Portfolio Tips

Tip #1 – DO NOT use any social media platforms as your portfolio. 

this includes: instagram, twitter, bsky, threads, mastodon, tumblr, tiktok, youtube*, telegram, discord, pintrest, etc.

Use of a social media platform like the above will DISQUALIFY YOU IMMEDIATELY. 

You have been warned!

* Youtube links are permitted as a part of your portfolio for the purposes of showing products, but they must be imbedded or linked from one of the approved porfolio sites/types.

Tip #2 – Do use a website, gallery site, or other service that allow you to create a curated portfolio of your work.

Consider using:

• Dropbox/google drive (dedicated folder)
• Curated Folder on Furaffinity/Deviantart/Weasyl, or other furry gallery
• Your own website/domain
• Imgur
• Carrd
• Wix/Squarespace/weebly

Note that any portfolio must be set to PUBLIC, anything set to “private” and requires a login to access will be disqualified.

Double check that you put in the correct URL to your portfolio before submiting your application.

Tip #3 – If you have an etsy, or other digital store in your application, be sure that store is OPEN and available to be browsed during the judging process. 

If the judges go to look at your work in your store, and the store is closed, that will lose you points in the judging process. Be sure to have your store open so the judges can look at it. If you must close it, do not include it as a part of your application.

Tip #4 – Show, don’t tell. Photos and examples are key

The Judges want to see your setup, and your products, and be confident you will be able to fully stock your table and maintain a stock for the full 3 days you will be selling and will properly use the space at the table. This is particlarly key for people seeking corner tables or booths. The Den is busy!

We would like to see at least 5-10 samples of art and/or distintive products. (distict products means different categories, not just different designs of a particular product.) products may be shown in groups to show diversity of lines within a product (such as 5 enamel pins designs in 1 photo). This is especially good if you have a lot of different products, and several lines within a product.

These examples should align with what products you plan to sell, so we can see what your product lines and artwork look like.

We would also like to see:

• 1-3 examples of your table setup (if possible)
• a vendor biography that includes other shows you’ve vended at
• A general idea of your price ranges of items
• Store (if you have one)

Tip #5 – What makes you unique?

Our judges group our submissions into categories. In order to make sure we have a balanced den without too many of any particular type of vendor. Each vendor is effectively competing against other vendors in their category for a limited number of spots.

If a vendor is selling several of these items, they might be assigned multiple categories. It is important to highlight in your portfolio what makes your table unique or interesting compared to other vendors. This will give you and advantage in judging if this is clear to the judges.

Tip #6 – Embrace Originality

As Vancoufur grows, we are seeing more and more people crossing over from other types of conventions, particularly the anime and comic spaces. Furry is largely about self expression, and while we are not draconian about fan art, we prefer people who have original, furry works. We are interested in showcasing original, furry work for our furry convention and in our den. Yes we know our audiences like things like pokemon and other IPs, but that is not our focus, and we want to give a spotlight to original, creative works in the furry space. We have had complaints about not having enough original furry works and too much fanart, so we will be working to change that.

Tip #7 – Organize your portfolio

Because we get so many applications, our judges can only spend a very short amount of time on each page. The more organized it is for them, the easier it is to find the information they need to make a fair judgement of your portfolio.

We suggest you organize it in the following manner from the top of the website down:

• Artist Bio & Dealer’s resume
• Table/booth setup examples
• original art (if you have any)
• fan art (if you have any)
• Product samples
• Themed merch (bonus points are awarded if you match our theme for goods)
• process or product videos (if you have any, but in this day and age, its good to show, especially if your work is frequently mistaken for AI.)
• Price ranges
• Charity giving plan (if you have one. this is when you are planning to donate items to the VF Charity auction.)

If you are using a folder system like dropbox or Google, we suggest making a master folder with subfolders for the above so it is easily organized. In a gallery you may need to simply upload or arrange the images in a logical manner.

Tip #8 – Keep your portfolio relatively SFW

While we at Vancoufur are not opposed to NSFW work, we have specific spaces for vendors that are more in that space. Our Dealer’s Den is primarly a sfw space, and while NSFW is permitted to be sold under certain conditions, we prefer to evaluate vendors on their SFW items when it comes to Dealer’s Den selection. If you are a heavily NSFW vendor with very explicit items, we have our Afterdark Bazaar, which is an 18+ market for that sort of work. Please keep your Dealer’s Den portfolio very mild on the spice.