What is my most powerful tool for marketing? Pretty simply it is my portfolio! Im all about digital, but there is just something about “analog” portfolio that people relate to.

My process of getting jobs has been process of first sending emails, then calling and trying to get a meeting. I´ve noticed that when ever I get my printed physical portfolio to people´s hand they relate to images much better than seeing them in PDF format or webpages.

People “browse” through digital images cause they see them pretty much all the time on different web pages, so it has become a kind of habit to just browse through the images. When they hold a heavy printed leather cover portfolio they concentrate on the images much better. I´ve seen this many times.

I have two kind of portfolios here with me. One is lightweight 20x25cm sized portfolio I made with Blurb. I have this portfolio ALL THE TIME with me, where ever I go. I never know when I get to the situation where I need to show my images and I cannot think any better way to show them than a real paper printed portfolio.

When ever I go to a meeting where I know that Im going to show images I take my 30x30cm portfolio with me. It is heavy, has fine leather cover and the images are top quality. Big spreads, big images. This book is made in kuvatkirjaksi.fi service and my friend Henkka at MooCb made cool laser etching for the cover and back with my own name.

So I definitely recommend to make these portfolios from your own and always carry them with you. You will never know who you would meet and it is so much better to show the images in print than small from your cellphone. Always be sure also to tell the stories behind images as they give deeper meaning to the your images.