Design your way

Thursday, January 8, 2015

Every designer or artist wants to have the best possible online portfolio to showcase his or hers work in a manner that will make the visitors become clients. That’s the desired result, but how does a portfolio have to be to deliver those results?

The answer is that it’s all relative. Even if we like it or not, the answer actually depends on the person that’s viewing the portfolio, cause ultimately, that’s the person who decides if he hires you or not.

Even though that’s a little bit discouraging for some, there are still standards that we can follow as designers to create the best portfolio website. First of all, the portfolio has to be useful. It needs to put focus on your work and not on the aesthetics of your website.

If the only impression that the visitor has about your website is regarding its looks and appearances, then you lost a client. If, however, the visitor remembers primarily your work, then you have a possible client and that’s what you need to aim for.

I’ve watched discussions online and talked to people who have searched for a designer to contract for a few years now and I have also written previous articles about it and I’ve noticed that are a few characteristics that people look out for.

For example, a portfolio needs to have a clean style and eye for details, a simple site to make the work shine will most of the times get the clients that you want. You should keep the site as minimal and product-focused as possible. This shouldn’t be because the products speak for themselves, but because most of the time people that are visiting portfolios might be busy and won’t have much time to deal with your heavy loading animations or effects.

Still, you don’t have to develop a hate against modern websites with dynamic graphics generated by SVG or jQuery animations. For some designers, these are quite useful and show the visitor what he is capable of. Of course, if you fall into this category you must show restraint when it comes to what you put in your portfolio. Add too many ‘pretty things’ to your portfolio and some older folks will think it’s a Geocities trend all over again.

In this article you will see a collection of modern portfolio sites that you should take as example. They will showcase various styles and I’m sure there’s a little thing that you will like from all of them.