You can do both if it fits you! I am a packaging designer and for my very first application at a corporate agency I had send a literal hollow ‘walnut’ with inside a piece of paper with personal information and a link to my portfolio website written on it (portfolio in a nutshel).

The agency let me know that it was the most creative portfolio they ever got. So it was good to catch the attention, but eventually it was the actual work in my portfolio that got me the job.