8 Key Elements to Include in Your Design Portfolio
It’s no secret that every designer must have a well-crafted portfolio to attract steady clients. Your portfolio shows your expertise and encourages potential clients to trust you with their problems and money. But just having a portfolio isn’t enough; you must take extra steps to ensure optimum results.
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1. A Concise “About Me” Page
Who are you as a designer? What are your values? What are you about? Why should a client trust you? Every client ponders these questions, and this section should provide good answers.
Your About Me page should show your name, brand, and talents and give a client solid reasons to hire you. Your story must connect with them, making you sound appealing and fun while retaining professionalism.Creating a good logoor adding a professional-looking image also helps to boost your viewers’ interest.
But, while being fun, endeavor to remain concise; you don’t want a page that bores your audience or lacks direction. Figuring out your design niche is a great tip for crafting an interesting, professional write-up that attracts your desired client. This way, you can tailor your story to suit this group of clients and leave out unnecessary details that have zero effect on your portfolio.
2. A “Contact Me” Section
Irrespective of how engaging it is, an About Me section is incomplete without a corresponding call to action. Not only does it show incompetence and unprofessionalism, but it also leaves your client with no way to contact you.
A detailed contact section contains all your professional contact information, especially a phone number and mailing address. Remove informal details like nicknames and dates from your mailing address to show maximum professionalism. Instead, it should only consist of your name and surname or brand’s name.
Moreover, your address is equally important if you have a physical business location. Some clients may want to visit to build a relationship and cement trust before hiring you.
3. Your Best Projects and Designs
Your past work is your biggest selling point. Before hiring you, clients want to ensure you have an excellent history and can be trusted to solve design-related challenges.
This step is a huge concern for most designers new to the job market due to a lack of projects to showcase. Unknown to many beginners, you can add personal and team projects to a design portfolio instead of paid jobs alone.
In other words, any experience you’ve had should be in your portfolio, including but not limited to official volunteer work and personal practice. Additionally, if you’ve participated in competitions or done free designs for loved ones, add them to your portfolio as long as they were skillfully done.
4. Case Studies
Countless designers don’t pay enough attention to this section, but it’s among the most important elements of your design portfolio. Showing your final designs can get attention, but it’s also not enough to convince clients to hire you. Rather, your portfolio needs detailed case studies to attract and win clients.
Now, what is a case study? A case study is a comprehensive documentation of your entire design process, from a description of the client’s problem to your final solution. It should explain your role in creating the end design and leave zero doubt about your design prowess. We’ll expound on its major parts below.
Design Insights
Every problem is distinct and has different interpretations and perspectives. This section should explain your individualistic understanding of the client and their unique situation, not a copied or rehearsed version. More importantly, it should show that it’s possible to understand your client’s issues, relate with them, and see how things affect them.
Process Documentation
Next, how did you come up with a solution? What processes did you follow, and what problems did you encounter? Thoroughly answer these questions in this section but keep your explanations brief and engaging. Besidesdocumenting your workflow process, you must also learn how to communicate it to your client who isn’t a designer and won’t find certain details interesting or useful.
You don’t want to reveal all your secrets; a little mystery keeps clients returning for more. Give as much as you can, but frequently remind them you have much more to offer.
As the heading suggests, this section reports your results and design solution and includes images and corresponding descriptions. Here, it’s possible to also share your general thoughts on the project, your final insights, and how you expanded your knowledge while working on the project.
5. A Professional Color Scheme
Although it seems like an obvious element to get right, several designers are guilty of poor color choices. Colors are highly instrumental to a potential client’s decision and can influence your audience positively or negatively.
Your choice of color should adequately reflect the message and tone of your brand and must convey expertise and competence. Avoid using amateurish colors or combining colors that clash with your designs, and stick with cool-toned, darker colors to exude maturity. Also, feel free to enlist thebest AI-powered color palette generatorsfor impressive and outstanding color ideas.
Similarly, your portfolio is expected to be aesthetically pleasing as a designer. So, organizing your designs by color will make your portfolio more inviting and further prove your worth.
6. Navigation
Remember, the average internet user has an attention span of about eight seconds, and many get bored in less time. Most people find poor navigation a huge inconvenience and will leave your portfolio, no matter how attractive or welcoming it initially is.
Consequently, if your portfolio is a website, a navigation bar is important to ensure maximum user experience. All buttons and links must be effective and have fast loading times, or you’re in danger of losing your client’s interest.
Of course, you’re probably wondering how to create a navigation bar considering it doesn’t fall under your job description. This shows the importance of learning coding fundamentals as a designer. But if you’re not ready to take up coding, several content management systems are at your disposal. Note that there are certainthings to consider before choosing a CMS, so do proper research before selecting one.
7. Responsiveness
Similarly, responsiveness is essential in your design portfolio. Just like your designs must fit and be compatible with any screen size, your portfolio must also be perfect no matter where it’s displayed.
Ensure your designs and portfolio are mobile-friendly, as your target will likely use a mobile phone. Thus, focusing on designing for bigger screens alone will lose you a significant number of views and clients.
Without development and programming skills, this presents a serious difficulty. But again, a good CMS will give you excellent results regardless.
8. Client Testimonials
There’s nothing like a testimonial to secure a client’s confidence and faith in your abilities. People want to be convinced of your value before finalizing their deal with you, and reviews from former clients subconsciously reassure them. Hence, it’s important for designers and freelancers to findways to request testimonialsand include these reviews in their portfolios and profiles.
Also, testimonials offer a more realistic point of view that new clients can understand and relate better to, no matter how convincing your words are. Certain pain points and problems can only be understood from the buyer’s perspective, and testimonials communicate your response to these issues better than you can.
Get Your Dream Design Job With the Perfect Portfolio
Getting your portfolio right is a step in the right direction toward attracting the number and kind of clients you want. When it contains the right elements and has a visually appealing design, a portfolio advertises your skills and capabilities without words.
Make an effort to create one today, and with a solid resume and strong experience, your dream design job is just around the corner.
Want to create a portfolio that stands out from the rest? Here are some design tips to get you started.
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