In the gallery: Lecturer and designer Davide Colla, IED Ambassador Andrea Tosi, IED Asia-Pacific Area Manager Vlad Serba, MINT Mutimedia Program Head Lizza Gutierrez (Screenshots by the author)
LAST April 14, 2021, MINT Multimedia students, led by Program Head, Lizza Gutierrez, met with Italy’s Istituto Europeo di Design (IED) for a webinar on the business of design and building one’s personal branding. The lecture was attended by designer and owner of the design studio 150up, Davide Colla.
Also present in the online meet was IED Ambassador Andrea Tosi and IED Asia-Pacific Area Manager, Vlad Serba.
The afternoon session was all about how to build a sound personal brand through balancing the “creative and business bubbles” that needs to be reflected in a portfolio. The webinar also served as a lecture for MINT Multimedia students, both junior and senior, for their Portfolio making class.
Colla began by saying that a good portfolio should feel like “a little pill given to someone and they have to take it.” As a CEO of the design studio, 150up, he shared that their team always finds people with interesting stories and shares them, as they are more of a communications group. It all lies in how compelling one’s story is told to many.
He emphasized the importance of time as clients usually scan through their hundreds of submissions each day. He advised the students to “make a world where they can dive into”. He said that having an overview of their portfolio helps. “People should have a grasp of what to expect from you. Give them a world. Make them fall for it,” he said.
Colla also shared that good branding should be consistent with details. “A good brand should have a consistent tone, visual presentation and most importantly, your ‘why’,” he said. For him, the value of the brand lies in the message it wants to convey. “The brand sells the value of the product,” he added.
He also added that in portfolios, quality is always prioritized. “You are what you produce,” he said about how a creative should design their portfolios. “Make the client feel special. Learn what makes them special, and feel it yourself. Then, reflect that in your brand.” he shares that an effective portfolio should have something that can captivate a client and make them believe in one’s capability to reflect their message at best.
The session ended in a Q&A, with students asking tips on their portfolio making and how to effectively sell their brand. Students also asked how they should proceed in developing their own portfolios, specifically which work should be included. The next session of one-on-one consultations between IED and MINT Mulimedia portfolio students will be held on April 28, 2021. W
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About IED
IED is an international network of education born in 1966, with a 100% Italian DNA, operating in the fields of training and research in the disciplines of Design, Fashion, Visual Arts, Communication and Management with 7 seats in Italy - Milan, Como, Venice, Turin, Florence, Rome, Cagliari; 3 in Spain - Barcelona, Madrid, Bilbao; and 2 in Brazil - São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro.
IED academic offerings include Undergraduate, Masters, Summer, and Continuing Education programs.
To know more, please visit their official website: https://www.ied.edu/
You may also connect with them on the following social media:
FB: https://www.facebook.com/IEDesign
IG: https://www.instagram.com/ied_official/
About the webinar
How to broadcast your story most memorably? By developing a solid personal branding, and thus share it worldwide.
If you’d like to harness your inspiration into incredible things, this is your class: learn how to build a strong online presence and lead people’s behaviours and expectations, because what’s the point if nobody knows it’s here?
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About Lizza Gutierrez
Lizza Gutierrez is the cat mom of August, a dreamer, and a lover of typography. She attended graduate school and worked in New York for 5 years, but returned to Manila to establish her design company., Lizza’s Room.
She has a perceptive approach to design and leads a passionate life of constant learning. She has an M.S. degree in Communication and Packaging Design from Pratt Institute in New York. She also studied under the guidance of Milton Glaser at the School of Visual Arts, and received her undergraduate diploma in BFA Industrial Design from the College of Fine Arts at the University of the Philippines.
She started teaching at MINT College in 2012, and was appointed as the Multimedia Program Head in 2014. She still inspires and motivates young MINT designers as an educator up to this day.
Connect with her on Instagram at @lizzas_room and @the_rainbow_playbox.
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To know more about MINT’s Multimedia program, visit www.mintcollege.com/multimedia-arts. Connect with us on our social media accounts:
IG: @mint_stagram