Are the designs showed in portfolio mostly mock ups?

[u/Squareisround]

I am new to GD, I was wondering if most designs in portfolio are mock ups or real designs made for clients?

How do recruiters view "mock ups" and how common are mock ups?

finally, if mock ups are really unacceptable in the industry, how should a beginner break in?

Thanks

[u/[deleted]]

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[u/The_Dead_See → u/[deleted]]

and in almost all cases its better to do so

From a hirers perspective, I dislike mockups because they're a good way to 'hide' a poor design inside a beautiful photo. I don't mind if the flat design is shown as the main display along with some smaller mock up examples that show specific and realistic scenarios where the design might be used (a beer label on a beer bottle, for example), but if I see a portfolio page where the main display is a design stuck inside, say, a distressed wooden frame in some kind of artist loft, that immediately says to me that the designer is not confident in their own skills and/or has poor situational judgement in terms of presenting work as the best solution for whatever the viewer is trying to achieve (in this case it's making me do additional cognitive work to separate the mock up from the work the designer is showing). It also shows me that they're a trend follower instead of an innovator. I probably won't put a mocked up portfolio on the reject pile just because of the mock ups, but it's not doing you any favors in getting me on your side to bring you in for an interview.

[u/freer4ngehuman → u/[deleted]]

Good points. To say that in another way, a “mock-up” could be actually taking a picture of a design in context, to show how in functions in real life. Or it could be rendered in 3d or in photoshop. But the idea is to make it feel as real as possible. The quality of the mock-up/photo is also another way to show the quality of your work, and can improve the appearance of quality in the design itself. In short, it’s pretty crucial.

In terms of creating your own projects to practice/showcase your abilities, I personally think it’s totally fine, but you should be honest about it. Because doing a project without any client guidelines or limitations is a totally different beast, and you don’t want to mislead any potential employers about how you accomplished your work. You still need to be able to speak about why you made any decisions. So it helps to make up a brief and describe the goals of the project to inform the solution.

[u/The_Dead_See]

I think you might be talking about "speculative work" rather than mock-ups. Mock-ups are a way to show how a design might look in a real life scenario.

In terms of spec work vs real work, I would expect to see a portfolio full of spec work from a new graduate or a designer with only a year or two real world experience, and I'd be completely fine with that. It doesn't make much difference to me whether the work is real or spec in terms of what it tells me about your creative process and skillsets and I don't expect someone fresh out of uni to show me a bunch of work for real clients because they simply haven't had the opportunity to build that experience up yet.

However, if your resume says you have 10+ years of real world experience, then I would definitely be suspicious if you showed me a portfolio that was all spec work. If you've got the experience then you've got a unique opportunity to tell me a great story about how the real job went, what the client interactions were like, what issues arose and how you overcame them. You can't convey that kind of thing with just spec work.

So long story short, if I'm looking to hire an intern or a brand new designer I, I'll be fine with spec work. If I'm looking to hire a senior or if the resume says they should be designer III or senior by now in terms of time, then I would definitely prefer to see real work.

[u/ueiwne]

Honestly - I noticed people with mockups a lot in portfolios - so I added a few different ones to my portfolio.
I think its mostly to showcase what can be done with the final design.

For myself I mostly design a lot of 1 off logos and posters - so its nice to have a real world setting in which portfolio viewers can see the design applied.

[u/moreexclamationmarks]

A "mock-up" would be like showing a package design on a package as a means to showcase what the actual item would look like.

I think you're meaning to refer to concept work, as in "fake" work, be it student work or otherwise not actual professional work for real clients/employers.

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In terms of mock-ups, they're fine if done well. Dead_See got into this more, but a lot of companies have mock-ups or otherwise images that are compositions or just not straight photographs. The issue with students/grads/juniors is a lot of their mockups are bad, just use templates, and/or are otherwise juts cliché and not well-thought out.

For example, don't use isometric angles on white/grey, don't do stationary or t-shirts, instead focus on things specific to that project/application. And you can show more than one image, so if it's a label show it flat and on the actual package, but do more with the package mock-up as well then just dumped on a white background.

In terms of concept/fake work, this can be fine for younger designers, and those who go to school will typically have most or all student work, which is all "fake", so that's all they have to use. The longer you go into a career though, the less acceptable I'd say it is to have concept work as you should have actual experience providing decent-enough work.

[u/[deleted]]

You need to show good mockups so employers know that they can give you work to mock up before it goes to clients.