Seven Tips to Make Your Online Portfolio Stand Out

Thinking about web design can be difficult, but not doing so could be even worse for your career. When you work in the creative industry, showing off your best work is crucial, whether you’re looking to land freelance clients or permanent employment. Today, creative companies are placing less and less importance on resumes and cover letters, instead of looking at the online portfolios of prospective candidates before making a decision.

Whether you’re a photographer, graphic designer, web developer, videographer or work with something else, an online portfolio is essential to showcase your work and gain the exposure you need in front of people and brands who may wish to work with you in the future. Not only that, but it’s also vital to make sure that yours stands out from the crowd and makes a lasting impression. We’ve put together some top tips to help you make sure your creative portfolio does just that.

Tip #1. Have a Clear Objective:

Before you start putting your online portfolio together, it’s a wise idea to make sure that you have a clear objective in mind. Throwing a site together without considering your future goals and objectives means that you’ll never be truly sure if it is successful.

Think about exactly what you are trying to achieve by putting your portfolio together. Are you trying to attract clients? Do you want to share insights on your creative process with others? Maybe the main aim of your portfolio is to land a full-time job doing something that you love, or perhaps you’re simply wanting to showcase a range of your best skills to the world. Either way, it’s important to first list out your objectives and then you’ll be able to build your portfolio accordingly.

Tip #2. Select Your Best Projects:

Be selective when it comes to what you’re showcasing and what can be left out. There’s no need to display every single project that you’ve ever worked on when you build your portfolio. In fact, this could even have the opposite effect and make your site look cluttered and untidy, particularly if you’ve worked on lots of smaller jobs in the past.

Instead, think about your best work – what’s going to really impress potential clients or future employers and get people talking? Choose projects that have had the best results, and be sure to highlight work that you’ve created for more notable, high-profile clients. In addition, think about the type of projects that you’d prefer to work on in the future. Selecting projects that are more in line with this type of work will help you better reach your future career goals.

Tip #3. Provide Context:

Bear in mind that whilst great visuals are both amazing and essential, there’s no need to simply stop there. In addition to showing off the results of your past work, it’s a good idea to provide some context that shows off your expertise and professional abilities.

Choose some select projects and write a short description, talking about how, why and when the work was created. Make sure that you provide context on the initial client brief, the process of creating the work, and finally the finished results. Include the client’s desires and goals and talk about how you met these with your approach.

#4. Keep it Clean and Simple:

A presentation is absolutely everything in the creative field today. Don’t just rely on your work to show off your creativity and design skills. The website itself should be a reflection of who you are as a professional, too. Make sure that you keep it clean and simple, accessible, classy and easy to navigate. The last thing that you want is for visitors to find it difficult to find what they need when exploring your work.

The good news is that creating a professional portfolio website has never been easier, particularly if you’re not skilled in coding or web design. This simple website builder has everything that you need to easily put together a portfolio that looks sleek and professional.

#5. Get a Professional Domain Name:

In addition to choosing a good website builder for a professional design, don’t underestimate the importance of having your own, professional custom domain name. There’s nothing worse than a domain name that includes the branding of the website platform or building tool that you are using when it comes to looking unprofessional and sloppy.

The good news is that you can get a catchy, custom domain name for a very inexpensive price. There are several ideas that you could consider – perhaps you could go with your own name to showcase your design or maybe you’re more about building a brand that stands out.

#6. Show Off Your Reviews and Recommendations:

If you have a history of putting together great work that your clients are pleased with, then you’ve most likely got at least a couple of past clients who are more than willing to sing your praises. Get in touch with them to ask them for testimonials that you can display.

Although testimonials and reviews won’t make or break your portfolio, they can certainly be very useful for building credibility with future clients and showcasing your trustworthiness. Don’t just stop with client recommendations, though – although they’re great for your site, you could also try and include testimonials from people who you’ve collaborated on projects in the past with, too.

#6. Link to Social Media:

Once your portfolio is ready to go, encouraging people to share your work and content is key to standing out and getting noticed. That’s why it’s so important to link your portfolio up with social media, making it easier than ever for those who enjoy what they see to share it with their own friends and followers, helping you gain more exposure, follows and likes.

To do this, make sure that social media sharing buttons for sites such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, Pinterest, and YouTube are readily available and easy to find on each page on your site. In addition, don’t be afraid to actively ask your viewers to share content that they found interesting – many will be more than willing to click that share button if something really speaks to them and stands out in their mind.

#7. Keep it Fresh and Updated:

Don’t make the mistake of stopping there once your portfolio is ready to publish online. To really stand out, it’s crucial to make sure that you are constantly working on keeping it fresh, new and up to date. Make sure that you are uploading any work that you’re currently doing at the moment and putting the results out there for people to see as soon as they are ready.

If you’re a busy designer with lots of assignments queued, it can be all too easy to forget about keeping your online portfolio up to date. But it’s never been more important to keep it fresh. If you don’t get that much time during the week, you could set aside a few hours at the weekend to add more content to your site. Even if you don’t have any finished work to show off, you could showcase your expertise in the form of blog posts or update readers on what you’re currently working on.

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