PDF Research

Creating an Interactive Portfolio

by C. Scott Miller, Author of the PDF Research Companion website and President of Performance Graphics

In the 1960's Marshall McLuhan professed the concept that "The Medium is the Message." How designers use new media to display their cross-media competency is the subject of this article.

Cross-media Designers

The term "graphic designer" has undergone a dramatic metamorphosis over the last dozen years. Design tools have changed - board art has been replaced by desktop design and publishing. The graphic tools have changed - photo-ready art is being replaced by digital files, typeset galleys by page layout files, proofs by PDFs.

The biggest change has been in the range of competency a designer is expected to display. Not only must a designer demonstrate aesthetic sensibility and prepress acumen, but also mastery of a variety of programs and media - print, ink, page description languages, programming languages, color models, file formats, interface, vectors illustration, bitmap image processing, web page design, 3D modelling, digital movies, animation, etc. Perhaps the nom de plume "graphic designer" needs an update - more accurately he/she should be called a "publishing designer" or "cross-media designer."

How can "cross-media designers" display their wares to prospective clients? What is the new millennium equivalent of the trusty artist's portfolio? How can a Me Generation or Gen-X designer demonstrate cross-media competency? Certainly it demands more that just a folio of static printouts or sleeve of transparencies that was standard only years ago. No, today's designer needs a medium that displays cross-media command and sophistication. A broadband container for print files, internet links, and dynamic media. Enter the "interactive portfolio."

The Ideal Portfolio Delivery Medium

An interactive portfolio, like any other marketing vehicle, must address the specific capabilities and needs of its intended users. For instance, while designers are more likely to be using Macintosh computers for their work, their prospects are more likely to use Windows computers or need Windows-compatible productions. So the ideal delivery media would be universal - cross-platform compatible and accessible through either the internet or a commonly available removable media drive.

Many portfolios are available for view over the web but they have severe drawbacks -

  1. The internet is a pull medium. URLs must be typed in to be used. Email alone is not enough of an inducement.
  2. The web is slow. Slow transfer rates mean that files have to be small to be viewed which, for designers, rarely does justice to what is being displayed.
  3. Browsers cannot launch executables. What they can show has to be so small that the integrity of the piece in its original form is severely compromised (for example data-stream movies or complex graphics with designer fonts)
  4. The attention span of the typical web surfer is extremely short. It is too easy to click away to another web site or search inquiry.

A CD-ROM is the perfect vehicle for holding and conveying portfolio samples. They can be formatted to operate on multiple platforms; they are inexpensive to duplicate; they can hold 650Mb of data, movies, executables, installers; CD-ROM drives are the most common removable media peripherals in use. CDs are compact and easy to distribute and, unlike the internet, are a push medium that can be "rifled" to qualified prospects. And their transfer rates are faster than the broadest band web connections.

Above is a main menu page of the Performance Graphics Interactive Portfolio. The picture buttons are fully scalable PDF icons. The bookmarks provide an alternate means for opening views of sample PDFs or multimedia projector files. Requests for copies of this CD-ROM should be directed to Performance Graphics accompanied by a statement of intended use.

Universal Portfolio Formats

Adobe's Portable Document Format (PDF) offers a universal solution for presenting a wide range of graphic and cross-media samples on CDs. They preserve the scalable look, printability and feel of advertisements, brochures, billboards, banners, presentations, web pages, maps, manuals, and reports. They are a terrific medium for building interfaces filled with hyperlinks, web links, executable launches, and fillable forms. PDFs are one of the most commonly distributed formats for the internet, on CD-ROMs, and as email attachments. The viewing software - Acrobat Reader - is free and prevalent throughout the computing world as a stand-alone program and as a web browser plug-in. And since version 4.0, Reader can execute off of a CD without installation.

Rather than placing a designer's internet work on the CD, links can be added to any PDF hyperlink, bookmark, or button to access the user's own browser and internet link. However, with the Acrobat Web Capture tool, a PDF rendition of a working HTML page or website can be automatically generated and included on the CD.

Unfortunately, PDFs have severe drawbacks when it comes to multimedia display with voiceover, music, and timeline visuals. For this, Macromedia Director projector files offer an alternative. These files are self-executing for either Macintosh or Windows platforms and the range of multimedia that can be composed in projector files is extremely broad. Not only can graphics and sound be cast members of a Director script, but also Quicktime movies, animation sequences, and Flash SWF files. However, a single projector file is not cross-platform compatible. A cross-platform CD would have to contain individual projector files for each platform (generated from versions of Macromedia Director for each platform). Ideally this CD would be autorunning on each of its hybrid platform halves.

Future Portfolios

Perhaps in the future fiber optic networks will provide the bandwidth necessary for delivery of the full range of media over the internet (very likely). Perhaps there will be a single adhered to standard for internet browsers (much less likely). But for now the cross-media designer can find a rich medium and universal formats stable enough and broadly applicable enough to present their work in the best light possible - PDFs and multimedia on CD.

C. Scott Miller is President of Performance Graphics, a Graphic Arts consulting, production, and services company located in Los Angeles, CA. He can be reached at miller@performancegraphics.com or via his company's website at http://www.performancegraphics.com.

Return to PDF Research Companion home page.
a production of Performance Graphics
©2000 The Miller De Wulf Corporation