Illustration portfolio examples

Ideas

Illustration portfolio ideas worth stealing

Nobody builds a portfolio from nothing. These are the decisions that keep repeating across the illustration sites in this gallery.

• 1

  Show fewer pieces than you want to

  Twelve strong pieces beat forty mixed ones. The weakest image on the page is the one that sets your rate.

• 2

  Lead with one strong image, not a menu

  The first screen should be work, not navigation. Anyone who has to read before they see anything has already decided how much of your time to give you back.

• 3

  Put contact one click from everywhere

  Contact belongs in the header and the footer of every page, not on a page of its own that people have to go looking for.

• 4

  Own the domain

  A portfolio on somebody else's subdomain is a portfolio you rent. Move it once and the links break.

• 5

  Split the navigation by what you get hired for

  Editorial, children's books, packaging, murals. An art director is hiring for one of those, not for all four, and they will not dig through a single mixed gallery to confirm you do theirs.

• 6

  Lead with commissioned work, not personal pieces

  Personal work shows taste. Commissioned work shows you can hit somebody else's brief on somebody else's deadline. Give the commissions the front of the site and the personal pieces a gallery of their own.

• 7

  One genre per gallery

  Keep each gallery to a single genre so an art director can forward one link to a client without explaining which half to ignore.