Before the land of large design projects, clients want to analyze your skills & abilities. Do you want to make a top-notch impression? Then, you need to have a portfolio website with an elegant and professional design. Usually, employers feel more comfortable when they work with designers who have proven experience. A portfolio website can help to separate the amateurs from the pros.
As a designer, your creativity is the biggest selling point. And what could have been better than having a custom-made portfolio website which helps to showcase your work as you need? Let’s learn what is a portfolio website, how to create a portfolio website, etc.
What is a Portfolio Website?
A portfolio website refers to an online curated space that helps to showcase your work. You can share your work in this way with the press, potential collaborators or employers.
Like a PDF portfolio, you can use this website when you apply for jobs or internships. As a result, in a centralized space, you will be able to quickly communicate what you do, who you are, and how people will be able to contact you. These websites are available in different shapes & sizes and these can vary, based on your discipline. If you are a designer, photographer, writer or digital artist, you will need the best portfolio website that can be the exact reflection of your projects, personality as well as passion.
Why Do You Need It?
If you want to showcase your work and allow people to reach out to you, a portfolio website is the best way. For freelancers, this can be bread & butter. A lot of skilled professionals are available. So, how will the clients be able to understand that you are a top-notch one? You need to create your online presence, because
- A portfolio website helps to represent your dedication and how much you are professional to the craft better than any CV. You are not just telling, you are showcasing the actual cases & examples that speak volumes. In this way, it is possible to display your mature and sophisticated approach to selling work.
- Remember that your portfolio website is the only web place where everything is up to you. You can create a platform with unique content that people haven’t seen previously. Thus, you can achieve a recognizable identity like how you imagined. When you have a private portfolio website, it can enable your creator to go far beyond any cliché.
- Having an online portfolio can make you available as well as searchable for new clients. Besides, it allows your potential customers to find you when they get around to using a search engine.
- A web portfolio can humanize you as a craft master. Remember that people come to you not only because you are an outstanding web designer, copywriter or marketer, but because they like you. Customers like decent people who behave friendly. Remember, hard skills often get considered afterward.
What Makes a Portfolio Website Great?
We know that designing a website or a portfolio is not about aesthetics only. It also depends on the overall UX & content. Hence, we have covered five portfolio features that you need to consider when you create a new portfolio or update an existing one.
Relevant Projects:
Make sure that you are adding your best work to your portfolio website so that your visitors see your ability and passion. You need to showcase relevant skills to the position you are interested in. So, it is important to define a target audience with the intention of filtering your work. Besides, it is also necessary to display your expertise from the client’s perspective. For instance, if you are a food photographer, keep the portfolio limited to commercial & food photography, even if you have captured beautiful landscape images.
Seamless Navigation:
This feature allows your site visitors to look for what they need. Thus, easy navigation can offer a fast and awesome user experience. While you need to avoid having excessive menu links, you have to make sure that the design is entirely responsive. Whether you are willing to get creative, you should not forget about user experience.
Beautiful Design:
You have to follow web design best practices for delivering a good user experience. Regardless of the portfolio type, ensure that:
- You are using pictures with good quality.
- You are choosing a colour palette representing your personality and highlighting your work.
- You are selecting the right typography.
You can use designer-made website themes. Website builders provide excellent templates for online portfolios. Therefore, there is no need to create everything from scratch. You only need to add the content. If it is essential, you can customize the design with an editor.
Information about Yourself:
Remember that your professional story convinces potential clients to work with you, mainly if you have relevant training, education & recognition. Ensure that you are not afraid to break away from a professional tone for creating a brand which fits your personality.
A few essential pieces of information to add to the portfolio sites are:
- Personal details such as hobbies & values.
- Professional background, like education & certificates.
- Your image.
Social Proof:
It can make your personal brand more reliable. Besides, it is possible to add articles & awards apart from adding testimonials from previous clients or colleagues.
How Can You Make Your Web Portfolio?
After knowing about portfolio websites, its purposes, and so on, you must feel overwhelmed. So, you just need to get it out of your head. Are you a web designer or developer? Then you are already at the top of the world. Hence, the only thing you have to do is: gather all your experiences together and then you need to start doing what you mainly do for money: develop and design.
You don’t need to be afraid, if you don’t know the basics of developing a website from scratch. You need to choose a website builder, which seems the most convenient one. Then, you need to follow the steps which are mentioned in the guide to create a portfolio website online for free.
What Should a Portfolio Website Have?
- Showcase of Your Works: A portfolio website needs to have appealing and bright visuals which can convince visitors to look for more information. In order to present your experience, you can take into account different ways. You need to select the most appropriate one & decide on your best works to add.
- “About” Page: Hence, you can add your name and photo. While you need to show your passions and skills, ensure that you don’t represent yourself as someone who you are not. The services you offer can be added or highlighted in a separate section.
- Testimonials: Every client is passionate about the reviews of other people. Therefore, you need to assure your reliability to your future customers, and it can be done by providing them with relevant feedback from existing or former clients.
- Case Studies: You need to show your progress from the start to the result. Thus, your website visitors can grasp the concept of the best works.
- Call To Action: You need to provide your visitors several ways to get in touch with you.
- Blog: You need to write about your experiences. Hence, you should introduce your expertise and knowledge in posts that add value to the web portfolio and can bring new visitors to the website.
How To Decide What Projects To Add:
Have you put together a PDF portfolio? Then, you may be familiar with this a little bit. While designing and building your website can be a difficult task, it is more challenging to decide which projects to add in the first place. You can never select a particular project so easily. Picking out just a few key projects is not so easy. These are some great tips that you can follow:
Choose The Best Work Only:
When a person visits your website, you have some seconds only to dazzle them with the portfolio. It is the reason you should showcase your top-tier pieces only. You should not be tempted to add everything you have made. Hence, you can create a list containing all the projects you have. Then, you need to mark the projects you are most proud of. You can cross out those which do not represent who you are or in which you have genuine interest.
Highlight The Work You Want To Do More Of:
You should remember that the portfolio website is not a current showcase of your practices and works. It can be used to attract more projects you wish to take on in future. Suppose you are willing to do more branding work, but you currently have only a single project. Then, you can surely add this to your website and make this feel prominent. It allows potential employers to learn that you take an interest in these areas.
Allow Your Personality To Shine:
Always remember that people visiting your website for the first time will not have met you before. Therefore, along with commercial or client projects, you must remember to put in self-initiated work, letting a person know about your passion and personality.
How Can You Help Your Project Pages Stand Out?
Remember that people don’t have enough time when they visit your website. That’s why it is essential to communicate your projects succinctly. You can consider these tips when you are planning your project pages.
Be Selective:
Remember that you need to consider the quantity & quality of images when telling a project’s story. Every picture has to serve a purpose. That’s why you must be selective so that you can avoid any doubling up. You should first think about those elements that have to be highlighted. For instance, you need to highlight a unique procedure or any detail you have used in a book cover’s design.
It might indicate that mocking up an idea digitally to advertise a campaign on billboards, or placing an illustration in the layout of a magazine.
Keep Image Sizes Small:
As pictures with large sizes take some time to load, you should try to reduce the image quality instead of the resolution. You can also save the non-transparent images as jpegs. It helps to reduce the size of the file, without making the picture look pixelated.
Conclusion:
A good portfolio site can combine the correct design, relevant work examples & content. So, if you are planning to create a portfolio, you should consider your personality, role and values for making it stand out. If you are a web designer, you can demonstrate technical skills with micro-interactions. Along with the design, you can use your expertise to showcase your prospective clients what you have to offer.
Frequently Asked Questions
- What are the benefits of a portfolio?
With the help of a portfolio, you will be able to pursue the career which you want. If you are a professional, you can use a work portfolio to self-evaluate your career plan for future targets. Additionally, a career portfolio gives candidates a professional identity.
- Is having a portfolio website important?
It assists in building credibility & trusting your skills. If you have a portfolio website which is properly designed, it can help you to see what you can do. It can help you to make a name in your industry, making you popular.
- What are the features of a portfolio?
Features of a good portfolio are as follows:-
- Risk-averse.
- Cost efficient.
- Risk efficient.
- Tax efficient.
- Simple
- Transparent
- Easy to manage.
