4 Tips for Your First Design Portfolio

Advice from another recent design school graduate after a year on the job

Creating a solid design portfolio requires curating your best work, telling the story of your process concisely, refining your visuals, and building a consistent UX arc for your website. Last year, I worked through all this as I was finishing design school. Here are a few things I learned from that process, with examples that have inspired me, as I look back in my first year as a designer:

1. Design your portfolio experience

You’re a designer designing a design portfolio. Your website should showcase this. However nice a project looks in your design software won’t matter once it’s on your website. Clear, usable, and fast (save for web!) is important for busy creative directors looking through dozens of portfolios at a time.

On Andrew Nediymyer’s portfolio, for a clear next step within detail pages, the user is naturally led to a footer with a tile view of all projects. andrewww.co

2. Treat your homepage as a display window

The hard truth is that no one will spend as much time on your portfolio as you will, so treat your homepage like a storefront. Set your homepage up so anyone can find the value in a project immediately. And just like you critique and test your design solutions, you should test your website with people who haven’t seen it before and learn from their perspective.

Nonlinear’s homepage feels compelling through the use of color and a varied grid. nonlinear.co

3. Curate your process

On your project detail pages, show your process, but keep it concise. In design school, you’re taught “process is what matters.” To a certain extent, this is true! It’s important to show the thinking behind your output. However, focus on pulling out those crucial moments in the arc of your process to keep it crisp and compelling. It should feel like your process is complementing your project, not replacing it. If your homepage is a display inspiring someone to open a project, your project details should seamlessly tell the story of what caught their attention in the first place.

Shore efficiently walks through design decisions and process, as their visuals clearly manifest their thinking. madebyshore.com

4. Showcase your design sensibilities

Design is about refining visuals and interactions to craft an experience. And sometimes that can’t be quantified. Share decisions in your projects that were based on research, testing, and data, but also share decisions that were based on your own sensibilities, knowledge, and perspective as a designer. Show you understand how to leverage the fundamentals of design such as layout, color, and typography.

Also, people want to know the human behind your work. On your about page, offer a glimpse of who you are, what you enjoy, and how you think about design.

Hamish Smyth’s NASA Graphic Standards Manual project displays his acute expertise and interest in design systems. hamishsmyth.com

What tips would you give new graduates? Leave your comments below.

Design grads, connect with me on LinkedIn if you have questions while you’re building your design portfolio. I’m happy to help how I can.

And tell your writer friends that we’re publishing tips for a UX writing portfolio next week!

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