If you’re working steadily in a graphic design job or just starting to look for work, it’s always a good time to have an up to date portfolio. The hard part is to figure out how the pieces fit together. I’ve already discussed the basics of what should go on the pages in Tips for a More Perfect Design Portfolio, but building a perfect portfolio is a process that continues over and over again throughout your career.

Books

Building Design Portfolios by Sara Eisenman tackles how to build your portfolio and, for hiring managers, it tackles how to look at portfolios critically. It contains a series of interviews with leaders in the field, provides inspiration and shows real world portfolio.

Graphic Design Portfolio Strategies for Print and Digital Media discusses portfolio building for graphic design students. How do you take your student work and present it for employers, graduate schools and fellowships? This book tackles that question with illustrated examples of successful student portfolios.

The Graphic Designer’s Guide to Portfolio Design is another book helping students transition into becoming professionals. This puts the portfolio in the context of resumes, interviews, and cover letters

Articles

12 Steps to a Super Graphic Design Portfolio from Youthedesigner.com starts us off by telling us about the case. Choose carefully and consider how you want to present your work. My tip would be to think about yourself in an interview or with a client. Find a case that fits a style of presentation that works for you. My own portfolio is a leather case with sheets of thick photo paper printed pieces. Especially for interviews with multiple people, passing around the works in my portfolio and letting people handle them and really look at then has went over well. These were designs for magazine layouts so it mimicked the original experience.

AIGA has a great article on “Presenting your portfolio by Steff Geissbuhler of Chermayeff & Geismar Inc. It’s both from the point of view of someone who hires designers and from a design who has been there himself.

Brian Scott writes in “How to Create Your Freelance Graphic Design Portfolio” that you should include your best work and only your best work. I agree. It’s better to show five perfect pieces than to show eight that include work that you aren’t happy with. Your enthusiasm about every piece in your portfolio has to be there.

Tips to Create an Effective Graphic Design Portfolio from Twit Taboo emphasized the importance of variety. Show off different concepts and skills in your work. I’d add that you should make sure that each skill is somehow relevant to the specific position and company you’re applying to.

With less than two weeks left until Christmas, the internet is buzzing with gift ideas. I’ve compiled a list of my favorite gift guides and just to be a little more editorial, I’ve chosen my own highlights from each. I know you don’t have much time to hear me ramble about it, so let’s get on with the gifts!

• CNET. 2009 Ultimate Holiday Gift Guide

From the mouth of the tech news site CNET comes a great guide including articles on budget gadgets, luxuries and green stuff. Highlights: Canon PowerShot A480 10 MP Digital Camera. Klipsch IMAGE S4 In-Ear Headphones.

• Etsy Gift Guides

The editor’s of Etsy list their favorite handmade and unique gifts in a ton of categories. Highlight: Egg Carton Book

• ExtraBux Gift Guide: Grown-Up Stocking Stuffers

8 stocking stuffers for adults. Highlight: Burt’s Bees Mini Lip Gloss Collection

• Heeb Magazine’s Graphic Novel Gift Guide

I don’t talk about illustration and drawing quite enough anymore. If you’re here looking for a gift for the illustration enthusiast in your life, maybe these graphic novels will work for you. Highlights: The Book of Genesis Illustrated. All Star Superman.

• Gamertell’s 2009 Holiday Gift Guide

Gamers need love too. Look here for video games and gaming gear. Highlights: Dead Space Extraction for Wii

• Chicago Now: Our Favorite Green Gifts

For the environmentally conscious person. Or maybe a gift for the person you want to be more environmentally aware. Highlight: KOR BPA-Free Water Bottles

• GQ’s Ultimate Holiday Gift Guide

GQ Magazine’s gift guide filled with fashion conscious and stylish selections. For a laugh, also check out their Tiger Woods Gift Guide. (Sorry, Tiger!) Highlights: Ion USB Portable Turntable. Fujifilm Instax Mini 7S Camera.

• Entertainment Weekly’s Holiday Gift Guide

Shopping ideas for TV lovers, movie lovers and star watchers. See also: ‘Twilight’: 12 Great Gifts! Highlight: Gilmore Girls: The Complete Series Collection.

• Times Online’s Geek-free gadget guide for Christmas 2009

Enough said. Highlight: ASUS EEE Seashell netbook

• ANidea’s 2009 Holiday Gift Guide

This guide compiles ideas from social network sites such as twitter and Facebook. Highlights: Vibram Five Fingers

Gifts for Graphic Designers: A Wish List

My own guide selecting out items and ideas for the graphic designers of the world. Highlight: Pantone 100 Top Colors

The Lifehack Last-Minute Gift-Giving Guide

Last-Minute edit to the list to add Lifehacker’s guide. Highlight: The Men’s Underwear Repair Kit

Here’s a list of graphic design blogs that I turn to when I need to get those creative juices flowing. Subscribe to them in your RSS reader or visit them often.

Having transitioned more heavily into magazine design for the Baltimore Sun Media Group’s Magazine Division in the past few months, it seems like a good time for a new portfolio post. I’m the graphic designer for Maryland Family Magazine and Howard Magazine which are trying to capitalize on the hyperlocal media trend.

In many cases, such as in the Momnesia photo, I helped further develop the photo concepts and art direct the shots to some small degree. The photographers are excellent to work with and really deserve all the credit. For the most part, I just try to tell the story with the design and hope the ideas comes across.

Google SketchUp is free software for Mac and PC that helps you create 3D models with ease. You can create a model and share it with Google Earth. The software is smart enough to do some of the work for you. Google is nice enough to provide video tutorials that help you get started.

Think about it. You can create furniture models easily and then design the new interior decor of your house. You can animate and share the videos. And many models are available for your use to play with for free. The program can access the net to get whatever it needs.

There is a free version and also a more powerful Pro version:

With the Google 3D Warehouse, everything you might need is already out there for you to quickly mock up your city, town, school project or that new bedroom set.

With the new version objects that are smarter and know how to react to you. drawing hints that are clearer and more consistent.

Google Sketchup [Google.com]