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RGD Portfolio Review Guidelines

Overview

Whether held in person or virtually, RGD Portfolio Review Sessions allow designers across diverse visual and experience design disciplines to receive supportive feedback from professionals with lived experience and expertise in those areas and make connections in their specific location, industry or discipline.

What can you expect?

During a session, you will present your portfolio to a professional in an allotted amount of time and gain constructive feedback on your work, the visual presentation of your work and your communication skills. Do you have questions about what to include, what to say and how to talk about your work? This document can help.

Preparing for RGD Portfolio Reviews 

The RGD’s Education Committee has developed best practices to assist you in preparing for a portfolio review session.

Overall Portfolio Design Presentation

  • Impress the reviewer with your strongest work—projects that reflect your design thinking and creative problem-solving skills—not just those you assume reviewers expect to see (like freelance or client work) or that represent every aspect of design or your education/career thus far.
  • Consider placing the work you are most proud of at the beginning and end of your portfolio.
  • Maintain consistency in how you present your projects—whether they’re visual design work or UX case studies. Use a clear structure, consistent typography and a cohesive tone throughout. Align how you present problem statements, research insights, visuals and outcomes. Formatting details like headings, dates and labeling should be uniform to reflect your attention to detail and make your storytelling easy to follow.'
  • For collaborative projects, ensure you clearly define your role and responsibilities.
  • Include brief written explanations alongside your projects to share your thinking and context. Use visual details—like annotations, diagrams or callouts—to help guide the viewer through your work.
  • Proofread all text for grammar and spelling errors. If possible, have someone else proofread it for you. Ensure all text is legible.
  • You have a limited amount of time for a review and the time will pass quickly.
  • Practice presenting your work aloud to understand how much time you need to present each of your pieces. Make sure to allot time for your reviewer to share feedback and for you to ask questions.
  • When presenting, don't read what you’ve written in your portfolio, navigate
    on-screen when you are presenting to draw attention to details or elements you
    wish to highlight to your reviewer.

About your portfolio

  • Digital portfolios are encouraged if your work is mixed media—print, social media, web, motion and/or other formats—and necessary for virtual presentations. Here are some best practices.
  • You must bring your own presentation device—a laptop or tablet—for in-person meetings, and share your screen for virtual sessions.
  • Download your presentation to the device beforehand.
  • If using a website to show work, consider building a temporary portfolio review page summarizing the projects you wish to share.

Presenting your portfolio

Opt for professionalism

The purpose of the review is not only to get feedback but also to network. One of your reviewers might be looking to hire someone! As you would when interviewing for a job, consider doing the following:

Appearance

  • Wear something that makes you feel confident and comfortable—choose attire that aligns with your authentic self and helps you feel at ease.
  • The best approach is to always be yourself, but be professional. If your reviewer’s primary memory of you is what you wore, then something went wrong. Avoid branded apparel, hats and accessories that might distract.
  • Always test your outfits before wearing them. Tags that itch, clothes that are easily wrinkled or clothing that is too sheer should be avoided.
  • Consider what’s in the background when doing a virtual presentation.
  • Give yourself time to prepare, and be on schedule.

Tech Check

  • If you are meeting in person, make sure your presentation device is clean and fully charged, your desktop is organized and your wallpaper and screen-saver modes are appropriate.
  • If you are meeting virtually, check the presentation software ahead of time to ensure it is up to date and that your speaker and microphone settings work.
  • Consider what the reviewer will see in the background behind you.
  • Test your WiFi connection for virtual sessions to ensure signal strength and stability.
  • Plan to meet in a quiet, distraction-free space.

Attitude

  • Be prepared for and open to constructive criticism. Remember, the purpose of the review is to support your growth through constructive dialogue. The reviewer may offer areas for improvement designed to help you improve your portfolio.
  • Maintain a positive attitude throughout the review, even if you don’t like what you hear.
  • Take notes—pen and paper or digitally. It's the best way to remember the feedback.
  • Once the reviewer has finished their comments, ask for clarification if you didn't understand something that they have said.
  • If you are receiving multiple reviews, it may be that your reviewers don’t all have the same advice. Look out for common themes and suggestions.
  • Prepare 1–2 questions to ask the reviewer. These questions might include how long they have been in their current position, how they achieved success, how they got started or what led them to a career in design. It’s also great to ask questions related to what your reviewer said to demonstrate that you were listening.

When speaking about your work

  • Your portfolio is not the only thing being reviewed; how you present and discuss your work can be just as valuable as the work itself; some argue it is more relevant. Here are some considerations.
  • Reviewers consider whether your portfolio demonstrates your design knowledge and understanding of the design process and design thinking.
  • Be prepared to explain how and why your work is effective, and how it responds to client goals, user needs, cultural context and/or community values.
  • Consider a story or anecdote to describe a scenario or lesson learned. 

At the end of the review

  • This is about making new connections.
  • Don't be afraid to ask the reviewer for their contact information; you are encouraged to give yours as well.
  • Thank them for reviewing your work, regardless of your emotional response to the feedback: they volunteer time to meet with you.

After the review

  • Follow up with a brief thank-you email.
  • Review your notes. Consider mentioning something they said to show you were paying attention and taking their advice.
  • Consider connecting with them on professional platforms, such as LinkedIn, or platforms where they invite such engagement
  • For those you made a strong connection with, consider asking them about scheduling a follow-up meeting to show them the updates you have made to your portfolio based on their feedback.

How can we improve?

Reviewers are senior professionals who the RGD invites to share their knowledge and expertise; they are all volunteers with their own views and perspectives on the industry. The feedback you receive does not represent the opinion of the RGD. And, as stated above, it may not even be entirely consistent from one reviewer to the next. If you experience a review where you feel the reviewer was unprofessional or made you feel unsafe or disrespected or if you have any other comments or suggestions for RGD programming and initiatives, please email us at programs@rgd.ca.