Defining My Professional Identity as a Portfolio Creative

One of the recurring themes in MDIA5007 has been the idea that creative careers are rarely linear. Rather than working toward a single fixed job role, many practitioners operate across a portfolio of skills, adapting to different contexts, collaborators, and forms of employment. This has prompted me to reflect more critically on how I define my own professional identity.

I work across animation, visual storytelling, video and audio editing, and voice performance. Earlier in the course, I felt some uncertainty about whether this lack of a single label might be seen as a weakness. However, through lectures, discussions, and reflective writing, I’ve come to understand that this breadth is not accidental, but a reflection of how I naturally work. What connects these disciplines is not the software or output, but a consistent focus on story, pacing, tone, and communication.

Rather than presenting myself as several disconnected roles, I now see my identity as that of a visual storyteller, using different tools depending on the needs of a project. Animation, editing, and voice are not separate strands, but complementary ways of shaping narrative and emotional clarity. This perspective has helped me make more confident decisions about how I present my work professionally, particularly within my CV and portfolio.

This way of framing my professional identity also reflects the idea that people understand and remember capability more effectively when it is communicated as a coherent narrative rather than as a list of disconnected facts (Purkiss and Royston-Lee, 2012).

This shift has also encouraged me to think more realistically about employability. Portfolio careers require flexibility, self-definition, and an ability to articulate value clearly to different audiences. Defining my professional identity is therefore not about narrowing my skills, but about framing them coherently.

At this stage, my focus is on refining this identity through practice, reflection, and professional presentation. Rather than trying to fit an external job title, I am learning to communicate who I am as a practitioner in a way that feels honest, adaptable, and grounded in how the creative industries actually operate.

References

• Purkiss, J. and Royston-Lee, D. (2012) Brand you : turn your unique talents into a winning formula. Second edition. Harlow, England: Pearson.

Fig. 2. Excerpt from creative freelance CV showing professional identity and role definition (author’s own work).

Fig. 1. Diagram illustrating the overlap of portfolio skill areas within my professional identity (author’s own work).

This post was developed with the support of AI-assisted drafting tools (OpenAI, 2025), used to structure reflection and refine clarity.