Shhh! The Secret Advantage Of A Micro Portfolio
I should begin this post by stating that I am in no way associated with Krop.com.
That’s because what follows may sound like an endorsement. It’s not, paid or otherwise.
I just wanted to publicize an option that readers, especially artists, photographers, and illustrators, might find useful.
Krop is both a job board and a portfolio hosting site. A basic 10-image portfolio is free. There are 3 featured thumbnails. All 10 thumbnails (at an identical smaller size) are displayed below the 3 featured images. Four of the smaller thumbnails (on the far right) are out of the viewing window, but can be accessed by a slider. You can order the images so that 9 of the 10 thumbnails are immediately visible when someone opens the portfolio (the 3 featured images, plus 6 of the remaining 7 at smaller size). See below.
I liked the clean design, and the fact that everything was all on one page, including a short bio. And you only have to import your full size images. There’s a cropping tool which allows you to make the corresponding thumbnails as you go along.
When you click on any of the thumbnails, the corresponding full-size image is displayed directly below the row of thumbnails, like so:
One can continue to click on thumbnails and see all the full-size images, without ever leaving the one page– a big advantage when it comes to holding the attention of an art director or other potential client. Feel free to visit my Krop portfolio and try clicking on the thumbnails yourself.
Does the Krop portfolio provide any stats? Just one, really. If you click on the Manage My Portfolio link, the system displays a running total of how many times the portfolio has been viewed since it was created. No #views per image, no total visitors today. Well, you get what you don’t pay for, I guess. Here’s what the running total looks like:
So we have a very clean, user-friendly micro-portfolio, that’s free, with minimal stats. What’s the “secret advantage” I mentioned in the title of this post?
It occurred to me after I set up the portfolio, that it’s perfect as a “best of” site, or for displaying new work. I’ve been using mine for a little of both. In my latest pitches to art directors, I’ve been including the link to my Krop portfolio, and prefacing it with: “I’ve posted some new pieces on a single page– hope you’ll take a look.” I think it sounds a lot more accessible than a request to take a look at someone’s full portfolio, which is apt to contain 50 images or more.
Just an idea. What do you think? Hope you’ll share your thoughts.
