Print designer portfolio example. Professional tips for creating the perfect web designer portfolio. Work “not for clients” is acceptable

Every day I have to review a lot of resumes, portfolios and projects, spending a lot of time and effort on this. After viewing the next stack, I felt an urgent need to write recommendations on how to properly prepare a portfolio.

Let's start with the main thing: a portfolio is designed not for yourself, but for the client. Dot.

Now let's answer a few questions:

• Why are you preparing a portfolio and where will you use it?
• Lots of work? How many of them are cool?
• What directions or main areas have you identified?
• Who is your client (employer), audience? What will they be interested in seeing?
• What can you boast about, what chips?

If you are preparing a portfolio for a CV, make sure that it is convenient for a potential employer to view it. On the Internet you can use the services behance or dribbble, if you want to send a file, then a presentation in PDF format.

The big advantage of a presentation is that the information is presented in order, and you seem to be conducting a dialogue with a potential employer. Tell us a little about yourself and your experience, show examples of your work, and at the end, be sure to mention the areas in which you are interested in developing. Why is this necessary? A potential employer will evaluate your level based on your portfolio. But he cannot assess the prospects for your development; you need to help him.

Let's imagine the situation. Two illustrators sent portfolios. Both are good, both are about the same level, they draw in the same styles, even the salary is the same. But one of them plans to learn new drawing techniques in the near future, has started studying web design, and next year would like to try his hand at ux. The choice is automatically made between “an illustrator of a certain level” and “an illustrator of the same level, but with development potential.”

The presentation should not be overloaded with text; everything should be short and to the point, because turning the page is sometimes easier than reading a huge amount of text.

Collected my 10-100 works on google drive or dropbox? Congratulations!

No one will ever want to climb through them in search of the next masterpiece. In 90% of cases, a person will look at projects randomly, and if he doesn’t like the first or second, then he is unlikely to get to the third. Don't be lazy, format your presentation in PDF.

Use for portfolio only best works. If you have doubts, put them aside. You need to create a positive impression, and in this case, quality trumps quantity.

If you work in illustration or graphics and are able to put the result of your work into an 800 x 600 image, dribbble is for you. This is the fastest and effective method collect everything in one place.

If you decide to use behance, you will have to approach project design more seriously. Here every project is whole story, and in most cases people want to know: what inputs did you work with, how did you build the process, what options did you try, why and how the final result turned out.

A simple structure to follow:

If you don’t know where to start, open featured on behance. Study, watch, get inspired. The normal practice in designing a portfolio is to come up with your own template or style. This will take a little more time at first, but it will simplify the design of other projects in the future.

Projects do not have to be shown in full. Possible in general outline talk about the challenges you faced and show it from a favorable perspective.

Beginning designers often create projects specifically for their portfolio. This is a normal practice that allows, firstly, to increase experience, and secondly, to convince the client that you can really cope with the task.

Always keep your portfolio up to date and add fresh work to it.

After completing the project, even before release, show it to 5-10 friends who are far from the design field, and 2-3 designers. I guarantee you will learn a lot of new things.

And remember: a well-designed portfolio is important indicator professionalism.

Good luck!

Photo from the personal archive of Maxim Balter

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The profession of a designer is currently considered quite popular. This is true; specialists in this field are in great demand on the labor market. There are also a lot of designers themselves, educational establishments the direction of training such specialists has long been opened. However a large number of designers are those who have independently mastered everything necessary tools work thanks to the information available today. It is both on sale and in free access. Of course, for any specialist, especially a beginner, one of the most important points is to create a designer portfolio.

A little about the profession

Designers are very versatile specialists and are required in many areas. Each region has its own specific features, which must be taken into account. This is why specialization is very important in the design profession. This is not just a word here, since, for example, interior design is very different from costume design. We can say that these are completely different directions. Of course, this is not entirely true, since all designers share common basic knowledge, such as color theory, knowledge of the basics of composition, etc.

What are the specializations?

There are really many design directions. It is worth noting the most famous and popular specializations.

• Environment design

This is one of the popular design trends. His main task is to develop solutions for the artistic design of interiors, premises, ideas for lighting design and much more.

• Graphic design

Graphic design can rightfully be recognized as the most popular direction today. This includes printing, branding, web design, in a word, everything that is created using graphic programs.

• Industrial Design

Also an important area. Here you can highlight the design household appliances, furniture, cars and other goods. It is especially interesting that there is even a mechanism design. It allows you to combine extraordinary precision and beauty.

• Landscape design

Specialists in this area are engaged in the design and improvement of various sites and territories. Their main activities are the creation of artificial and natural landscapes, in some cases even their restoration and landscaping environment, floristry.

A little about the designer's portfolio

To find permanent job or simply interact with the customer, the designer is obliged to provide his work. Of course, they must be designed in such a way that will interest the employer and push him to choose this particular contractor. The task is indeed not easy, but there are many examples of designer portfolios. Examples can be easily found in specialized literature; it is also worth asking for advice from more experienced colleagues.

If we return to the term itself, “portfolio” means a selection of samples of work, which in a short period of time allows you to get acquainted with the capabilities and style of a specialist’s creative activity.

How to approach this issue correctly?

It is better to take care of the selection of works in advance. As soon as a designer begins his activity, he must carefully analyze all his work to determine whether it is worth showing it to customers in the future. There is no clear answer to the question of how to design a designer’s portfolio. Here everyone should focus on their own capabilities and level of professional training.

What can be included in a portfolio?

Naturally, these must be the best works of the designer. The most important thing is to organize them correctly. All work should be divided into categories: Vector graphics, sketches, icons, etc. You can also develop a sorting by type of work, for example, arrange business cards separately, Flyers, logos, brochures, posters and other materials. For each work, it is advisable to make a short description and note when the work was done, for whom, what project it was dedicated to, what was the purpose of its implementation, how much time was spent on it. With this approach, you can quickly put together a full-fledged designer portfolio. You can always ask more experienced colleagues for a sample design, but it would be better to develop your own methodology. After all, individual creativity noticeable not only in the works themselves, but also in their organization. To develop your own method, it is worth looking at the best portfolios of designers, especially famous ones.

Designing a designer's portfolio: which method to choose?

There are several ways to design a portfolio. Of course, it will be much more convenient for the employer to view the work of a potential employee in in electronic format. Besides modern technologies allow you to realize your ideas on how to make a designer’s portfolio unusual and original. Many people still rely on the printed version. For a graphic designer, this can also be a good method, since he can show his real work live. For example, provide the employer with business cards, booklets, books that the specialist has developed.

There are several ways to create a designer's portfolio in electronic form. You can create a website, video, presentation, or simply make a pdf file that can be easily sent by email.

Now it’s worth taking a closer look at all the advantages and disadvantages of the listed methods.

Portfolio website

The first thing you need to pay attention to is that you should not use free services for creating websites. Sites created this way are usually full a huge amount advertising. Also free funds usually do not allow you to create a full-fledged design that is not embarrassing to show to employers and customers.

A competent portfolio is the first step to large orders

Every day more and more competent and intelligent specialists are going freelance. There are many reasons for this: a free schedule, and higher earnings, and the opportunity to be your own boss, and no offices or picky bosses. I am sure that those of you who have tasted the delights of freelancing will think several times before returning to normal life. But today we won’t talk about all the advantages of this type of work, but we’ll talk about how to increase your income, find good customers, and get more pay.

During the time that I have been working and earning money on the Internet, I have been both a customer and a freelancer performing many assigned tasks. Therefore, all the advice that will be described below is not dry theory and knowledge taken and “heard somewhere,” but real experience gained over several years of hard work.
So, what do you think is the most important thing for a client when choosing a freelancer? First of all, his skills and experience in performing a particular task. How can you find out? Of course, through a portfolio. The customer’s first acquaintance with a freelancer occurs precisely through familiarization with the work performed. And here the most important rule applies: “They are greeted by their clothes, but they are seen off...”. How you see off will depend on the tasks completed. But now the main thing is to meet us, be surprised, become interested, place an order and cooperate on an ongoing basis.

I am sure that everyone reading these lines is interested in creating a competent and beautiful portfolio. How else? A good and self-respecting specialist who claims to receive orders worth thousands of dollars is simply obliged to have a perfect “face” that he presents to the customer. Of course, if you plan to get by with small customers worth a hundred dollars, and don’t want to go out for quality new level, then feel free to close the article, it is not for you.
Are you still with us? Great! It’s good that the desire to work, earn money, and live in a new way has prevailed. So, today we will look at the main aspects of creating a competent and beautiful portfolio.

How to create a portfolio - the main aspects of this issue

For those who are just starting their journey in freelancing and have heard about such a concept as “portfolio”, but have not fully understood its meaning, let us give a short definition. As a rule, if you hear from a customer a desire to get acquainted with your portfolio, this means that he wants to view a list of your most successful works on a given topic.

For example, if we consider a web designer’s portfolio, it includes best web resources that the designer has drawn over the past few months. Also images of banners, various technical elements, inserts, headers, etc. If we talk about copywriters, their portfolio consists of texts different topics and directions. The copywriter must show how he writes regular text, motivating, selling, how he works with different topics: from finance to nuclear physics. In general, in your portfolio you need to show how good you are, and why you should be chosen and not another candidate for this project.

Very often, one glance is enough to understand whether this performer is suitable for the client or not. I often came across situations where in words the freelancer was almost a young Bill Gates, capable of realizing any of my ideas, but after looking at the portfolio, I realized that there is not even a thousandth part of Gates here. Perhaps a person has some potential, and his work is better than what he showed in his portfolio, but you don’t want to take risks. Therefore, if you are truly confident in yourself, you know that you are capable of claiming good orders, then pay due attention to compiling a high-quality portfolio.

Making a “working” portfolio

A portfolio should not just “be”, it should work and sell you, your services, knowledge, and skills. In order to make a “working” portfolio you must:
1. First, you need to highlight the main areas in which you really work and feel “like a fish in water.” It could be internal optimization websites, design drawing, writing selling and motivating texts, etc. For the sake of beauty, there is no need to highlight those areas in which you specialize little or do not specialize at all, because this can be a big disadvantage.

2. After you have selected your strengths and determined the direction, you need to select 10-15 best works. If you have fewer of them, then it’s not scary, you can have up to 10, but the main thing is that they are of high quality, reveal all aspects of your activity, and show your skills from different angles. It is from these works that the first impression of you as a specialist will be formed.

4. Place your portfolio on your personal business card website. Everyone should be able to download it or watch it online. Also remember that opportunities come at the most unexpected times and in unusual places. Therefore, carry a flash drive with your portfolio with you, because you never know where something will turn up. another opportunity receive an order.

What do you need to show in your portfolio?

Many beginning freelancers ask the question: “What kind of work should I show in my portfolio?” Reading various forums, you may come across advice that it is better to include only the most successful works in your portfolio. But if you are a young specialist, then you should not do this. Of course, if you have been working for several years, have completed hundreds, or even thousands of tasks, then you can afford to sort through and select the best. But a young freelancer does not have such luxury. Why? Primarily due to the fact that the customer evaluates not only the quality of work, but also experience. And if you show that you completed your first job 3 months ago, and during this time you completed a hundred more tasks, then such a trend will speak about your experience, your desire to work and develop your skills. Experience is a very important part of being a good freelancer. Believe me, when I see a copywriter's portfolio indicating that they have written thousands of articles, it says a lot.

Another piece of advice – don’t post your best work, dilute it with projects done at an average level. As a rule, you won’t always be able to work perfectly, because creative highs don’t happen every day. Therefore, be honest with the customer, say that you will try to do everything perfectly and better than before, but at the same time make it clear what he can count on.

Where is a portfolio required?

Modern freelancers use many methods to find employers. Someone leaves their link on specialized forums, someone promotes a personal website, but the most popular and effective place to find an employer remains freelance exchanges.
Plays a very important role on stock exchanges correct design your his personal account, and compiling a competent portfolio. As I already said, first of all, the customer looks at your experience, the amount of work completed, and evaluates your skills based on the presented portfolio.

If you do not have a portfolio, then the number of orders from the exchange will tend to zero. Unless you get the cheapest and most uninteresting tasks that other performers have refused. But who wants to do work for pennies? That’s right, no one, and in order to be competitive, to fight for the “juiciest” customers, you must have a high-quality portfolio.

How to create a portfolio on the stock exchange?

After creating a personal page on the exchange, you must enter your personal data, information about skills and abilities. On all exchanges it is almost identical and does not vary much. Typically, you will be prompted to enter the following information:
— your specialization;
- job title; —
a short comment (about 350 characters);
— personal photo or a screenshot of the site (if you are a designer), a screenshot of an article (if you are a journalist), a screenshot of the CMS admin panel with comments (if you are a programmer);
- link to the main source.

Remember very important rule: if you write that you are an expert in a certain field, then be sure to include at least 3 versions of completed work so that the customer has the opportunity to evaluate your skills. Imagine a situation: a customer is looking for a contractor, comes to your page, everything suits him, but there are no examples of completed work (you simply forgot or were too lazy to upload them, or maybe you left this matter “for later”). With a 99.99% probability, such a customer will close your profile and look for a contractor further.
I often have to work with the freelans.ru exchange, so I would like to give some advice to those who also want to look for their orders there.
1. Your success directly depends on the quality of your portfolio. This is already clear, but this exchange maintains a rating of freelancers and awards points for works placed in the portfolio. It’s not strange that experienced performers strive to do as many works as possible and present them all on their profile.
2. If you claim that you specialize in various areas, then provide evidence of this in the form of completed work.
3. Let's say that you have about a thousand completed works, but this does not mean that they all need to be presented. Customers are people too, and you shouldn’t pressure them with information. The optimal placement would be 15 works for each direction.
4. Ask your customers who are satisfied with the work performed to leave comments and reviews. An exchange rating is good, but reviews from real customers sometimes play a key, decisive role.
And at the end of the article, so that you consolidate the information received, I will give an example of a good portfolio and an unsuccessful one. When you see mistakes clearly, it’s easier to understand what’s going on.

Competent portfolio you will find here:

http://freelance.ru/users/Sersh/

Advantages of the presented sample:
Available works are the best and freshest
In each direction you can find from 2 to 6 projects
Along with the articles there are screenshots
Proper title and thorough description of projects are presented Pages look neat
There is an avatar (employee photo)
The presented portfolio can be used as a sample for designing your own electronic portfolio.

Portfolio option that requires some improvement:

http://weblancer.net/users/asvQn/portfolio/

Disadvantages of this portfolio:
Very few works (especially recent ones)
No screenshots, preview
Not all main areas of work are reflected (for example, there is no work with texts)
The presented portfolio requires significant improvement and elimination of the above-mentioned shortcomings.

Regular or online portfolio graphic designer– a professional business card that opens up new career prospects. How much time do you spend improving your portfolio to make it attractive, professional and simple? Does it show your best work? The world's leading designers and illustrators shared tips on how to design a physical graphic designer portfolio and land your dream job.

1. Include diversified work

How many examples of work should a portfolio contain? It's all very personal, but aim for 20 pages. Each job should demonstrate your skills and versatility. When choosing layouts from the same project, make sure they are distinct from each other and show different methods treatments and approaches.

2. Suitable examples

When going for an interview with a certain company, review the selection. Nice portfolio graphic designer must correspond to the vacancy and specialization of the studio or enterprise.

3. Add technical specifications and briefs

Designers and illustrators are not hired solely for their style; what is more important is the ability to complete tasks efficiently and achieve their goals. Therefore, one of the recommendations for a designer’s portfolio is to add technical specifications and briefs for each layout. This way, employers will be able to understand what task you were faced with and how you solved it. During training graphic design Abroad, you will learn to negotiate with clients, understand client needs, and create designs aimed at achieving specific goals. The Marangoni Institute offers specialized programs in Milan:

4. Freelance work

Your portfolio may include work you have done on a freelance basis or for personal pleasure.

5. Constantly review your portfolio

Making a graphic designer portfolio once does not mean forgetting about it and putting it on the shelf until the interview. Keep it updated and remove outdated work. You never know when you might need it.

6. Include research

You must show not only the finished work, but also how the idea developed. This is the best proof professional approach to the point. Studying at a design school abroad will help you learn how to go through all stages of work: from the idea to its final implementation.

7. Look at the portfolio from the outside

How to make the perfect graphic designer portfolio? Look at it from the outside, imagine that you are a creative director or project manager large company, does your portfolio really define you? Find a balance to show quality and style.

8. Show a well-rounded experience

Do you specialize in illustration, do layouts, do web design, or are you good at layout? Engage in a variety of work to demonstrate a full range of skills.

9. Sell yourself

Think about what other creative talents you have. Maybe you're good at photography or know the basics of programming? Tell us about it in your portfolio.

10. Organize your portfolio

When you find interesting articles on the Internet, magazines or sections in books, what are you doing? That's right, fold the pages and add them to your bookmarks. Help future employers highlight their favorite work from your portfolio. Number the pages, divide the work into sections and chapters.

To build a rewarding career, take design training abroad, where you'll learn the ins and outs of the profession and start building the perfect portfolio. You can find out about the cost of studying at Istituto Marangoni from STUDIES&CAREERS consultants.

Your portfolio is one of the most important things you will ever develop. It introduces you to the world and if you are a freelancer, typically your portfolio plays a major role in whether clients choose to hire you or not.

Having looked through thousands of portfolios on the Internet, you can clearly identify the shortcomings that every second freelancer repeats. That is why we decided to talk about them, so that in the future you will be more careful and not repeat them.

1. Indicate your age

Oddly enough, this is an extremely common piece of information to be found in a web designer's portfolio. Designers feel the need to introduce themselves in a way that makes the page more personal, but they can't come up with anything good, so they go back to basics like, "I'm a 22-year-old web designer from Papua New Guinea."

Only children brag about their age

It bothers me every time I see it. Of course it's not worst mistake, which you could do, but it just smacks of newbie. It's unlikely you've ever seen anyone get caught up in the fact that they're a 43-year-old web designer. Only young people feel the need to wear their age like a badge of honor.

“You'll never see someone brag about being a 43-year-old web designer.”

If you study the portfolios of venerable designers, you will find that they boast about only one thing - their experience. For example: “I created websites for various companies more than 10 years." Now this is truly a number worth bragging about.

Who cares?

Personally, I experience certain mixed feelings when I read such information: who needs it, anyway? Do you want people to hire you based on talent and experience or because you were born in a certain year? If you don't want potential clients to judge you based on your age, then why are you talking about it?

Remember, the only time potential client may think twice about hiring a performer, this is the case when he sees his age. Even if you are the most talented web designer, the age in your portfolio can turn off many clients: personally, I would not trust the development of my site to a 20-year-old specialist.

Just a necessity

Leave all this aside. I don't want to know how old you are, what type computer mouse you use or how often you buy a new pair of sneakers. Tell me exactly what you do and prove it with some compelling examples. This brings us to our next point.

2. Demonstration of school projects

Here's another thing that constantly surprises about young designers. They always feel the need to show off their school projects.

This is not a home refrigerator where you can hang drawings, but professional portfolio, and clients want to see real work.

If that's all you have, then show me the following...

Let's take a step back. If you just graduated from school, college, etc., and your experience working with clients equal to zero, That the best option will create the simplest website to show it as an example. Many potential clients won't mind this, especially if that inexperience comes with a low price.

Post paid work

What I mean by this is that once you already have a few projects to show off, you should consider putting yours away student work. Otherwise, you may end up in a situation where a client looks at your portfolio and thinks, “Hey, this guy is really good! Oh wait, student work? He’s a beginner, so I’d better look for someone else, because I need a professional!”

Look how many double standards there are here? Even if a client thinks your work looks amazing at first glance, when they see and realize that these are just student projects, they immediately judge you as inexperienced. Is this bad? Absolutely not! This is true? No. This is how the world works.

3. Lack of confidence

There is a time and place to be humble, but your portfolio is not one of them. It's so common to see truly talented designers presenting themselves to clients with short, vague testimonials, and it can really drive you crazy.

“There is a time and place to be humble, but your portfolio is not one of them.”

“I'm just getting started” or “I hope to one day achieve...” - these things may not seem as bad as you write them, but they destroy confidence in your ability to produce quality results.

Clients are a reflection of your level of confidence

If you can't muster enough confidence to tell a client that you're an amazing designer, then it's unlikely that they'll come to their own opinion about you.

To a potential client, what you write about yourself gives very little information, but can play an important role. If you doubt your abilities, the client may go looking for another professional or use your weakness to force you to perform. more work for less money.

Fooling around

Again, there are times when confidence can turn into arrogance. If all the information in your portfolio is literally filled with overconfidence, then it will make the client run away just as quickly as lack of confidence. It's a fine line you walk, and finding balance isn't always easy. You have to figure out how to tell the client how great of a designer you are, but try not to brag about how awesome you are.

Often The best way to do this is to let your work speak for itself. If your work is truly amazing, then you won't have to convince the client that you are really good at what you do.

4. Grammar

This is very difficult for designers, most of them. Many of the designers have their own blogs, and often write more than they develop websites, but even despite this, it will not be difficult for you to find grammatical error in their texts.

What I'm talking about now is a very important thing that you should pay attention to. It's not the end of the world if you write only participles or end a sentence with a preposition, just make sure that a normal educated person can read your sentences without wondering how you managed to graduate from high school.

What if Russian is not your strong point?

The designers with whom I often communicated are trying to do everything possible, but, unfortunately, many of them do not speak Russian. strong point. And this can be easily understood by reading the portfolio.

This is a very sensitive topic, especially if you only speak one language. Again, if you speak two or three, then you can be called a unique person. At the same time, do not forget that speaking fluent German or French does not mean that you will be able to write a high-quality text “About yourself”. So, if you decide to make your portfolio in several languages, then it is better to contact a specialist, spend a little money, but do a proper translation.

"You want feedback that you good designer, then don't let bad grammar get in the way of it."

5. Neglecting the blog

This is another thing you have to deal with: the designer starts new blog, and he is enthusiastic about how often the blog will be updated.

First you roughly publish posts, share useful tips and your work, but a few months after you start to relax, you'll notice that your blog has turned into a scary old doll that's lying around in the closet with a bunch of other unnecessary things.

Digital web

The interesting thing is that you probably didn't take into account the message that visitors to your portfolio will see. One of the first things I do when I visit a blog is look at the date of the last post, what does that tell me about your blog and how helpful it is?

The lack of new blog posts and a dismissive attitude will make the client doubt your competence, that you continue to take on projects and work successfully. Perhaps you abandoned your freelance career a long time ago and went to work in one of the offices on a permanent salary.

Do it right or don't do it at all.

The blog is great addition to any portfolio, but if it is not done well, it can actually drag you down and harm your work. The advice in this case is simple: either devote part of your time to updating your blog on on a regular basis with quality and interesting content, or just don't do it.

You don't need to post every day or even every week, but you should at least try to post something monthly to keep people interested.

Since you have decided to create your own blog, use it as a place to share knowledge, disseminate necessary information and perhaps to gauge traffic, but not to post photos of your cats or think about how good the pizza is at the restaurant next door or who you're going to vote for in next elections. This kind of content is only suitable for personal blog, so it's better to leave it there.

6. Showing weaknesses

Nowadays, there is a trend in web design portfolios to showcase a set of skills while putting some things in contrast. Quite often this information takes the form of a small graph or visualization, as shown below.

Pretty neat? This quickly gives the client an understanding of the services you offer and the level of skill you have. It's great that it's so honest!

However, the problem is that the way you see the information shown and the way the potential client reads it is quite different. It turns out that you think the client sees it like this:

Unfortunately, this is what he actually sees:

"Don't point out your weaknesses"

It's good to have strengths and weaknesses - everyone has them. However, I'm not sure that showing weaknesses in any form, written or graphic, is not a good marketing strategy.

Think before you create a portfolio

The real benefit of this article is to carefully consider every component of your web design portfolio, from the work you display to the information you write about yourself.

At each stage of creating a portfolio, ask yourself if you are actually improving the quality of the finished product or if you are actually decreasing the likelihood that someone will hire you. You will probably find that everything you thought was right and necessary information, in the end it will turn out to be just a burden that will pull you down.