Every company I’ve ever applied to as a product designer has required a portfolio presentation interview. It’s a great way for employers to learn more about who you are and what projects you’ve worked on. It’s also a chance for you to discuss how you collaborate with others to solve problems, showcase what you’re capable of producing, and exhibit your skillset to your new potential team.

I’d recommend preparing a slide-deck for the presentation as they’re the best storytelling tool in my opinion. Below are my tips for success for a successful portfolio review:

1. Start by introducing yourself.

A great way to set the tone for the presentation is to kick-off the first few slides by sharing your background. This portion shouldn’t last more than 1–2 minutes as it’s a way for your presenters to quickly learn who you are. …

Diving into a company’s blog is one of the best ways I learn about an organization. It offers a glimpse into who I could be potentially working with, the projects I could take ownership of, and what the culture is like. In a sense, my first impression can be formed prior to meeting anyone from the teams.

With these thoughts in mind, I conceived the idea of creating a blog post series to highlight our designers at MongoDB. I was certain it’d be a great avenue to educate candidates on who we are, what we do, and what we find important. …

As creatives, it’s undeniable that we propagate ourselves into our work. Our backgrounds, experiences, and beliefs help shape our decisions regarding the projects we take on and the messages we amplify. There’s no doubt that with the presence of an audience comes great responsibility — especially in leveraging mediums to stir conversations we find important.

In the case of Olafur Eliasson, a Danish-Icelandic artist known for his installation pieces, art is seen as a platform to share ideas and inspire change. …

If you aren’t living under a rock, chances are you may have heard of, seen, or purchased a product from Glossier in recent years.

That’s because this beauty brand has taken millennial consumer markets by storm, climbing into unicorn territory ($1.2 billion valuation) in a matter of six years. Today, the company sports over two million Instagram followers, $100+ million in annual revenue from its line of thirty-six products, and an impressive cult following since its mere inception in 2014.

In its simplest form, branding is the practice of influencing and controlling a set of associations with a company to help the business’s performance. Done successfully, an organization’s identity will be tied to select attributes—promoting its image or popularity.

While absolute control over a brand is not possible, it can be influenced through deliberate design, advertising, and marketing. By these means, companies can clearly communicate the principles they stand for to target audiences. Considering the power of this practice, it’s crucial that an organization masters the pillars of creating a strong brand to get ahead.

What is strong branding?

A strong brand adds value to your product.

It differentiates you from competitors by helping you achieve recognition and clarifies expectations for customers. The key is in highlighting the contrast between what you can offer and what already exists in the market. …

The application of fashion as a form of aesthetic expression is a notion familiar to many. Every day, we curate ourselves with inspiration from rising trends, a perception of our personal preferences, and regards to practicality in the context of our environments.

This relationship we form between body and material in response to time and place juxtaposes many different factors — undoubtedly, color as one of the most prominent elements. …

As product designers, harnessing skills in user research is crucial to our roles (if not already a requirement sought from most companies nowadays). Being able to effectively detect users’ pain points to then devise core insights lends itself to well-designed applications. In all, learning how to conduct user testing ultimately helps in creating the best user experiences.

First, what does it mean for a design to be usable?

“It means that a person of average (or even below average) ability and experience can figure out how to accomplish something without it being more trouble than its worth.” —Steve Krug from Don’t Make Me Think

The answer to a design problem often depends on the context. However, it can be agreed that a well-integrated design is one that fills a need and is carefully thought out, well-executed, and tested. …

Ever since minimalism momentously gained popularity in the 1960’s, the “Light and Space” movement has naturally acquired prominence for its stunning juxtaposition in geometric abstraction, luminescence, and space. Artwork from this distinctive style is notable for its use of glass, neon, and cutting-edge fabrication to showcase transparency, reflection, and eye-trickery in mind-bending expanses. In looking to its artists who embrace the personal, theatrical experience of the viewer and their related work, we can best understand “Light and Space” in its stand-alone artistry.

Larry Bell

The world’s first introduction to “Light and Space” was at the 1971 UCLA Art Gallery exhibition titled “Transparency, Reflection, Light, Space.” There, Larry Bell—an American contemporary artist and sculptor—debuted glass boxes and large-scaled illusionistic sculptures that caught notable attention of eyes on the West Coast. …