SVS Online Portfolio upgrade?
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I like it
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@Will-Terry Thank you for thinking of ways to help us! You are awesome! I think that feedback, and exposure are the two things that students are craving you are spot with that. I think SVS is a fantastic way to learn illustrating and I recommenced it whenever I can. I think building those bridges to publishers is a naturally step and the savvy ones are probably already paying attention. However, in order for this to be a truly effective tool to attract AD's there will have to be some safeguards to encourage students to keep growing and display excellent work. (I'm not ready for ADs yet, but I do need a way to get feedback).
So I am just brainstorming ways to get those three things: feedback, exposure and excellence. One way may be to add a pay-for feature to get your portfolio featured and critiqued. After you have gone through that you can opt in to the open gallery?
Another would be to attach it to a live portfolio class (so teachers and students are giving feedback). Take the class, get feedback and at the end you can post your stuff on the gallery page, with the option to curate later.
As far as the up-voting, that is a really cool idea for people outside of SVS. For the students, I think people would post, but I am not sure about if the excitement to go in and vote for other work would stay steady for a long time... not sure how to tackle that one, except maybe the kind of thing they do in other online classes, to participate you need to post your assignment and comment on three others? There is a lot of voting on the monthly challenges, but those are already highlighted.
I suppose another way to get that exposure would be to have separate challenges from the monthly ones. Maybe quarterly or even yearly, you could spotlight an AD, or publisher, do an interview with them on your podcast, and let them be the judge and give feedback.
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I think that is a fantastic idea. Being a little isolated and new to the business it would be nice to get some exposure to actual ADs and agents instead of being lost in a sea of others.
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I love the idea and greatly appreciate the opportunity for the paying students. My main questions are based on exposure. How long will a portfolio remain available after the student stops being active? Is length determined by subscription or activity? In other words if the student gains work and essentially "graduates" to the point of inactivity will the portfolio remain so long as the student keeps the subscription active?
The other question is how will the AD's and others see these? Will it be popularity based like Instagram, timing based like Etsy, or a mix of both? The concern being that one student's portfolio style may not be popular with the voters but might be exactly what an AD or editor is looking for and be hard to find.
Thanks again for considering this awesome opportunity for your students. That is much added value and a bigger incentive to level up our work.
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I think this is a fantastic idea for those of us who are looking to shift the focus of our careers onto illustration. I'm a full time graphic designer, so my personal website contains a mix of graphic design, motion graphics, and illustration, so having a place on SVS for me to collect JUST my illustration work would be huge for me (and others in a similar situation) while I retool/reorganize my existing portfolio site.
No matter which way you go on the decision, thanks for even considering this!
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Great idea!
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This sounds like a great idea, and would be more than a little useful.
Iād love to see this implemented. -
I would love the opportunity. I really do like the idea of the upvotes getting more of a feature in the hopes that the more "ready" to see art might be seen. I have a slight concern, too, about style preferences causing good work to be overlooked and therefore not featured. Would there be the "staff picks" that would be featured or occasional artists highlighted, perhaps? All that said, I would very much be a person interested in using the portfolio site and am so jazzed that the option might be there in the future. You guys are awesome. Count me in!!!
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I think it's an awesome idea! I would definitely use the service.
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I believe this would be a great idea. Being a beginner illustrator, I need all the promotion I can get. Aside from doing it myself, it's really great to have a site as established as SVS is to help me with that. SVS already has a decent following and with its various connections. I have a strong feeling that this will be more than effective. This would definitely be more reason for me subscribe full time.
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I think this is a great idea. I would absolutely use this.
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Thumbs UP
"It would enable us to share the portfolios with art directors at various publishing houses."
The best thing about this feature would be getting our work seen by the right people.Thumbs DOWN
"In addition there would be an "upvote" option on each image. Anyone logged in could see and up-vote your image(s). We could also hire software developers to create algorithms that would auto select images with the most upvotes to populate a gallery on the front of the svslearn.com page."
The worst thing about this is that it will turn a great forum into Facebook and Instagram. Instead of helping aspiring artists, those who are already known and their posts receive high interaction will get seen the most, while other good work gets buried. -
This is a great thought ...but it also sounds very much like DeviantArt, ArtStation, IllustrationFriday and a million other portfolio aggregation platforms. Maybe it would be a good place to start building a portfolio presence for people who are just starting to show their art - the wild world can be a little intimidating, and this is definitely a much closer-knit and supportive community. The big question is how you would drive and direct traffic and wether getting ADs to look at it really is the goal - or rather give students the opportunity to build and nurture a curated portfolio. The latter seems a pragmatic and worthwhile goal all by itself.
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This is great! I would definitely use it if it has chances of being shown to art directors and editors.
Since I am not living in the USA and the illustrator can't make a living from doing children's book in my country, every chance to get more exposure is great.My only question is, will the portfolio show us as a student or as a professional? because I am wondering if the AD or editors will see us more like a student and not ready for professional work no matter how our portfolios look rather than someone to hire.
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I just think this idea is inspired!
I look forward to that future email. -
I think this is a grand idea and will help many people.
My only concern is that it will just turn in to a lot of people just posting their everyday stuff in it and not curating their best work to display for the "long haul." I would suggest maybe capping either the total number of images allowed per user to maybe 10-20, or maybe put a limit on how often it can be updated, or some sort of limiter to prevent abuse and spamming of the system.
Whatever results from this though I feel will be great.
Instagram: @StepOne_DrawCircle
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@buddy-skelton i totally agree
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@will-terry "images with the most upvotes to populate a gallery on the front of the svslearn page" sounds especially helpful, it's so hard for new people to break through the clutter. A leg up from places like this could be great.
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You bring up some great questions as do many who have already commented. This is what we needed so thank you - we have to have a good plan that we think will make the largest percentage happy -otherwise it will be a waste of time and money.
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this sounds amazing and its something I would love!
