Rafael Jaen

This is a well-organized, clearly written, and in-depth look at creating, maintaining, and improving a "design-tech" portfolio. The author shares his own portfolio creation experiences, as well as sharing the experiences of an array of other professionals within the arts, listed as "contributors" at the end of the book. For example, in Chapter Five, "Portfolio Development Techniques Do's and Don'ts," the author includes a contribution called "Good Practices Checklist" from a professor of fine arts (John Paul Devlin, Saint Michael's College in Vermont). This approach of soliciting tips and pointers from others definitely enriches the overall utility of this work. I counted 22 separate contributors.

This second edition (2006) increases from 185 pages to 248 pages. Most of the reworking concerns electronic portfolios (see Part II, "What is an electronic portfolio").

I give this 4 out of 5 stars, withholding one star for my only minor complaint, and that is the book's rather small size. Given that visual presentation is a core element of these types of portfolios, this work would benefit from a larger, coffee table footprint. And, I hate to say this, but as much as I tend to look down upon "accompanying web sites" for books, this is one that could really benefit from one which could display some actual online portfolios. Specific web sites ARE mentioned and printed in the text (e.g., page 155 lists some "Recommended Resources for People Starting Out"), but a coherent set of examples could help.

NOTE: The reviewer received a free copy of this book via the Amazon Vine program.… (plus d'informations)