes first, other sectors last) and include the right media mix with captions, descriptions, and role/responsibility callouts.

Setting up an InDesign document: choosing between ISO (A4, A3) and US paper standards, portrait versus landscape orientation, and why standard sizes matter for printing and compatibility. Radu explains margins for binding, bleed zones for edge-to-edge printing, and when custom sizes might cause more problems than they solve.

Layout fundamentals: grid systems, margins, gutters between columns, visual hierarchy, and whitespace. Radu explains how layouts work like a building's structural grid—providing order while allowing creative breaks. You'll set up InDesign guides and columns, prioritise content within the grid, and maintain consistency across pages without being rigid.

Typeface versus font explained: Arial is a typeface, Arial Bold is a font. Radu covers serif versus sans serif, choosing pairings (League Spartan + Libre Baskerville for design publications, Roboto for tech, Playfair for timeless elegance), and why you should stick to two typefaces maximum. Legibility, versatility, contrast, and emotional response all factor into your choice.

Developing your portfolio's visual identity by studying examples on Behance and Issuu. Radu critiques several architectural portfolios, pointing out effective use of whitespace, full-bleed images, page markers (year, location, project type), and consistent annotation styles. You'll develop your own graphic system with colour schemes and visual markers.

Building the portfolio page by page. Radu uses Adobe Bridge to organise assets, creates parent pages with placeholder layouts, then places actual project imagery—adjusting frames when content doesn't fit the template perfectly. You'll work through three example projects, testing different grid densities and maintaining visual hierarchy.

Creating a table of contents with InDesign's automatic numbering. Radu covers paragraph styles with bullet/number options, the Bullets and Numbering panel for custom list formats, and setting up numbered lists that span linked text boxes correctly. Chapter divider pages separate project sections and give readers visual breaks.

Front cover essentials: document title ("Portfolio" or "Selected Works"), your name, period of works, and your current or target role. Optional elements include academic degree, volume number for editorial flair, and graphical artwork. Radu also covers the back cover—ending the reader's experience with contact details or a simple graphic.

Exporting for print versus digital. Print requires bleed zones (typically 3-8mm depending on your print shop), while digital can skip bleed for smaller file sizes. Radu walks through InDesign's PDF export dialog, explaining presets for high-quality print, smallest file size, and custom settings. Contact your printer early to get the right bleed dimensions.