Self-paced, self-guided instruction is all well and good, but at the end of the day, most people could use a little feedback--especially when they're ready to build a design portfolio and hit the job market. Not to worry, this book provides actual instructor feedback along with the self-paced, individualized instruction in Photoshop and Illustrator that designers need. Written by the faculty of New York-based, accredited online design school Sessions.edu, the book uses the school's trademark project-based curriculum to teach essential design concepts with Photoshop and Illustrator. After a brief intro to the world of graphic design, Sessions instructors provide quick "refresher course" chapters on the two programs. Then, armed with Photoshop and Illustrator basics, readers tackle a series of projects that stretch their imagination and creative muscles involving logo design, magazine layouts, illustrations, poster design, digital imaging, book cover design, packaging design, and more. Best of all, readers are encouraged to post their work for expert feedback from Session.edu faculty on "Studio Sessions," the custom Web site created for this book.

Amazon.com® Reader Reviews (Ranked by Helpfulness)

Average Amazon.com® Rating:  Based on 8 Ratings

Half way through the book, Recommended - 2006-08-03
Reviewer Rating:
Graphic Design Portfolio Builder is a good supplemental book for designers and beginning students. I wrote supplemental because this book does not comprehensively cover the features of Photoshop and Illustrator software (and it wasn't suppose to) but to help beginners you get familiar with the software and up and running.

The book is very colorful, well laid out and full of useful information. What is comphrehensive is that it covers all aspects of what designers or artists would face and be challenged at work or in classrooms. Each lesson is written by an professional designers and artists with years of experience and I highly enjoyed reading the chapters so far.

The projects in the book are fairly challenging and somewhat time consuming which is good since it makes you explore the software to its full potential if you're feeling ambious.

For inspirations, I recommend you checkout other students work in the book or on their website. It really challenges you to come up with your best work and experiment with different ideas and creative concepts.

This book is fantastic! - 2007-04-10
Reviewer Rating:
This book was so very helpful in aiding my desire to build a portfolio! It helped me learn more about Photoshop and Illustrator - plus gave me assignments that were reviewed and critiqued by a very helpful and polite instructor. This is more than just a book it is a full class at a book rate! I would recommend it to anyone looking for this type of work or just to improve what they already know.

Weak... - 2009-07-18
Reviewer Rating:
This book is terrible. The projects are lame and uninspiring. If you really need to learn photoshop and illustrator go get the adobe "classroom in a book" series.

This is a must for all graphic designers! - 2009-04-24
Reviewer Rating:
I borrowed this book from a graphic designer at work. At the time, I had just finished my certification and didn't know what to do about a portfolio. I kept it for a couple of weeks, and then bought my own copy. This book is awesome! It shows you step-by-step techniques on pieces to put in your portfolio and reviews some skills on Illustrator and Photoshop. It also gives you some hints on some effects you'd like to make on the project. To top it off, you get to post your work on a forum and get feedback from the institution's instructors! Definitely a must-have! Caution: this book is hard to get brand new since it is out of print.

Portfolio builder? Not@ - 2009-02-05
Reviewer Rating:
This book sounds better than it is. Your get a web site that you are supposed to be able to download projects and then put on the site to get feed back and see other students work. When you get to the site, they are trying to sell you the book and let you read a chapter on the site. I wanted to use it to create a portfolio so I could start my job search. This was a waste of money. I still don't have a portfolio and no help with creating one!!
I greatly disappointed and upset!!!!!

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