Graphic design portfolio examples

Ideas

Graphic design portfolio ideas worth stealing

Every portfolio above makes the same set of decisions. These are the ones that separate the sites that get replies from the ones that get scrolled.

• 1

  Show fewer pieces than you want to

  The instinct is to prove range. The effect is to dilute it. Six projects you can defend in a meeting beat eighteen that include the ones you took for rent money. Cut anything you would apologise for.

• 2

  Lead with one strong image, not a menu

  A landing page that opens with a grid of options asks the visitor to make a decision before they have a reason to care. Open on one piece of work at full width and let it do the arguing.

• 3

  Lead the navigation with what you actually do

  Identity, packaging, editorial, motion. A hiring manager scanning for a packaging designer should not have to open a project to find out whether you do packaging.

• 4

  Show the process, not only the outcome

  Two or three roughs before the final mark is the difference between a portfolio that shows work and one that shows judgement. Art directors are buying the thinking.

• 5

  Give each case study enough room to state the problem

  A logo with no brief behind it reads as decoration, and decoration is what gets scrolled past. One paragraph on what the client needed changes how the same mark is read.

• 6

  Put contact one click from everywhere

  Contact belongs in the header, at the foot of every project, and on its own page. Nobody scrolls back up to find you.

• 7

  Own the domain

  A portfolio on someone else's subdomain is a portfolio you are renting. Your name, your domain, moved with you the next time you switch platform.