Bread Line Design

Many agencies both big and small have strict policies involving what their designers can and can’t display in online portfolios. The popular line seems to be “Display your personal work, but keep all in-house work offline”. That’s all good if your a junior (you’ll just be damn glad you’ve actually got a job), but without work online what can you show relatives that just think you “do computers”, or that fine art student your chatting up?

It’s not hard to see why agencies adopt this policy. It prevents moonlighting designers from passing off group agency work as their own, keeps below standard/NDA restricted work out of the public domain and stops marauding recruitment firms from directly poaching design talent.

However some agencies do let their top designers publish their work in personal portfolios, and the most notable are arguably some of the best agencies on the planet: AKQA, 2advanced and North Kingdom. Their portfolios are featured below:

http://www.killahgrafikz.com/ Kevin Hsieh (AKQA)

http://www.shanemielke.com/ Shane Mielke (2advanced)

http://www.designchapel.com/ Robert Lindstrom (North Kingdom)

By letting these designers show their work in their own light, they become design heroes that others follow and respect. It’s a symbiotic relationship between designer and studio. The designers are allowed to show off all they’ve achieved, gaining both industry and in-studio respect, while the agencies shine in the reflected glory of their top designers, effectively turning them into one man recruitment magnets. What designer wouldn’t want to work and learn alongside any one of these guys?

It be great to see more agencies follow suit. After all, what could be better for designer morale than letting the best show-off and giving the rest something to aim for?