WEEK 7 - i'm embarrassed to admit this as a designer...
So...I haven't updated my portfolio in over three years.
And honestly? I've been dreading doing it. Revising and updating my portfolio with new work seems like such an overwhelming task...and the longer I put it off, the worse it gets haha.
At the same time, I know that my website is my digital storefront, and it's really beneficial to my business to keep it fresh and current.
But I totally lucked out! I was listening to a podcast that inspired me to turn my portfolio update into a holiday celebration kind of thing and invite fellow portfolio procrastinators to join in with me.
(If you actually want some guidance and accountability to update your portfolio, click here to learn more about the brand new live class I'm teaching next month!)
I am a big fan of cooperative communities, positive groups of people who love similar things, and working with creative friends to get work done. So I’m incorporating ALL of that into “my” holiday: National Update Your Portfolio Day!
Holidays encourage us to focus our energy - and fun! - on a specific subject, task, or person. Advocacy groups and businesses use holidays to highlight a message or product specific to them.
We are going to celebrate the thing(s) that are special to us.
This assignment is especially useful for two kinds of situations. The first one is the one I’m in: dragging my feet on a project.
Turning my portfolio update into a holiday gives me an excuse to hack the stuff about the project that makes me feel meh: how much time it will take and working on it all alone.
The other kind of situation is one where something in your life isn’t getting as much attention or awareness as it deserves. Creating a holiday to celebrate allows you to amplify or highlight that thing in positive, creative ways.
[Note: It’s totally understandable if a celebration feels inappropriate for your life at the moment. If you’ve got the headspace for it, use this assignment to plan a celebratory holiday for the future. The point of this assignment is less about throwing the party and more about giving lots of good creative attention to things worth celebrating.]
Your assignment: Create your own holiday and letter or illustrate a piece of art promoting it.
This HOMwork assignment is all about creating *your* own holiday. Pick something you want to work on, or you want others to celebrate with you, or maybe even a guilty pleasure that you just haven’t been able to really indulge in and turn it into a holiday.
Anything that needs or deserves more time and attention is fair game for this HOMwork assignment.
Thought starters: Big brands use holidays to encourage sales and, although most of us probably won’t have a direct tie-in to sales, holidays are a great way to promote an idea or practice or to make something more special than ordinary.
Also, it will be helpful to make your holiday something niche so people understand it’s lighthearted, tongue-in-cheek, and meant more as a celebration than a “SELLebration.” Though it's fine if you do have something to sell (I usually do!).
For example: National UPDATE Your Portfolio Day is more specific than National Portfolio Day. And both are way more niche than something like “National Artists’ Day.”
Engagement Tip: You can use this assignment to launch your own fun stuff - a resource, series, project, course, etc… Whatever you’re working on, you can celebrate the launch (or progress) with a holiday.
This is a playful way to get your audience involved with your launch because everyone loves a holiday. Ask them to celebrate along with you by doing a related activity!
Resources: This assignment was inspired by a fascinating episode of the NPR podcast Planet Money called “the holiday industrial complex.”
A great place to look for ideas is on sites like Time and Date or National Today. Today (2/26) is actually National Pistachio Day AND National Skip the Straw Day so there’s two things to celebrate!
And, as always, don’t forget to tag me @homsweethom and #HOMwork2021 + #HOMwork if you post your work to Instagram. I love looking through your excellent creations and share a few of my favs every week in my IG Stories before the next assignment is posted.
x Lauren
P.S. If you're a portfolio procrastinator like me, I'd love to see you in my new 4-week live portfolio updating class. It's a brand new concept I'm testing out, and you'll be getting a sweet early bird price for joining in now. Reply to this email if you have any questions after reading about it!
