A scout's diary: ten portfolios in one night

Tuesdays are my scouting nights. The kettle goes on at eight, the newsletter is sent, and I open the folder of portfolios that people in my community have nudged my way over the week. This week there were ten.

8:20pm

The first three are lovely and I will not put any of them forward yet. All three show finished work beautifully and say almost nothing about how they got there. I write each designer a short note asking for one messy case study. Two of them will send it by Friday. They always do.

9:05pm

Number five stops me. A small accessibility project for a local transport app, presented in four plain pages. No mood boards, no process diagrams. Just the problem, three options she tried, the one she shipped and what the bus drivers said afterwards. I read it twice.

The best portfolio of the night was four plain pages long.

10:30pm

By the end I have one designer I would put in front of any team I know, two who are close, and seven who deserve a kind reply. Everyone gets the reply. Only one gets an introduction, and she will hear about it from me before any company knows her name.

That is the part I love. Not the finding, the asking. "There's a team I think you'd like. Want to meet them?" Most nights, the answer is yes.