I come from the graphic design/advertising world, and to show my work I have a portfolio. Do you do the same thing for puppet design? I am really interested in the construction and design of characters, but not so much in the performing aspect. I am sure jobs in this field are few and far between but I wanted to start a portfolio or something to see where it goes. Along the same line, are there even jobs for puppet construction? Or is it all for performers?

I have done a portfolio, but really it's just my website
I don't apply for jobs with my local puppetry companies though, and don't expect to have a need for one, it may be different if you're intending on getting work with other people. I did do a stall at a market once and took a 'catalogue' with me... you'd be surprised how few people were interested in that as compared to watching someone work the puppets or pick them up themselves. I guess it depends on who you're approaching and what the portfolio is intended to showcase. (Ie. showing how you go about designing a puppet would work for a portfolio, with drawings and sketches; but for finished products people might prefer visiting your studio instead)

Speaking as one of the few people here who hates performing... There are jobs specifically for puppet builders/designers, and you'd probably get more work freelancing (ie. selling puppets at markets, online, commissioned for shows, etc) than just hoping to sign up for a company and leave it at that. However, and this is experience mainly within an Australian perspective, I've found that performers who build (or builders who perform) have more opportunities available to them. Which makes sense because you've got twice as many ways to apply for jobs.

If you're not familiar with it, I recommend heading to http://www.puppeteers.org and looking at their bulletin board. The Puppeteers of America bulletin board is a great starting point for figuring out what kind of jobs are available and you can easily and informally survey it to calculate the no. of design/building jobs vs the no. of performing or combined jobs.

Awesome. Thanks for the info!

No probs - you might also want to check out http://www.unima-usa.org. From memory I'm not sure if it has a similar bulletin board, but it's the other organisation for American puppeteers and should be worth looking at anyway. Both org's have publications too, and I know PoFA has a mailed-out yellow pages in addition. It could be somewhere in there is info about how to market yourself.

Yes you should have a portfolio! While Na is correct that there may be more opportunities for performers out there that does not mean that a builder can not find work. Some builders are freelance and do custom builds or create a line they can sell. Others find jobs in different areas. It may not be in a place like the Henson Studios but there are companies that build mascots or even creatures for movies and such that may be a source of income. Combined with your graphic design talents you could get a job in the prop shop of a theater perhaps. While often props involves dealing with buying or finding of things like furniture and such there are also times they deal with building unique things. Right now here in Kansas City there is a theater planing on doing "Little Shop Of Horrors". The prop shop will be the ones building the puppets.

So yes start that portfolio and don't be afraid to think outside the box.

Maybe it would be a good idea to discuss what goes into a portfolio. I've had to do a few for theatre design jobs, and depending on what you're designing, different things go into it. I mean for lighting design I'd put in drafts of lighting plans, pics of the show, and maybe my 'scoring' of the script with notes of what I'm going to do... For puppet design, what should one include?

My first thoughts are sketches and drawings (incl. scale plans if available), pics of the puppet... do you have a video reel as well, since the puppets are best judged to be well-designed if they work on stage/screen?

What other things would people include?

I think you hit it right on the head Na.  If you sketch out your designs then include them. If you based it off of a clients idea or picture then I think  you would want to include that also. Then of course the final puppet.  I always tried to do some in progress shots of puppet builds but I don't think as a rule you would put those in a portfolio unless the illustrate a certain talent or attention to detail.  For example if you build in blinking eyes you may want to include some shots of the mech to show your craftsmanship in that area.

Video is good and like you say it shows how well they move. I think that in this day and age the best way to present that would be on-line.  In the past I've seen video and such presented on CD in portfolio's or presentations, but I think if you upload to the internet to something like YouTube you would get a lot more mileage out of it.  In fact I would also do the same with photos. Upload them to something like Flicker. If you have a website it would be good to have a presentation there also but still use the services above also.  For the longest time I resisted getting a FB account.  Since getting one and then adding the group and page for PandS I've noticed we've gotten some new members that I am pretty sure are results of them seeing the group or page over at FB first.

If you guys want a professional website that you can make yourself (templates and drag and drop style) check out wix.com. You can make it for free, but you can also pay for an account, link it to your own domain. I did my website that way. (www.laurienickerson.com) So much easier than driving people to youtube and flicker. You can link all your youtube vids in one spot.

I really am not a fan of Wix. It's a flash-based site, which means it won't work for iPhones, the text won't get 'spidered' by search engines (and therefore won't get picked up as well for people searching for important keywords), and usually takes me forever to load.

I know it's popular at the moment, but if I had to go back to a build-a-site service, I'd prefer to use Wordpress or something similar. Then it has more of a chance of being viewable by everyone and it gets better results in searches.

My two cents at any rate

PS. Just took a look: love your retro ads! Actually, I love all your stuff. Wish I had the money to hire you for a few things myself!

oh wix now has mini sites that work on ipads. they are just the basic info but it is better than a black hole. I agree about the bummer part being flash based, but still way better than the some of the other "do it yourself" things. They are a little sleeker.

and thanks! My site needs updating, but it's always a work in progress. Add it to the list

Ah, I didn't know about the mini sites. I haven't used it from the backend myself, but I have no doubt that it is easy to work. Sometimes though, people don't realise they trade off backend-easiness for frontend-benefits. I had this problem myself, having taught myself all this website stuff ages ago; I'd used a lot of free site builders because they were easy for me to figure out ... but were hard for visitors to use. That's my main reason for mentioning those things about Wix, because I think people here who want to build a site might focus so much on figuring out how to make one that they don't realise that they're designing for someone else. Knowing that text doesn't get picked up from flash sites for instance, is not something easily found when searching for info on free site builders.

I do think they look pretty... but pretty is not interchangeable with ease of use.

But anyway... not to go off on a rant or anything