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Your Portfolio

Show the work you want to make.

Your online portfolio is a window into who you are as a designer, and the work you want to do.

Don't over-invest in your website

Your portfolio doesn't have to be unique or ornate, as long as it acts as an effective vehicle to share your work.

A common mistake designers just coming out of school make is spending far too much time creating a portfolio with hardly any work in it.

Try spending no more than a week on your first portfolio, and check in on how you are investing your time by roughly using a 1:4 ratio of time spent building your portfolio to working on projects.

Your portfolio will be with you for a long time, and you will end up changing it frequently. It's ok to invest time in a portfolio website but only do so once you are sure you have at least three strong projects to show.

Before moving on, read these:

The Basics

  • Minimum three projects. It's far better to have a basic site with strong projects than a beautiful custom site with a few weak projects.
  • Have one project you can talk about for 30 minutes.
    • What was the problem?
    • How did you arrive at the solution you did?
    • What did you do, and who else contributed?
    • How much better was the solution?
  • Showcase your organizational skills, collaboration, and a good design foundation.
  • Don't put work in your portfolio that you wouldn't want someone to hire you to make. If you want to be a web designer, don't put two print design projects in your portfolio.

Jumpstart Your Portfolio

If you are feeling overwhelmed on where to start, below is a guide to get started with the simplest (yet still effective!) portfolio.

  1. Create a read.cv. This can act as both an initial portfolio and an online resume.
  2. Read this, then write up the projects you have, up to three.
  3. Try to keep each under 750 words (around ~5 minutes of reading.) Have a summary of the project right at the top.
  4. Each time you finish a project, do a quick write-up while it is fresh in your mind. Before long, you will have a ton of work to share when you create a complete portfolio site.

Andy Chung's cv is a great example to start from. This project is around the length you are going for.