Architecture portfolio examples

Ideas

Architecture portfolio ideas worth stealing

Patterns that hold across the sites on this page. The first four apply to any portfolio. The last three are specific to how architecture gets looked at.

• 1

  Show fewer pieces than you want to

  A portfolio is judged on its weakest entry, not its strongest. Cut until every piece would survive being the only one someone sees.

• 2

  Lead with one strong image, not a menu

  The first screen decides whether there is a second. A grid of thumbnails asks the visitor to choose before they know why they should care.

• 3

  Put contact one click from everywhere

  The moment someone decides to get in touch is unpredictable. If reaching you means going back to the top and finding a menu, some of them will not bother.

• 4

  Own the domain

  A custom domain is what makes the work findable and the address quotable. A platform subdomain reads as temporary even when the work is not.

• 5

  Split the navigation by project stage, not by year

  Built, in progress, competition. A prospective client scans for the work that resembles their own job, and a date tells them nothing about whether you have done it before.

• 6

  Lead with the typology you want more of

  Sort order is a positioning decision. Residential first if you want houses. Civic first if you want public commissions. Chronology gets you whatever you happened to do last.

• 7

  Give each project its own page

  Put the plans and sections next to the finished photography rather than on a separate drawings page. One hero image tells a client how a building looks. It tells them nothing about how you think.