my own ad school

Carbonmade is an online portfolio site where designers, writers and artists can upload their work for free (or sign up for the pro plan, which lets you upload a whole lot more).

I’m really glad I discovered this site because:

a) it’s a great source of inspiration: it’s not to copy or imitate others, but if you browse through a few projects, it can definitely get your creative flow moving.

b) it can give you sense of direction: you’ll find a variety of creatives in different phases of their professional careers - some have just started out, while others have already produced work for well-known companies. By looking at their work, it can give you the drive to step up and find what was missing in your portfolio, or it can help you set goals for yourself (for example, learning another program or skill).

c) it gives you a sense of who you’ll be competing with out there. By looking at what others have done, it can help you figure out what you need to do and what you need to show to make yourself stand out to clients.

and finally,

d) it can further fuel your drive to succeed as a creative. Even though there’s a large pool of talented creatives out there, it doesn’t mean finding work to add to your portfolio is rare. Ok, it is competetive, but there’s always going to be projects up for grabs, especially with the rise of entrepreneurs creating new businesses every day. So if it’s a bit of hope that you’re looking, you can find some here.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 9th, 2007 at 3:55 pm and is filed under Creative Spark, Inspiration, Tips. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.