In this video, Greg Gunn sits down with Emily Xie, a designer at Blind. The two review Emily’s portfolio consisting of work from her experience as a graphic design student at ArtCenter.

Emily graduated from ArtCenter in 2016, and interned at Blind in 2014. Now, as a full-time designer at Blind, she looks back on some of the work that helped her land the job.

If you’ve ever wondered how to get hired out of design school, or aren’t sure what to include in your portfolio, Emily lends a few tips as to how to approach your first portfolio.

You don’t have to have a lengthy list of clients, or even a job, to start building your portfolio. When you’re first starting out, you won’t have as much real world experience—and that’s OK.

Whether you’re enrolled in a specialized design program or university, or are entirely self-taught, your first portfolio should include your student work and personal projects.

Take the assignments you’ve been given or the ones you’ve assigned for yourself, and package each project for your portfolio. Share which project is a student assignment, personal piece, or even a project you completed at your internship.

The purpose of your portfolio isn’t to just show your skills and capabilities as a designer; you have to show your thinking and process for each project you work on.

Design serves as a tool for the world to communicate. Through colors, type, hierarchy, contrast, scale, balance, and all other principles of design, your role as a designer is to share information visually.