Using CD's for a portfolio presentation?

[Mary Sparrow]

Has anyone ever done this? Yesterday, my fancy new computer came complete with CD burner. While Brad was showing me how to create slide shows with music onto my own CD's, we thought it might be a nice way to market.

By putting pictures of recent work, that may not appear on your website, onto a CD with music and whatever information you might want to send out as a viewable portfolio instead of the traditional methods. He said that the CD's can be bought for about 20 cents a piece (the writable, not the re-writeable ones) in bulk. He said there was a way if you are smart enough to format it so it could be played on a DVD player as well as the PC.

I think it would be a neat idea myself, more fun than just a brochure, (and pardon me if this is NOT a novel idea and has been dicussed before)
and really cheap!

And yes, this is the new computer I traded for the portrait. I should have just waited before I opened my big mouth. He did an excellent job of getting me a VERY nice, complete with otherwise very expensive software that I would never have on a home PC and nice printer. So, that trade wasn't so bad after all. I never would have sprung for all this out of pocket.

[Michele Rushworth]

I think a lot of creative professionals do use CD's as mailable portfolios. I believe the main issue in doing this is being sure the people who receive them have the right software for viewing the presentation, or including it on the CD somehow so it will be viewable on anyone's computer.

[Jeff Fuchs]

Michele is right. I have a friend who sends me Powerpoint files once in a while. I've tried to tell him, I can't open Powerpoint files, 'cause I ain't got Powerpoint.

There are some formats that are a safe bet, because almost everybody has the software to run it. MPEG files are pretty universal. So are Flash files (Flash would be better for what you're doing). You'll have plenty of extra space on your CD, so you can include a copy of the Macromedia Flash software in case they need it. There are no limitations on distributing their free software (but double check).

If you have good tech help from friends, set it up so that it will automatically start when the CD is inserted in the computer. Also try to make it so that it will automatically run at full screen instead of a little window. Don't ask me for help with this, because I wouldn't know where to start

There are some pros and cons to this, but I think it would be neat to get one, so go for it.

Not everybody knows what to do with these. I guess it would depend on your market. Even CEOs of dot-coms, who would presumably have the money to hire you, often are not the most tech savvy folks, and do things like print out all their email.

Flash is not an easy to program to learn, unless you already have experience with timeline-based programs. It also manages jpgs in a fumbling sort of way.

Director is more ready-made for this kind of application, and will produce files that auto-run (Flash might, I only have Flash 5). It too is confusing to learn, but it's a nifty skill to have, if you're up for it. Both Flash and Director are $$$.

The easiest way is to make yourself a website, and save that to a CD. It takes a bit of explaining to get someone to open it, but it's lots easier for you. You can write opening instructions on the CD insert.

Actually, that wasn't true - the *easiest* way is just save a bunch of files to a CD and let the user figure it out. But the easiest way taking the user into account is the website way. If you know someone techie, they can probably write you an autorun program that will start up a browser, but I don't know how to do it.

Good luck!

[Heidi Maiers]

The autorun is a simple two line text file that launches whatever file you specify as the executable. It is very simple to implement, however, this is a Window's specific feature and does not work on a Mac machine.

I do offer a CD service from my website using Demoshield Designer from Installshield.com (which requires no additional software on the client machine which is a benefit over using PowerPoint).
CD Portfolio Service

The company I work for is having me learn FlashMX so I can redo all of our company software product demos that launch from the web and get installed on our CD's. It requires some programming knowledge to use it, but it is a very cool program and I can't wait to see what I can do with it.

[Heidi Maiers]

In case you want to add an autorun to a CD you are burning, here's how to do it:
First, open a text editor such as Notepad (found in all Windows operating systems at Start/Program Files/Accessories/Notepad) and type the following:

[autorun]
open=Launch.exe

The Launch.exe is the name of whatever executable you want to launch and can just as easily be named setup.exe, run.exe, install.exe, etc.

You must save the file with the name autorun.inf and place it at the root level of your CD along with the exe file and any other files required for the launch.

Wow, Heidi, excellent information!! Thanks!

[Gene Snyder]

AH-HA! So that's how you do it! I've had an old portfolio project created in Macromedia Director laying around that I abandoned because I couldn't get it to run and I went to the web instead. Problem solved. Thanks Heidi!

That wasn't the entire reason I abandoned the project, the other reason was my thinking that the viewer wouldn't have the software to run the CD. I guess as more galleries get up to speed digitally, this will be more of an option.

Also, I recently attended a promotional meeting at work where a video production company was handing out mini-CDs that were the size of a business card and fit into a clear plastic sleeve for protection. The mini-CD wasn't round, but cut off at the top and bottom to fit the dimensions of a business card. It worked great in my CD-ROM player and, as you guessed, auto-ran to bring up a website with the company's portfolio, which in this case was streaming video.

This post gives me new interest in this as it was something I've been wanting to do for a long time and thought that it was unacceptable to most galleries, clients, etc.

Thanks again.

[Gene Snyder]

Here is an example. As far as a vendor, I'm still looking...