What is a Portfolio?
Portfolio is your buddy who talks about you, your work, skills, achievements, knowledge, personality, on behalf of you.
In detail: What are you doing? How do you do a task? What is your knowledge of a particular project? What’s your experience in a specific domain? All these questions were answered through the portfolio, to whom? To the clients or customers you want to sell your service in any domain like: Graphic Design, Digital Marketing, Photography, Video Editing, etc.
What is a Graphic Design – Portfolio?
As we talked about Portfolio, In the same way if you are a Graphic Designer & you want to get clients to work & earn you will be needed to have a good work data in which you will have to showcase:
- About You
- Your availability
- Your designs
- Your case studies
- Your flow of works
But the problem is that to get the work you need a portfolio but to create a portfolio you need work, in this case, if you are at start of a graphic design career start working on random projects, via these steps:
Select a brand
Select any brand of your choice for here we are taking – “A product-based brand- suppose a Cookie-Brand”
Work on a logo
At the start of this, you can work on its “Logo” – completely your choice if you do not want to go into logo design, you can go for other things like packaging.
Redesign Packaging
You can work on its “Packaging” – Start with re-designing the existing packaging, giving it a new look & feel – understanding their audience or customers, design a different package of their product- This will represent your perspective into the design to the clients
Create social media designs
After that see their social media how, they are marketing their Cookie. Design a different, modern styled, trendy look & feel of posts or reels whatever you want, for them. This will represent your “Audience understanding” knowledge to the clients.
Make it presentable
Now when you have made these designs represent them in a good way and make them understandable. Make it presentable with Graphic Design principles & Elements. After this just upload them on your portfolio. Want work you can mail this to that Cookie Brand also.
This is how you can start building your portfolio in the start when you have no clients. From here you will start getting small business works either in packaging or in social media creatives handling or in their website artworks, there is countless work in graphic designing.
But keep in mind that this portfolio is for the newbie who has just started his career in Graphic designing & working this way to get clients.
Experienced Designer – Portfolio
When you have already completed the newbie steps you have surely something to showcase. Now with this portfolio apply for some internships where you can find more client works or more real-time projects to get your hands wet in this design sea.
After internships and work your portfolio should include some good projects, detailed case studies on brands, how you helped the brand to increase their sales, or how you helped them in their branding should be included in your portfolio.
Your beginner portfolio represented you that you are a designer, but after this portfolio, you are representing yourself as “A Graphic Designer” – simple to stand out.
Where to create & showcase your portfolio
There are a lot of ways to showcase your work, many platforms are out there that help you to represent your work by just uploading and sharing to the client with your account link:
- Behance: It’s a free Platform. Easily sign up with your Gmail Account and upload your work.
- Wix: It has free services. You can create your personalized website to showcase about yourself & about your work.
- WordPress: Also provides various free templates & services to create your personalized website
Pro tip:
Avoid sharing your work as a Google Drive link—it looks unprofessional. If you’re using a free website-building platform, ensure your domain name reflects your brand professionally.
For example: you have made your website through a platform named xyz.com & your name is AB your domain should be Ab.com or AB-portfolio.com, not AB.xyz.portfolio.com
Checklist for an Effective Portfolio:
- Organized Content: Write a concise bio about yourself and your experience. A well-written introduction helps clients understand you better.
- Focus on Quality: Showcase only your best work; avoid overloading your portfolio.
- Mobile Optimization: Ensure your personal website is mobile-friendly and easy to navigate.
- Keep it Updated: Remove outdated projects and display fresh, trendy work on the home page.
- Tailor for Clients: Modify your portfolio as per new projects or specific client requirements—similar to updating a resume.
- Showcase Achievements: Highlight your certifications, badges, or any recognition you’ve received.
- Client Reviews: If possible, include testimonials or reviews from past clients. This builds trust with new clients.
Where to find Portfolio/Design inspiration?
To get ideas & to start making your own portfolio if you need inspiration you can checkout many designer’s work on platforms like: Behance, Dribble, and Adobe Portfolio, you can also checkout Instagram, many designers, and content creators upload their work on Instagram to represent themselves or to teach you.