Donna Payne, Creative Director at Faber & Faber, breaks down portfolio basics for illustrators: show 10–20 of your best pieces, keep the site simple, update it regularly. Self-initiated projects help you break into new niches. Research the studio before you pitch, and never send a generic cover letter.
My name's Donna Payne. I'm creative director at Faber Faber, and I'm here to give you some advice on how to get your online portfolio to stand out from the rest. What makes an illustration truly great? A great concept, brilliant execution, and something that tells a story alongside the text. Picture book illustrators need to be able to describe the story in a different way to the text itself. Illustrators need to be problem solvers rather than mere image makers. In taking on a brief, you need to be able to bring your own thoughts and ideas to it. I don't want to have to spoon-feed you. I need you to take an idea and run with it. To lead with a piece that most genuinely reflects what you do. It's very much about you and not about us. If I can see 10 to 20 images at a glance, that gives me a great idea of what you're about. Even if your work's very humorous, make sure the humor is just in the work. When you have copy that kind of tries to over- hard to show who somebody is. That can be a little bit unfocused. Keep the copy that describes your work very, very concise and clear. If you want to break out into a new area of illustration, self-initiated work is the key. Come up with your own concepts, work on projects that fit in with your style. It's always great for art directors to see that you can work in the area that they'd be commissioning into. To make your online portfolio stand out, remember to keep it up to date. Just as you would your other socials. People often put their most recent work right at the end, when actually they should put it right up front. If it kind of shows development or an area that you're moving into, remember to keep updating your site to reflect where you are right now. Keep the page design simple, but have fun with it and remember to be creative. It can reflect your personality and the style of artwork you could do way more effectively than a piece of copy. If you have confrontational or experimental work, you can put that on a separate part of your site that can be password protected, and you can send it on to individuals manually who've expressed an interest. Social media is great for discovery, but I always want to share a really good online portfolio with other members of my team, keep it for future use, and if I'm not able to commission you straight away, I always like to have a list of good websites I can go back to. Show that you're passionate about what you do. Show that you're interested in working with me specifically. Bit of background research without becoming overly stalky. Really just tell me why you want to work with the books I work with, why you want to work with Faber. Tell me a little bit about yourself, your interests. I think that's really, really important in terms of me kind of clicking through and looking at your portfolio. The thing you should definitely avoid is sending a generic cover letter. It's all too easy to insert the wrong name. I've been addressed as Dave, I've been addressed as Penguin. Don't do it. To wrap this up, here are my top tips for creating a killer portfolio. Be focused. Do your research. Put your best work forward. Don't overcomplicate things. And don't call me Dave.
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