Graphic Design Inspiration

I have no real qualifications in Graphic Design, but fluked my way there by working in a business card warehouse, & eventually making my way on the computer to design Business Cards which I did for 3 yrs, For the last four yrs I have been working for a hospital doing graphic design & typsetting for them, I am started to get bored of always having the same logo & colours to design with and am going to try & spread my wings & apply for other design jobs, only problem is all I have is some business cards & Hospital Stationary, posters etc..(all with the hospital logo and colour on them) should I make up my own stuff with fake company names to fill out my portfolio or will that be too obvious & unprofessional?.. I live in a small city and do-not have any short courses I can do unless I got to tafe or uni for 3 yrs, but feel I have learnt all I need in the adobe suite through the yrs to bother with that... Has anyone else had this dilemma, or can help, or have suggestions on what 2 do next? I am a graphic designer, but i don't need a portofolio yet because i work for a company full time so far.
I have a friend who is a graphic designer and he showed his portfolio to me. he just put the pictures he made in photoshop, they were like compositions very nicely arranged. He also put some texts, like facts, statistics, and the subject of it was "Reality".
On the first page there was his short resume. It looked very nice and professional. When i will be making mine, i think i will take some poem and illustrate it with the pictures i make in photoshop In the design field one can create a composition for an existing company as a "cold" pitch,or what is reffered to as "On Spec". you could do a Coke ad and put it in your portfolio as long as you explain to the viewer that it is on spec. Report Abuse Put any real-life work you have done that you want to show off, and then have fun inventing your own companies and products to show off what you can do that you haven't done yet.
An employer wants to see what you can do. They don't care whether the company whose amazing business card you made exists or not. They just want to know that you made that amazing business card.
I'd get a "for Dummies" book for some graphic design programs like Quark, or inDesign, but if you already know how to use adobe then that's good.
They'll test your knowledge of the suite, most likely, but you'll do fine. I had no formal training in it either but when I took a design test I scored in the top 90% of their employees. I made up stuff for my portfolio, and now have a great design job for Apple, so go for it!
It doesnt matter if they aren't real jobs, its the quality of the work... Straight out of Uni, Graphic design students don't have much "real" work at all, so its mostly made up.

I suggest finding logos or designs that you think need work, think about why you think it needs work, and redesign it.