When you work in a creative field like photography, art or design, you need to be able to easily show off your talent to prospective clients and customers. Art presentation binders can be easily customized to fit your artistic sensibilities and allow you to present and distribute your work in an attractive, organized way. Here are just a few different ways artists can use presentation binders to get their work noticed.
The design of your portfolio should reflect your strengths as an artist. Use your best piece as a cover image.
Decorate Binders with Art
If you want clients and customers to thumb through your art presentation binders, entice them with an example of your work on the front cover. Choose one of your best images to represent your work as a whole, or create a new piece exclusively for your binder cover. binder design should represent your brand, even if that brand is just you alone. Clients should be able to look at your binder and get a feeling for your style, personality and unique art identity.
Know When to Use 4-Color vs PMS Printing
If you do add original artwork or photography to your binder design, you should be aware of your printing options. Four-color (CMYK) printing is the best option if you are using full-color illustrations and photography. However, if your work is black-and-white or monochromatic, then you’ll get a richer color effect from PMS spot printing. If you’re unsure about which option is best, request a sample to get a better look at the difference in quality.
Use binders to create photo or art albums for your clients, such as a standard wedding album design with a custom picture of the bride and groom behind a die-cut window (SKU: 88-09).
Design Binders as Albums
Presentation binders can double as custom photo or artwork albums for your clients, as long as you create a generic design that can be reused with multiple clients. For example, if you do a lot of wedding photos, you can create a binder design that reads “Our Wedding” so you can use it for any wedding. Add a die cut window to the binder cover and a picture of the happy couple behind it, and your clients will think it was custom made just for them.
Utilize Binder Sleeves
Using sleeves is crucial in an art presentation binder so that you don’t have to punch holes into your artwork or photographs. Binder sleeves protect your work from scratches and fingerprints so you can be sure that it always looks its best. If you want to give someone a copy of the artwork, simply remove the sleeve from the binder so that it stays protected during transit.
If you include a disc of digital artwork, be sure to customize the sleeve (SKU: 88-05).
Include a Disc of Digital Work
Consider adding a disc sleeve to your binder so that you can include copies of digital artwork and photographs. One disc can store hundreds of high quality images, which allows you to distribute even more of your work. Art presentation binders with disc sleeves let you provide digital proofs and original work files to your clients. If you work primarily in digital media, this is a great way to show off your work to clients and easily distribute large digital files without having e-mail them or upload them to a server.
Conclusion
As an artist or photographer, you are your own brand. So when designing a portfolio binder, you have to ask yourself what sets your brand apart from everyone else. If you can successfully display the answer to that question in the design and layout of your portfolio, you’ll have an easier time attracting new clients and customers.
This post is a part of our Binders 101 product guide.
