Tips on How to Create an Effective Designer Portfolio

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Don't overdo it.

Too much creativity is no better than a boring dossier. Instead of excessive creativity, talk about what the client's task was and how you coped with it. To do this, show a prototype, interaction with the customer (screenshots of letters), the resulting result. In conclusion, attach a review and a photo of the client.

If the latter agrees, it is worth indicating healthtrax corporate email list the cost of the project so that potential customers have an idea of ​​the further costs.

It's bad if your very beautiful website lacks logic. Avoid animation and other special effects if you haven't thought everything through properly. Nothing can save an initially weak project.

Don't do work for designers.

On Behance, 80% of the work is seen by designers, and only 20% of views are from clients, mostly foreign ones. In other words, it is a specialized social network for designers.

Of course, no one will forbid you to post your work there, but until you get to the TOP, it is unlikely that large foreign companies will notice you and trust you with a big project that can change your life. Usually, publications on Behance turn into a chase for colleagues' likes, but you will definitely not be able to earn money this way.

Set the right goal.

In theory, the right goal is new orders, which means new money. Another goal is also possible: to surprise friends, people and colleagues in the industry – here we return to the conversation about “Behance”. You must decide for yourself that the second path is not interesting to you. If you do not agree with us, you can close the article, because further we will talk about achieving the first goal.

5 Typical Portfolio Mistakes of Young Designers
If you look through thousands of examples of dossiers of beginning designers posted online, you will notice shortcomings that are typical for every second one.

Indicating your age.

Portfolio examples

It may seem strange, but this information is often posted online by web designers. They feel that they need to make the page more personal, and indicating age is the easiest way. As a result, we constantly see: “I am a 22-year-old web designer from Papua New Guinea.”

Of course, this is not the worst mistake that exists, but it simply screams that we are dealing with a newbie. It is unlikely that anyone would be proud of being a 43-year-old web designer. Only youth considers age one of its assets.

Veteran designers brag exclusively about their experience. It may look like this: “I have been creating websites for various companies for over 10 years,” and this is truly a figure worth being proud of.

In fact, it's a bit of a mixed bag when you read the age information: what's it for? Do you want to be invited to a project for your talent and experience or just because you have a nice birth year? If you're not ready to be judged based on your age, why are you mentioning it?

Remember: a potential client will think twice about ordering services from a contractor only when they see their age. Even if you are incredibly talented, age in your portfolio will easily put many off. We would definitely not trust a 20-year-old specialist to develop a website.

The customer doesn't care how old you are, what type of computer mouse you prefer, or how long ago you bought new sneakers. So tell them what exactly you do, illustrate your words with convincing examples. And here we come to the second mistake.

Demonstration of school projects.

This mistake is surprising, but it is often found among young designers. For some unknown reason, they always want to share their school projects. But we are not talking about a refrigerator, on which you can stick any pictures, but about a professional portfolio, since here clients should see real work.

Let's say you've recently graduated from school, college or any other institution, meaning you have no experience working with clients. It's best to create the simplest website at this stage, it will serve as an example. Believe me, most potential customers won't object to this approach, especially when your inexperience is complemented by a low price.

Once you have successfully completed a few projects and can use them to present yourself, it is better to put away your student work. Otherwise, you can at any moment get into an awkward situation when a client looks at your projects and thinks: “He’s really good! But what is this, student work? He’s a beginner, I’ll look for a real professional!”