The summer 2011 quarter ended with a bang and I went straight into a very busy week long break that included a “simple” oral surgery. That was a choice that knocked the stuffing out of me for the entire subsequent quarter, so now I am playing catch up with the blog!

One of the items I was particularly thrilled with at the end of summer quarter was my Portfolio Prep class. Decisions were finalized on my business name and branding direction, the look and feel of my design resume and stationery/business cards, portfolio concepts were explored, as well as graduate schools chosen and cv written.

I finally honed my graduate school down to one favorite choice, but I will probably end up with one of the less expensive options on my list. I have to pay it back and an MBA might serve me just as well as my preferred choice.

Branding included but was not limited to finally deciding upon my business name, setting up an About.me page, buying a business url, and setting up a Twitter account.

Not only did I create a 7 page cv (curricula vitae), but I finally finished my design resume. “Keep it to one page,” I was told, which created a challenge with 7 pages worth of experience, so I compromised and created a fun semi-two-page. To the right is my standard business resume often submitted via a pdf online and it is a 2 pager.

I also tried out an idea for my portfolio; however, I may make this more simplistic when I go into my portfolio show class in order to do more with the show itself. It was fun to explore and obtain feedback from those around me though!

The class was extremely productive and the resulting task list should move me forward through the upcoming year and beyond. I would summarize this class, led by Zeb Wood, as one of the key courses in my degree program and certainly the class that synthesized my current classwork with past experience and future possibilities.

The Portfolio Prep class is my most active, yet the things that I am doing are not “beautiful”. This quarter Zeb Wood was teaching it for the first time to his group of animation students. I asked to be in his class because I suspected he was going to be good (he is a founder of Indiana Uploaded.) I am not disappointed!!! He has me working my tail off, but with my consent and cooperation.

Zeb works with the individual students to set their personal goals for the class. My plan took a two pronged approach:

1. Prep for graduate school
2. Portfolio/resume preparation

The list of things to accomplish in 11 weeks is daunting, but I set up a Work Breakdown Structure and am plowing through it. Here is a visual… there are even more items to accomplish after the quarter is over, including designing and setting up a web site. Aiy aiy aiy!

So far, as of mid-quarter I have accomplished the following and more:

1. Identified schools/programs I am planning to apply to and started the process of collecting information (letters of recommendation etc.) for applications.
2. Written a 6 pg CV (long version of my resume) as well as a cleaned up short resume.
3. Named my business, designed a business card to be sent to the printer this week, and purchased the domain name and hosting from godaddy.com.
4. Put together a rough and ready version of my portfolio.

AND,  job opportunities began popping up this past week (thus the need for a rough and ready version of my portfolio.) My internship will be ending and I would like to try my hand at something else, so it is fun to have the energy flowing before I am even ready!