What should a designer's portfolio contain? Professional Tips for Creating the Perfect Web Design Portfolio
The best way to market yourself well is to create the perfect portfolio. A portfolio is a reflection of the results of your work, your work. A good portfolio is very important to attract clients. And a designer simply must have a portfolio.
And, if you agree with this, ask yourself a few questions. How much time are you willing to spend improving your portfolio? Are you sure you're using your best work? One thing I can say for sure.
It doesn’t matter in what form your portfolio is made - digital or on paper. The main thing is to keep improving it.
As your career progresses, you will realize that nothing is more important than presenting the best of your work in a clear and compelling manner. This article will help you do this.
We will present to your attention 20 tips and examples of creating the perfect designer portfolio. These tips are divided into tips for paper and online portfolios. If you want to become a leader in this matter, keep these tips in mind.
And yes. Your opinion is important to us. Your comments are welcome.
Paper portfolios
20. Volume
When working on a design portfolio, the first question to answer is how much work it should contain.
For a comprehensive portfolio, you'll need at least 20 of your best works to make the right impression.
19. Suitable examples
If you are applying for a full-time employee position, it is better to include suitable examples of work in your portfolio. You must be sure that the examples are relevant to the position for which you are applying.
If you are an applicant for a digital artist position, you must submit digital drawings. Sketches made in pencil will not work here:
18. Context
Whether you are a designer or an artist is not so important. Because in any case, you will have to create graphics based on briefs from creatives. You will need to be able to interpret the brief carefully.
If your portfolio contains scattered images, that's not enough. You need to provide them in context. Where did these paintings come from? How did the idea come about? What is the chain of thought?
Anything that can help develop the concept of the images should be included in the portfolio.
17. Work for pleasure
Even if you're in the process of creating a portfolio for a specific contract or position, include more than just commissioned work. After all, a designer is not only a job, but also a hobby, isn’t it?
You can include any work in your portfolio. If, for example, you're an illustrator looking for freelance work, having projects you've done that haven't been commissioned will certainly help.
16. Expiration date
As you gain new experience over time, your work will also change. This does not mean that new works should be placed on top of old ones.
Depending on how much new work you're doing, it may be worth cleaning out and updating your portfolio occasionally.
A portfolio is not just a collection of your design work. It is worth highlighting some recommendations in bold. Place them directly on top of your work. Moreover, recommendations in real life will help even more.
All this shows your capabilities. It doesn't matter where or when you left your job. Make sure you have excellent relationships with your colleagues and ask them for recommendations. Recommendations always help.
14. Step back
You can view your portfolio from a third party. Surely you have already had experience when more experienced employees looked at your portfolio, and you expected their criticism.
It is very important that you know your strengths and weaknesses. Based on this, you can prioritize growth and practice with graphics.
13. Showcase yourself in all your glory
Think of your portfolio as your creative biography. This doesn't mean you should only show your designs. You need to give the impression that you are a professional.
Emphasize that you are a professional in everything. Both in communication skills and meeting deadlines.
12. Sell yourself
What other talents do you have? Maybe you are a good photographer? Or a singer? Let your future employer know about all your creative opportunities, not just the basic ones:
11. Portfolio with indexes
When you read or skim a book, or browse a website, you mark or bookmark pages that interest you.
Imagine your employer doing the same. Make it easier for people by numbering the pages.
Online portfolio
10. Platform
There are several options for publishing your online portfolio. When you need a clean, personalized space for your portfolio, you simply buy a domain and ask someone to create a website for you.
Or install WordPress and customize it for yourself. If the above is beyond your capabilities, IM Creator is at your service.
9. Set goals
You should make sure that you understand the need for creating an online portfolio. What is the purpose of your portfolio? Feedback? Or employment?
Answering these questions will help you better set up your portfolio and increase your chances of success.
8. Be selective
Don't post most of your work online. Be selective. Choose the best of your works. Make sure they reflect the most of your capabilities. You shouldn't show everything at once.
Make people want to see more of your work. This is exactly what you should do with your online portfolio:
7. Edit
Malika Favre, an illustrator from London, says: " Supervise your work. An online portfolio should follow the same rhythm as a printed portfolio: you must tell a story.
Arrange your projects so that they flow from each other, complement each other. If the old project has to be deleted to fit the new story, then so be it."
6. Don't tell - show
A website is like a business card - it says a lot about you. And to be more precise, it shows. Therefore, you must be sure that visitors to your site will first see what you have to say, rather than read it.
5. Update
An important task in developing a portfolio is to regularly update it with your latest works. If you leave your site without updating for even a few months, people will not buy what you have already posted.
4. Possibility of quick updates
You need a site design that will allow you to quickly, in two or three clicks, add new works and delete old ones. If updates take too long, you will get tired of doing them regularly, as you will be overwhelmed with your current work.
One of the most important questions for a beginning designer is how to fill out your portfolio? Where to get your first clients? How to get your first projects?
There are different ways to start a career in design. Starting from working as an intern in a design studio to creating your own studio. One of the easiest ways to start a career is to seek assignments as a freelancer. For all its shortcomings, freelancing seems like a very attractive option to many. But in order to receive orders, you must show your work to a potential client. Few people would agree to give an order to a designer whose portfolio is completely empty. It turns out to be a vicious circle: no orders → no portfolio, no portfolio → no orders.
First you need to realize that the first projects in the portfolio (cases) are a very, very important step. The quality of the first work determines which clients will come to you, and, in fact, the entire further path of the designer. Therefore, in the first cases it is important to demonstrate yourself, your knowledge, and modest (for now) skills as much as possible. Yes, you may not be able to wow clients with sophisticated technology and super-creative techniques, but you can demonstrate your approach and thinking. If you have good projects in your initial portfolio, this will give you a serious boost, because such work tends to spread across design blogs and raise your ranking on freelance exchanges.
And, of course, you can’t fill your portfolio with mediocre work. What your first jobs will be like, so will your subsequent clients.
So, let's move on to ways to fill out a portfolio.
1. Design for yourself
The most obvious way to get a portfolio case is to design it for yourself or your company. This could be a website, corporate identity or something like that. The difficulty here is that you will have to come up with restrictions yourself, because design without restrictions is not design, but pure creativity. But if you do a good job, this project will become not only a case in your portfolio, but also your business tool.
2. Design for friends or acquaintances
You can offer relatives, friends or good acquaintances a job for a symbolic reward. But be very careful with this option. You have little experience working with clients (otherwise, you would not be reading this text). Most likely, something will go wrong and you risk ruining the relationship. Think 10 times before trying this option.
3. Design for a fictitious client
This is how Artemy Lebedev, in particular, started. You can independently come up with a client with its tasks and limitations, and then solve these design problems. Here it is important to invent a client as close to reality as possible. Don't design for a brain transplant company. Better yet, design for a fictional PR agency. The simpler the better.
If you're starting a career in web design or mobile app design, you can come up with a useful service that you think is in demand, and then create a design for it. Just try not to make it just another mobile weather app ;)
4. Design for a famous brand or website
5. Competitions
There are many design competitions. Personally, I am skeptical of them, because most often they offer to work for free, for the chance of a remuneration that does not exceed the average cost of such a contract on the market. But for starters it will do.
Some competitions can be found on social networks and blogs, but the bulk are on specialized sites like 99designs and GoDesigner, as well as on freelance exchanges. The good thing about this method is that you don’t need to invent a task, it already exists. And if successful, you will not only get the job done, but also earn some money.
By the way, there are also very good competitions, for example, VKontakte competitions for the development of mobile applications with a prize fund of millions of rubles. Even though they are already completed, there is nothing stopping you from making a solution and placing it in your portfolio.
6. Free work (“for a portfolio”)
I categorically do not advise looking for a customer who will agree for you to work for him for free. Firstly, any work must be paid. Even a beginner's work costs money. Secondly, the chance of finding a normal client in this way tends to zero.
7. Project by a famous studio or designer
You can take a problem that your colleagues have already solved. Look at the work of famous designers and studios, choose what you think was done poorly and make it better. In addition to experience and a good case, you can also count on some resonance in the design environment (wow, the student did better than Studio X!).
8. Own project
A very useful method both from the point of view of practice and from the point of view of social benefit. By creating a thematic collection, web service, design framework, set of free icons, or PSD templates, you not only fill your portfolio, but also help other people. In addition, if your project turns out to be good, over time it can become a source of income.
For example, the service for taking notes Enotus Artyom Nosenko (Artyom, of course, is not a beginner, but an excellent example):
9. Solving a real problem
In my opinion, the best way to show the world and potential clients what you are capable of is to find a real problem in the real world and solve it using designer methods and tools. This will develop you as a real designer and show you the range of tasks that are interesting to you.
Designer Digest". This is the editor-in-chief's weekly newsletter with the best links for graphic designers.
What is a portfolio?
You may be a designer, engineer, architect or student, but if you offer your services, then you must show your achievements. And this is not a tribute to fashion, but modern market relations.
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You can be 120% confident in your professionalism, but you cannot convince the customer of your skills only in words. To do this, you need to present your achievements. This is what you need a portfolio for. This is a collection of your best works. Your pride and your face.
Of course, one does not exclude the other. And vice versa, it’s not bad if the customer, after viewing your work on the freelance exchange, went from there to your personal website and found a lot of interesting projects on it.
What does it take to make a beautiful, impressive portfolio? Of course, it’s good if you have a lot of completed stylish works, but this doesn’t always happen, and you need to show something to clients. If you don't have enough good work under your belt, then it's worth doing it.
That is, even if no one ordered anything from you, then it’s worth doing some work so that it can simply be included in your projects. In addition to the experience gained, this work will definitely bring you a client, and maybe several. It most likely won’t happen right away, but the time spent will definitely pay for itself twice as much. I have already been convinced of this more than once, from personal experience.
In addition, you can always use your past work in future projects. This also happens. Just don't sell the same ideas to multiple clients. Maintain professional ethics.
Perhaps a beautifully designed and printed portfolio will be useful not only for a freelance designer, but also for an office one. There are some peculiarities here. In order to make a printed version of the portfolio, you need to have printing skills.
If you had to work in some printing house, then this is good and it will not be so difficult for you to print your work in the proper form. But if you do not have such experience, then you should start by simply posting your work on freelance exchanges and sites where many other designers post their work.
Creating a portfolio is a mandatory process for every designer, illustrator or photographer who wants to make a name for themselves and reach the next level.
It is very important to post your works on resources where everyone, including your future customer, can view them without much difficulty.
Today we would like to present to your attention a selection of sites where you can post your portfolio and upload your work.
Don’t get carried away with design and “creative” presentation. A smart customer will understand that this is just tinsel used to cover up the lack of meaning. Show your work neatly, clearly and simply. Post the story, not the pictures. Tell us what the client’s problem is and how you solved it, explain your solutions in the presentation. Focus on important details.
Don’t get carried away with designer social networks, there is a risk of catching a dribbler or developing chronic appreciitis. A designer affected by these diseases begins to work to collect as many positive reviews as possible from other designers. A persistent indifference to the client’s task is formed. Trends become more important than meaning.
Carbonmade
The resource provides the user with two placement options - free and paid. The free option includes a limited number of works - only 5 projects and 35 images. Paid - $12 per month and many additional features.
cmdspace
A new service that turns your Dribble profile into a separate website. Fast and convenient.
Portfoliobox
Free with restrictions, 240 rubles per month. Portfolio orientation. Nice templates.
Brushd
Free with restrictions, 12 bucks per month. Portfolio orientation. Nice templates.
Folio24
Free with restrictions, from 6 bucks per month. Portfolio orientation. Nice templates.
Revision
Perhaps the most famous Russian community. No possibility for customization and outdated design, but there is a chance to get quality feedback.
Coroflot
A simple and convenient interface will allow you to upload your works, as well as view the works of other authors without any effort.
Bleidu
Platform for artists, photographers, illustrators, designers. All you need to do is register and upload your work.
Viewbook
A platform for creating minimalistic portfolios. Services are paid, but prices are reasonable. For $4 per month you can download an unlimited number of works. For a few more dollars you can get additional settings.
FL.ru
The largest and most popular site for freelancers. It is focused on finding a job, and the portfolio is one of the functions of the site. To demonstrate it more or less normally, you will have to buy a professional account (790 rubles per month). The advantage is that immediately after posting your portfolio you can go look for a job. But you need to keep in mind that both specialists and employers here are quite specific. You will have to compete with a lot of loud, unprofessional people. Moreover, the site has been seen to repeatedly change its policy towards users, sometimes causing mass protests. In general, I recommend not using this site as your main portfolio hosting, only as a backup.
Brainstorage
This is one of the projects of the Thematic Media company, which founded Habrahabr. Focused on posting works and reviews from IT specialists (designers are included here, yes). There is an opportunity to post works for free, get recommendations, and make friends. You cannot change anything or link your domain.
Dribbble
The site interface is quite simple and attractive. You can not only present your works, look at the designs of other authors and comment on them, but also find many useful links to free sources.
Website on your own server (static or CMS)
If you are a web designer who knows how to layout, you can easily put together a nice portfolio website. If you don’t know how to type up or are too lazy, there are thousands of ready-made templates for you, costing from 2 to 100 dollars, in which you just need to replace the pictures. If you don’t understand anything about websites, ask a developer you know. Such work will not take much time and will not cost much.
A regular or online graphic designer portfolio is a professional business card that opens up new career prospects. How much time do you spend improving your portfolio to make it attractive, professional and simple? Does it show your best work? The world's leading designers and illustrators shared tips on how to design a physical graphic designer portfolio and land your dream job.
1. Include diversified work
How many examples of work should a portfolio contain? It's all very personal, but aim for 20 pages. Each job should demonstrate your skills and versatility. When choosing mockups from the same project, make sure they are distinct from each other and show different processing techniques and approaches.
2. Suitable examples
When going for an interview with a certain company, review the selection. A good graphic designer portfolio should correspond to the vacancy and the specialization of the studio or enterprise.
3. Add technical specifications and briefs
Designers and illustrators are not hired solely for their style; what is more important is the ability to complete tasks efficiently and achieve their goals. Therefore, one of the recommendations for a designer’s portfolio is to add technical specifications and briefs for each layout. This way, employers will be able to understand what task you were faced with and how you solved it. When you study graphic design abroad, you'll learn how to negotiate with clients, understand client needs, and create layouts to achieve specific goals. The Marangoni Institute offers specialized programs in Milan:
4. Freelance work
Your portfolio may include work you have done on a freelance basis or for personal pleasure.
5. Constantly review your portfolio
Making a graphic designer portfolio once does not mean forgetting about it and putting it on the shelf until the interview. Keep it updated and remove outdated work. You never know when you might need it.
6. Include research
You must show not only the finished work, but also how the idea developed. This is the best proof of a professional approach to business. Studying at a design school abroad will help you learn how to go through all stages of work: from the idea to its final implementation.
7. Look at the portfolio from the outside
How to make the perfect graphic designer portfolio? Look at it from the outside, imagine that you are a creative director or project manager of a large company, does a portfolio really characterize you? Find a balance to show quality and style.
8. Show a well-rounded experience
Do you specialize in illustration, do layouts, do web design, or are you good at layout? Engage in a variety of work to demonstrate a full range of skills.
9. Sell yourself
Think about what other creative talents you have. Maybe you're good at photography or know the basics of programming? Tell us about it in your portfolio.
10. Organize your portfolio
When you find interesting articles on the Internet, magazines, or sections of books, what do you do? That's right, fold the pages and add them to your bookmarks. Help future employers highlight the work they like from your portfolio. Number the pages, divide the work into sections and chapters.
To build a rewarding career, take design training abroad, where you'll learn the ins and outs of the profession and start building the perfect portfolio. You can find out about the cost of studying at Istituto Marangoni from STUDIES&CAREERS consultants.
