Sunday, May 22, 2016

The easiest way to create a portfolio web site

Adobe Portfolio is a new benefit for Creative Cloud members. It is an extremely simple way for a designer to create a “portfolio” or “showcase” Web site of recent work.

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There are many other ways to do this, of course. You could build a Web site from scratch, use a WordPress template, create a site with Adobe Muse, or use one of the many competing systems for building portfolio sites. But Adobe Portfolio is free for Creative Cloud members, is simple, and is easy to update with fresh content at any time. And the sites created by Portfolio are responsive, meaning they will adapt to different screen sizes and look great on all mobile devices and desktop browsers.

A Portfolio Web site is free with every Creative Cloud subscription. Initially, each Portfolio site will be assigned the URL yourcompanyname.myportfolio.com. But if you have a custom domain of your own, you can easily publish the site with your domain, resulting in a URL like yourcompanyname.com.

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To get started with Portfolio, visit myportfolio.com, and sign in with your Adobe ID. Next, you will be prompted to choose one of a half-dozen “layouts". Now, don’t panic at this point. As a designer I’m sure you’re thinking “real designers don’t use pre-designed layouts or templates”. But these layouts are highly customizable, with each one offering a different navigation style and functionality. See the following examples to get a sense of the wide variety of looks that can be achieved using these templates as a starting point.

Benjamin Bartling

Cristian Girotto

Joshua Fathers

Matthieu Dennequin

Gabriel Martins

Rachel Mayes

Mikko Umi 

After choosing a template, you’ll want to upload a few projects. A project can be as simple as a simple JPEG export of an InDesign layout, photography of final print or product output, a mockup showing how the project looks on a mobile device, video clips, or a combination of all of these along with explanatory text and captions. 

Once you’ve created your projects, you can take as much time and care as you want to modify the interface, navigation, and look and feel of the Portfolio web site using the simple Portfolio interface. You can preview the results in the browser using the “Preview” button at the bottom of the screen. Once the web site functions and appears as desired, it is time to publish the site. Clicking the “Publish Site” button publishes the site to Adobe’s servers. The Web site hosting is free with your Creative Cloud membership.

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An added bonus of Adobe Portfolio is that you can choose to sync your projects with Behance. Behance is “the world’s largest platform to showcase and discover creative work”. Think of Behance as a way to show your work and gain visibility within the creative community, and your Portfolio Web site as a place to showcase your work to potential clients and be discovered via search engines. When you create a project in Adobe Portfolio, you are asked if you want to also publish the project to Behance. If you don’t yet have a Behance account, you will be led through the process of linking your Adobe ID to Behance.

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Likewise, if you upload projects from Behance.net, you have the opportunity to also publish those projects to your Adobe Portfolio Web site.

Adobe Portfolio is so easy to use. There is no longer any excuse for any designer to go without a modern, responsive, mobile-friendly Web site. You can put together a custom portfolio web site with a few projects in the course of an evening, and then continue to build it out with new projects as you complete them.

Follow @AdobePortfolio on Twitter to discover new Web sites that have been created with Adobe Portfolio. If you create a portfolio web with with Adobe Portfolio, let me know. I’d like to see it!

Wednesday, May 04, 2016

Use Lynda.com to sharpen your skills

Lynda.com is the best on-line resource for video-based training. The breadth and depth of the Lynda.com library in the “Design” category is particularly strong. Now, I’m probably biased as I’m a Lynda.com author, but they really do have great courses from some of the best authors in the business.

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I watch Lynda.com courses to learn new skills that are outside my core area of expertise. But it’s a constant challenge to find the time. But now there are more options for accessing Lynda.com courses than ever before.

Can I watch courses on my iPad? My TV?

There are Lynda.com mobile apps for iPad and iPhone as well as Android and Windows 8+. There are also desktop apps for Mac OS X and Windows 7+. These apps allow you to download entire courses so that they can be watched offline on your phone, tablet, or laptop. Suddenly, long flights become a great place to learn new things!

And speaking of flights, if you are fortunate enough to be flying on Virgin Atlantic, you can access Lynda.com courses free on many Virgin Atlantic flights. 

If you have an AppleTV or Roku device, you can access Lynda.com courses and watch them on your large TV in the comfort of your living room.

What does it cost?

Lynda.com training is extremely low-cost. $24.99 gets you a month of unlimited training. You can save money by purchasing a year-long subscription, or just pay for individual months as you need the service.

Some library systems provide free access to Lynda.com. For example, here in St. Paul, MN, the Ramsey County Libraries provide free access.

Some corporations provide access to Lynda.com company wide, as do some educational institutions. 

Here’s a link for a 10-day free trial of Lynda.com so you can try it out!