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PORTFOLIOS Your Best Foot Forward
For the professional makeup artist, a professional image extends much further than their appearance. It must include their equipment. This includes items such as the makeup kit, portfolio and curriculum vitae. It is crucial to have a curriculum vitae and a professional-looking portfolio book to display to potential employers and/or clientele. It is a good idea to keep your makeup CV separate to the remainder of your working history, even when you are first starting out in makeup and your makeup CV is empty! Employers looking to hire a makeup artist will likely only be interested in your makeup experience. However, on the odd occasion, you may need to show all of your working history when meeting with potential employers, so keep separate CV’s with you when meeting with anyone in regards to gaining employment.
CURRICULUM VITAE
You may have some experience in preparing a personal CV
in other fields, but do you know how to put together a makeup artist’s curriculum vitae? If not, you’re not alone! A makeup CV is similar to others in the sense that it needs to be both functional and professional. It needs to clearly list your skills, qualifications and working history, as well as contact details and referee details. A cover letter is usually required as well, just like an application for any other position in any other industry. However, working in a field such as makeup artistry allows you to add creative elements of design into your CV. Thinking outside the box will make your CV stand out. You can creatively incorporate a photograph of your work, although I recommend using only one. You can also add colour and design by using colour blocks and/or text blocks. Black and white works well, but if you want to add colour, a pop of one accent colour is a great option. When you are first starting out in makeup, with very little or no experience, your curriculum vitae will appear very blank. This is where those design elements can come in handy to make it visually appealing in the lack of information.
It is difficult to begin with no experience and a boring CV, but everyone starts out this way. However tempting it is, never attempt to falsify information about your experience or plagiarize another artist’s work. Doing so could end your chances of a makeup career before it has even begun!
At the beginning, you may choose to use a single-page CV. But as time brings further experience, your makeup CV should be limited to three to four pages. It should begin with a cover letter page, then one to two pages listing your profile and contact details, education, key achievements and finally your employment experience. The last page should be your reference list. Preparing your curriculum vitae in Microsoft Word is a great start, because it is a versatile program, quick to use and easily updated. If you have graphic design software, however, you may opt to use this instead for greater creativity. If you are stuck for inspiration on how to set out your makeup CV, performing an online search for ‘makeup artist cv’ can help. Alternatively, many graphic designers sell CV templates which are inexpensive, easily personalised and updated. These are a great option if you lack the computer and design skills to create a CV for yourself. Try online markets such as Etsy to purchase instant downloads of these templates. If you choose to open your own freelancer website, you may want to include the details of your curriculum vitae on it as well.
PORTFOLIO
To be successful in makeup artistry, one needs to invest their time,
money and passion into building a makeup portfolio. A makeup portfolio should be an accurate representation of the best work you have already done and the type of work you want to do in the future. In this modern-day saturated market, both a hardcopy portfolio book and an online portfolio are absolutely essential to be seen.
PORTFOLIO BOOK
A professional-looking portfolio book, of the highest quality
that you can afford, can make all the difference in gaining your first, or next, makeup job. A great size to look for in books is A4 size, which will hold standard size prints big enough to showcase your work.
Purpose-made leather-bound albums/books (or at least leather-look) consisting of clear plastic sleeve pages are a fantastic choice. If possible, purchase a book that has plastic sleeves that are acid-free, for the protection of your precious prints. These books or albums generally contain about 20 pages, which is an ideal amount. Note that a bound book appears much more professional than a binder or folder. These books can be custom-made, or premade varieties can be purchased from stationery and office suppliers, and art suppliers.
If you have high resolution digital copies of your portfolio photographs, a beautiful alternative is to have a photo book printed. Using this option means that no original photographs are damaged by the constant perusal of others, and you have a fullcolour, magazine-style portfolio, which you can personalise in any way you wish. Taking this option means that you will need to order a new book each time you wish to update it, but it is well worth the occasional expense and extra work. Ordering a hardcover photo book is the best option. Although, if it is going to require replacing often, perhaps it is best to avoid spending too much! Photo books can be ordered from photo print suppliers. The easiest way is to set it up and purchase is online, with the end result being posted out to you. In most cases, you will not require any graphic design skills, as you can use the supplier’s software to design your book beautifully and preview it before ordering. Examples of suppliers include Snapfish and Memento, but there are many more.
For the professional makeup artist, a professional image extends much further than their appearance. It must include their equipment. This includes items such as the makeup kit, portfolio and curriculum vitae. It is crucial to have a curriculum vitae and a professional-looking portfolio book to display to potential employers and/or clientele. It is a good idea to keep your makeup CV separate to the remainder of your working history, even when you are first starting out in makeup and your makeup CV is empty! Employers looking to hire a makeup artist will likely only be interested in your makeup experience. However, on the odd occasion, you may need to show all of your working history when meeting with potential employers, so keep separate CV’s with you when meeting with anyone in regards to gaining employment.
CURRICULUM VITAE
You may have some experience in preparing a personal CV
in other fields, but do you know how to put together a makeup artist’s curriculum vitae? If not, you’re not alone! A makeup CV is similar to others in the sense that it needs to be both functional and professional. It needs to clearly list your skills, qualifications and working history, as well as contact details and referee details. A cover letter is usually required as well, just like an application for any other position in any other industry. However, working in a field such as makeup artistry allows you to add creative elements of design into your CV. Thinking outside the box will make your CV stand out. You can creatively incorporate a photograph of your work, although I recommend using only one. You can also add colour and design by using colour blocks and/or text blocks. Black and white works well, but if you want to add colour, a pop of one accent colour is a great option. When you are first starting out in makeup, with very little or no experience, your curriculum vitae will appear very blank. This is where those design elements can come in handy to make it visually appealing in the lack of information.
It is difficult to begin with no experience and a boring CV, but everyone starts out this way. However tempting it is, never attempt to falsify information about your experience or plagiarize another artist’s work. Doing so could end your chances of a makeup career before it has even begun!
At the beginning, you may choose to use a single-page CV. But as time brings further experience, your makeup CV should be limited to three to four pages. It should begin with a cover letter page, then one to two pages listing your profile and contact details, education, key achievements and finally your employment experience. The last page should be your reference list. Preparing your curriculum vitae in Microsoft Word is a great start, because it is a versatile program, quick to use and easily updated. If you have graphic design software, however, you may opt to use this instead for greater creativity. If you are stuck for inspiration on how to set out your makeup CV, performing an online search for ‘makeup artist cv’ can help. Alternatively, many graphic designers sell CV templates which are inexpensive, easily personalised and updated. These are a great option if you lack the computer and design skills to create a CV for yourself. Try online markets such as Etsy to purchase instant downloads of these templates. If you choose to open your own freelancer website, you may want to include the details of your curriculum vitae on it as well.
PORTFOLIO
To be successful in makeup artistry, one needs to invest their time,
money and passion into building a makeup portfolio. A makeup portfolio should be an accurate representation of the best work you have already done and the type of work you want to do in the future. In this modern-day saturated market, both a hardcopy portfolio book and an online portfolio are absolutely essential to be seen.
PORTFOLIO BOOK
A professional-looking portfolio book, of the highest quality
that you can afford, can make all the difference in gaining your first, or next, makeup job. A great size to look for in books is A4 size, which will hold standard size prints big enough to showcase your work.
Purpose-made leather-bound albums/books (or at least leather-look) consisting of clear plastic sleeve pages are a fantastic choice. If possible, purchase a book that has plastic sleeves that are acid-free, for the protection of your precious prints. These books or albums generally contain about 20 pages, which is an ideal amount. Note that a bound book appears much more professional than a binder or folder. These books can be custom-made, or premade varieties can be purchased from stationery and office suppliers, and art suppliers.
If you have high resolution digital copies of your portfolio photographs, a beautiful alternative is to have a photo book printed. Using this option means that no original photographs are damaged by the constant perusal of others, and you have a fullcolour, magazine-style portfolio, which you can personalise in any way you wish. Taking this option means that you will need to order a new book each time you wish to update it, but it is well worth the occasional expense and extra work. Ordering a hardcover photo book is the best option. Although, if it is going to require replacing often, perhaps it is best to avoid spending too much! Photo books can be ordered from photo print suppliers. The easiest way is to set it up and purchase is online, with the end result being posted out to you. In most cases, you will not require any graphic design skills, as you can use the supplier’s software to design your book beautifully and preview it before ordering. Examples of suppliers include Snapfish and Memento, but there are many more.
