Design Portfolio Website Tips

design portfolios unnecessary evil if you need to refresh your portfolio or you're just getting started and need to build your own design portfolio

today I want to tell you some quick tips on creating your own design portfolio specifically the look and feel the actual build the content and just some general thoughts I have on creating a portfolio I recently went through this process myself and I learned a lot about portfolios these days and what makes them the most effective.

so let's start with actual design the look and feel there are a bunch of inspiration websites out there where you can actually see what other designers are doing in their portfolio  I remember looking at a ton of these myself taking the ones that I liked and studying them what about them did I like what was working and what felt like it was my personal design aesthetic now because it's your portfolio this is the best place to show off your own personal style the design of the portfolio itself should show who you are as a designer you also want to make sure your personality comes across in the design so whether that's through the colors the typography the photos that you use all of that should be a really good reflection of who you are however you do not want the design of the portfolio to distract from the work that's in the portfolio very important you also want to pay attention to the user experience of the portfolio I know people can kind of get crazy with experimental effects and structures of the page but it still needs to be usable if a potential employer can't find your work or is confused by your website that actually reflects really poorly on you so if you do anything experimental make sure you test it out with some people and see if they actually figure it out as far as the actual build of the site goes most designers probably don't want to code out the entire website I know I personally didn't I would have taken a lot more time for me and I needed to get my site up as soon as I could there are several services out there right now that provide a portfolio for you online you can use easy to use content management systems like WordPress or Squarespace if you have an Adobe subscription they also now have a serve called Adobe portfolio that actually hosts a portfolio online for you included in your subscription personally I've always purchased WordPress themes and then customize them to my liking however this past go-round I used a service called simply switch is built on top of WordPress that is really a customizable portfolio builder made by designers for designers and I found that I actually really liked using it and I recommend it if you do want to code your own site that's always an option just make sure it's easy to update later on as you add more work you can also buy an HTML template to start with and then customize from there.

 now let's talk about the content the purpose of your portfolio is to show your work so that is definitely the most important piece of your whole site make sure that your images are large enough that people can see what's happening make sure you're adding captions or brief descriptions to your work so people kind of understand the context of the problem and solution that you provided if you made a website that's live online you can even link to that website which kind of gives you a little more credibility and you also want to make sure you have an easy way for people to contact you whether that's a simple email address a contact form or your social media channels definitely don't make them dig for this information you want that especially to be easy to find probably my favorite thing about looking at other people's design portfolios is reading their about pages because you can be really creative and show off your personality

I recommend that you write a little bit about your focus what you specialize in talk about your experience some people even link to their resume where you can download it the about page is really a good opportunity to sort of show someone the person behind all this great work that they're seeing now I want to talk about case studies which are a huge plus if you have them I've been interviewing for a lot of jobs lately and I cannot tell you how important the case studies on my portfolio have been in terms of opening doors for me as well as getting positive feedback on my work time and time again I've had interviewers say to me we really liked your case study we really learned a lot about how you think in your process so it's one thing to just simply put up work on a site without really much explanation but if you can have a case study that clearly explains your process it goes much farther for you and it'll give you a lot more opportunities I promise so what exactly do you put in your case study I recommend starting with the problem so why did the client come to you why did they need you as a designer what were they hoping to achieve you can also talk about the client specifically and explain who they are what they do what they were looking for etc

 I would then go step by step through your process showing the research that you did the initial sketches and concepts all the way through to your final designs so someone can really see how you went from the problem all the way to the solution at the end make sure you talk about the outcome and how successful your solution was it's also really helpful if you can get your clients to provide you a testimonial quote that you can use with your case study it's one thing to talk about yourself but when someone else is saying how great you are that definitely goes a really long way some other cool things I've seen in case studies are people saying what they would have done differently if they were to do it again I've also seen designers sharing what they learned from the project and that really shows that you're constantly learning and that you're really paying attention to the projects most people do not have case studies so if you do them they will definitely set you apart and work in your favor highly recommend now for some last thoughts on portfolios for as much time and effort as you spend in creating one it's best not to let it just sit there and never be updated and I know I'm totally guilty of this I tend to only update my website when I'm looking for a job but you shouldn't do that you should always be keeping your website up to date so that your latest and greatest work is online for everyone to see as you do new design projects make sure you're not throwing anything out so your initial sketches or some old files all that stuff could be useful if you decide to make that project into a case study so I definitely recommend holding on to that and even taking notes throughout your projects of what's going on in your mind and how you're approaching different phases of the project so that when it comes to writing and your case study you pretty much have everything already laid out for you and you just have to put it together and lastly after all that hard work you definitely definitely definitely want to promote as much as possible your portfolio is really what sells you to the professional community and to a potential employer even more than a resume so make sure you're showing off what you got and that you share it as much as you can I know it can be intimidating to sort of put your work out there but you just have to do it that's all I have on portfolios .