Online Portfolio Website for Designers

Online Portfolio Website for Designers

Apply the same level of thoughtfulness and creativity to your own portfolio as you would for a client project. Format gives you the design and customization tools to make your inspiration a reality. Once your free trial is done, you can continue using your portfolio website for as low as $8 a month.

Online Portfolios For Designers

What does an effective online portfolio website for designers look like? Here are tips and tricks for building a killer digital design portfolio.

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Whether you specialize in graphic design, web design, illustration, or UI/UX, maintaining a portfolio is an essential skill for your success. When done right, a design portfolio becomes a showcase of your best creative work. It’s an extremely useful tool for showing future collaborators and potential clients everything you’re capable of. Learn how to effectively create a design portfolio website to showcase your services and show off examples of client projects.

Why Designers Need an Online Portfolio Website

Don’t think you need a portfolio site? Here are three ways designers can benefit from maintaining a portfolio website.

Portfolio websites have a much wider reach. Unlike physical portfolios, which can only be shared at face-to-face meetings, websites are accessible pretty much anytime and anywhere, allowing you to connect with potential clients from all over the world.

Portfolio sites are flexible and easy to customize. Want to change your template? Edit a caption? Replace an entire gallery? With a portfolio site, all of these can be done in just a few clicks. Whereas a physical portfolio needs to be reprinted and organized by hand.

Portfolio websites cut your work in half. With a website, you get a virtual gallery, a marketing tool, and a digital calling card all rolled into one. Instead of having to introduce yourself, talk about your work, and give out your contact details to interested parties over and over again, your website does all your work for you.

Perfecting Your Online Design Portfolio

So you’re convinced that you need a portfolio site. But, what can you do to make sure it’s in tiptop shape? Here are three tips that never go out of style.

Quality Over Quantity

Portfolio sites should always be comprised of a designer’s best work. Try your best to choose at most 10 to 15 pieces, cutting out any work that doesn’t exemplify your standards, your creative vision, and your brand. Remember, it’s about quality, not quantity. After all, most people are turned off by sites that are overstuffed and way too busy. These days, less is definitely more.

Keep Things Organized

Keep your web design neat and tidy. Create pages for projects in different formats or themes, and organize projects into separate galleries. Inside your galleries, practice minimalism by including only the best work from each project. Add captions in each project too so that visitors know what they’re looking at. Lastly, be sure to update your site menu to keep visitors from getting lost in your online folio.

Consider Case Studies

If you’re applying to an advertising agency or a design studio, you might want to consider incorporating case studies into your portfolio sites. Case studies are great for showing potential employers how you think and problem solve as a designer, along with your ability to conceptualize an idea from scratch, collaborate with clients and colleagues, and apply your design ideas into the real world.

Strengthen Your Brand

Modern Design Portfolios that Inspire

  1. Buy a domain name. Your domain name is your website’s address. If you want to give off the impression that you’re serious about your design career/business, you’ve got to purchase your own. It’s more attractive, easier to remember, and just more professional than a site address like “www.websitebuilder/johndoe.com”.
  2. Optimize your images and use a mobile responsive template. Nothing drives site visitors away faster than portfolio websites that look like they belong in 2002. Use a photo editing software to compress files without compromising quality, check on links regularly, and choose a mobile responsive template.
  3. Run an online store. For graphic designers and illustrators, one great way to make extra money from your site is by running an online store to sell merch like stickers, prints, postcards, and the like. Aside from these, you can also offer Lightroom Presets, shirts, and even toys you designed yourself!
  4. Keep a blog. A blog is an excellent way to keep site visitors updated, show the “behind-the-scenes” of each work, and let people in on your creative process. It’s also a great way to get a better online presence, as you can optimize your blog to rank higher on search engines.
  5. Integrate your social media pages. Many designers, artists, and photographers get their big breaks after being discovered on social media. Be sure to integrate your social media pages into your site so that visitors can find and follow you right away.

Designer Online Portfolio Website FAQs

Still confused? Here are the answers to five frequently asked questions about creating a designer’s portfolio.

A designer’s portfolio is a book or a website featuring one’s best design work. When designing online portfolio websites, website makers organize their work into pages and galleries for different formats, themes, and projects.

A designer needs to include about 10 to 15 of their best work. To narrow down one’s options, designers must look through their portfolio to find the works that show off their talents, versatility, and artistic voice. A portfolio could also contain an artist’s background information, contact details, and photos—so that visitors can put a face to the name and know what the creators look like.

Digital portfolios come with many advantages. For one, when you create a portfolio online, getting your name out there becomes much easier since your site can be accessed and shared by anyone from around the world. Another benefit is the flexibility of a website. While a physical portfolio needs to be reprinted and organized by hand, you can strip down and create a digital portfolio all over again on your laptop or even your phone.

Graphic designers, interior designers, web designers, and fashion designers can all benefit from online portfolio websites in the same way—by putting your designs on a digital platform, you expand your reach to a global audience. Designing an online portfolio website can get you clients from all over the world, even without having to put in the effort of reaching out and emailing your design work. That’s the importance of an online folio.

To create a great portfolio, you need to make sure your site is updated and optimized. Like we said, nothing turns people away from portfolios and websites that look ancient. Put in the effort to keep your sites up-to-date and you’ll have made the impression that you’re an organized and attentive designer.

Aside from this, making a professional and engaging About page, keeping everything neat and organized, and being mindful of the adage “quality over quantity” will help you create a solid design portfolio.

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The Importance of an Attractive Portfolio for Designers

An attractive design folio can boost your online presence, increase your sales, and get your career off the ground. As long as you follow the tips and tricks in this guide, you’re all set!

Ready to get to work? Try Format’s website builder. With Format, you can create a portfolio site in just six simple steps, as well as integrate a blog, SEO, an online store, and your own domain name too. Plus, Format offers a wide array of intuitive, easily navigable, and mobile responsive templates.

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