Design portfolio examples

Ideas

Design portfolio ideas worth stealing

The portfolios that work tend to make the same decisions well. Seven worth borrowing before you build yours.

• 1

  Show fewer pieces than you want to

  The strongest portfolios show fewer projects than the designer has available. Every project added has to earn its place.

• 2

  Lead with one strong image, not a menu

  Open on a strong piece of work rather than a menu, and put contact within one click of every page.

• 3

  Put contact one click from everywhere

  Make it easy for visitors to reach you. Contact details should be accessible from every page without navigation.

• 4

  Own the domain

  A portfolio on a social platform belongs to that platform. A portfolio website carries your domain, your layout and your contact details.

• 5

  Split the nav by discipline, not by client

  A designer who works across identity, product and motion reads as three different hires when the nav is a client list, and as one clear proposition when it is a discipline list.

• 6

  Lead with the problem, not the artefact

  A buyer who can see what the brief was can price the work. A buyer looking at a finished logo with no context is guessing.

• 7

  Depth for process, scrolls for products

  Give a project its own page when the thinking is the sell, and one scroll when the image is. Case study depth wins interviews for product and UX work.