I spend a good portion of time thinking of the work I don’t have access to thanks to being laid-off :’) 

And I’ve tried to be better about documenting/saving things but you really learn these things the hard way

I always look for the development, rather than JUST the finished article too! Show me the sketching, doodles and brain dumps - I’m looking for the HOW you arrived at your solution too! 👍

I agree in principle, but I was just thinking about how the How is more often than not tainted with BS. Not everyone keeps a good recollection or even documentation of the creative process.

Yeah, especially with cloud-based tools. When everything was mostly offline, it was easy to to backups, copy things or even ask an ex-colleague for a file.

A really great portfolio presentation:
- Is 2-3 projects
- Has at least 1 project relevant to the job
- Tells narrative of your overall skillset
- Explains your role and who contributed
- Highlights problem set
- Shows the work in detail

Simple but effective!

Do you have an example to share that can be modelled after?

Between NDAs being standard and layoffs being everywhere, the industry doesn’t exactly set up people to successfully document their own work.. It’s a reasonable expectation except for the fact that companies impede our ability to actually do these things

I’ve had ex-colleagues either decline or be hesitant about sharing work files.. The fear of retaliation is embedded within all of us, like the workplace police is going to arrest you for sharing a Google doc.

That is true on the NDAs and layoffs which usually leave designers without access to their work from one day to the other.

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