Your design portfolio represents a window for the world to view your work and judge your talent, skills and experience.
Whether you are a graphic designer, a product designer, an illustrator, a web designer or a multimedia artist, design portfolios are the prism through which designers are constantly evaluated by new clients and potential employers.
A great design portfolio can propel you towards success, open up new opportunities, and get you just the kind of work you want. However, failing at putting your best foot forward with your design portfolio can lead to rejects and spell doom.
Given that it can make or break your career, creating your design portfolio in itself becomes the most important design exercise of your career. With online design portfolio websites becoming the default medium of presenting your work to the world, it's important to make sure that you understand the dos and don'ts of a successful design portfolio website.
A winning graphic design portfolio website showcases your work, tells your story, inspires confidence, and opens doors for collaborations.
We have carefully selected 25 of the Best Design Portfolio Websites built on Pixpa for your inspiration. We have also listed 20 pro tips in this article to create an awesome graphic design portfolio.
With these professional tips and a little bit of ingenuity, you will be well on your way to creating a portfolio that would be able to attract and impress potential employers, clients, or collaborators.
Here is an extensive collection of best design portfolio website templates for your reference.
Best design portfolio websites
John Panek
John Panek is a graphic designer based in New York. The homepage is a collection of projects John has worked on, such as Budweiser and Bud Light. These projects showcase designs that could be utilized for brand promotions.
There is also a collection of brand logos that John has worked on. Check out this portfolio to make a mark in brand design.
Arrowood Design Agency
Lisa leverages color and a harmonious mix of modern and antique to create classic spaces that feel inspired but natural. It’s a perfect example of having a digital presence as an interior designer.
Danny Moore
Diedre-Ann
Ann Elise
Checkout the Best Website Builders for UI/UX Designers
Kellie Challis
Kellie Challis is a freelance graphic designer based in Gold Coast and specializes in branding, signage, and everything print with experience in UX and digital design.
The portfolio gives a quick overview of clients Kellie has worked with for graphic design projects. Anyone looking to build a clean graphic design portfolio should check this out.
Gregory Curley
Elizabeth O'meara
Kim Dero
Lots of negative space, consistency in the style of portfolio images, and an understated, simple portfolio website design makes Kim's online portfolio a winner.
Fake Honey Pictures
Chris Tammar's website is a perfect example of "less is more", with only two links in the navigation that present his portfolio and contact details.
Brendan Dowling
Made Architects
Allison Bratnick
Based out of Boulder, Colorado, Allison Bratnick is Head of Design & Production at Protein Bar & Kitchen, a healthy fast-casual restaurant. She has chosen a clean grid-style theme to illustrate her work, which makes it easy for the viewer to scroll through her marketing and communication projects.
Obladee
Visitors can click through to get more details on the project with more images and a project description available for each project.
Brandon Perez
The website layout is kept simple yet smart with fantastic use of a small grid on the home page.
Matthew Park
Here is an list of portfolio website examples for web designers for your use.
Michael Collins
Here are the best Product Design Portfolio Website Examples made using Pixpa
If you are showcasing design, its best to photograph it in a real setting and present vivid imagery of the product actually being used.
Jim Stahn
Jena Locastro
A. Darvishi
Checkout these best interior design portfolio websites whether you're a beginner, student or a small artist.
It's important to see how other designers are putting together their online portfolio websites - to learn from them before you start creating your design portfolio website. We hope that the examples above gave you insights, inspiration, and ideas on how to create your own portfolio website.
If you are interested in building your own website, this step-by-step guide will help your personal portfolio website.
How to create an awesome graphic design portfolio website?
Here are our 19 pro tips to create an awesome graphic design portfolio website for yourself
- Have a clear purpose
- Curate your Work
- Showcase your versatility
- Invest in a proper design portfolio website
- Choose the right platform
- Keep it simple
- Create your brand
- Write about the process behind your work
- Show results and case studies
- Don’t beat around the bush
- Inject it with your personality
- Add a downloadable resume
- Clearly include your contact info
- Make sure your online portfolio website is responsive
- Add a blog
- Get reviews from your peers
- Review and refresh often
- Create a print portfolio
- Promote your portfolio website
1. Have a Clear Purpose
Start with deciding on the purpose of your portfolio. If you are looking for a job, focus on the work you want to do more of and showcase similar projects upfront.
Polish your resume and clearly layout your skillsets and strong points along with your expertise in various design applications so that employers can judge whether you are a good fit for their requirements.
If you are a freelancer seeking clients, showcase your successful case studies and emphasize how you have helped clients achieve success.
Including a few client testimonials are also useful. If your online graphic design portfolio is mainly to build your brand, you have a lot more freedom to showcase experiments and personal work that you have done along with commercial work.
2. Curate your work
At its core, creating a great graphic design portfolio is all about presenting your best work and keeping it simple. Put your best designs upfront.
Make sure that your portfolio does not exceed 20 projects (better still, a super-sharp selection of 10 projects). Once your final selection is ready, review it to make sure that it's cohesive and represents you well.
Pro tip- The first project that you showcase in your portfolio is the key - this would be seen by most people and be referenced in interviews or client meetings.
3. Showcase your versatility
While choosing your strongest projects, you also need to make sure that you are presenting the full breadth of your work. This can be a tight-rope walk and if it comes to choosing a project based on quality vs. a range of work, choose quality.
Remember that you are as good as the lowest quality work you put out, so make sure that your curate only your best works.
Designer - Brandon Perez shows his diverse skills right on the home page of his portfolio website - Brandon Perez
Pro tip: Do not include an inferior work in your portfolio even if it is for a big brand name. Outstanding work done for a smaller client would do the job better. Clients are judging your talent, not your clients’ size. Having big brands in your portfolio helps though.
4. Invest in a proper graphic design portfolio website
Putting a bunch of your work on free platforms such as Bechance, Coroflot or DeviantArt undercuts the very purpose of creating your own portfolio website - which is to stand out and make an impression.
These free platforms reduce your work to just another link amongst millions others, with the same shared experience. When showcasing your design portfolio, you need to be professional and come off as someone who is serious and successful at work.
With your own portfolio website, you create your brand and control the experience of how your work is viewed and you are perceived by potential clients and employers. Invest in a real portfolio website and connect your custom domain name with it. Its a worthwhile investment that would payoff many times.
5. Choose the right platform for your online graphic design portfolio website
There are a ton of website builders now which make it simple enough to create and manage your own graphic design portfolio website.
Wordpress is the most prominent of these, but if you do not have programming skills or would rather not invest your time / money in creating a custom-built website, it make a lot more sense to choose one of the hosted website builders for designers.
Even within the hosted website builders, there are platforms that enable building any business to create any kind of website and not-just designers.
Choosing a platform that focuses on building online portfolio websites would give you a lot more options in terms of showcasing images, videos, gallery layouts themes etc. that are well-suited for online portfolios.
The key to finding the right builder for you is to narrow down precisely what you want your site to do. We have put together a list of 6 Best Website builders for 2024, that could help you pick the one you like best.
Pixpa is an online website builder tailor-made for graphic designers to create your portfolio website easily and showcase your work with style and simplicity.
Check out the portfolio website themes and design portfolio examples built on Pixpa.
6. Keep it simple
The best graphic designer portfolios are all about showcasing work in an easy and intuitive interface. Follow best practices and choose a clean, minimal design that highlights your graphic design works as the centerpieces of the viewing experience.
One of the big mistakes that many designers make is to “over-do” the design of their portfolio. Your portfolio website design should not overshadow or take away the attention from your graphic design portfolio.
Rather, it should serve as a backdrop that highlights your work and makes it easy for visitors to explore your online portfolio.
Designer, Bjorn Borgers, presents his work with a minimalist, clean website - Bjorn Borgers
Learn how minimalism can make your website look modern and intelligent! Check out these various minimalistic website design that explores the essential components of minimalist web design and how to decrease distraction and increase conversions.
Checkout the Best Graphic Design Portfolio Website Examples made using Pixpa
7. Create your brand
As a graphic designer, you would be working on creating, enhancing, and evolving the brand equity of your clients through various creative mediums and projects. What better way to prove it than to create your own brand to present your graphic design portfolio.
Creating your own logo is the first step to establishing your personal brand. Follow this through with a consistent visual language for your portfolio website, resume, and even your business card.
Your brand identity should not only look nice but also be a statement on the kind of designer you are.
Marcus Artis's distinct logotype creates instant recall
Pro tip: Do not include an inferior work in your portfolio even if it is for a big brand name. Outstanding work done for a smaller client would do the job better. Clients are judging your talent, not your clients’ size. Having big brands in your portfolio helps though :).
8. Write about the process behind your work
Graphic designer portfolios should be more than just a visual collection of your work. Add authenticity and context to your work by sharing your thought process behind the project.
Write about what was the starting point of the design process, what were the challenges and requirements of the project brief, and how the final design solution fulfilled those requirements.
A successful graphic design project is not just about beautiful visuals, it's also how the creative process led to finding a successful design solution to a real-world problem. Share these insights into your portfolio projects.
9. Show results and case studies
Clients and employers are always more interested in real-world results. Showcase how your designs translated into the real world by including action photographs of your design in action - the brand design rollout on various collaterals, a printed brochure, a shot of the storefront.
Make sure you photograph your completed work being used in the real world - that’s the best kind of design portfolio you can create.
Graphic Designer - Ling K writes a detailed case study about each of her projects - Visit - Ling K
10. Don’t beat around the bush
There’s plenty of research that states that a website visitor just takes 2-3 seconds to make their impression. Don’t waste away this tiny window where you need to grab the attention by showing lengthy animated flash intros or a heavy website that’s slow to load. Put your best foot forward and make sure you communicate effectively right from the word go.
11. Inject it with your personality
Add an “About Me” page to tell your story. This is where you talk about yourself, your interests and inspirations and how you started off in your field. Your “About Me” page should give an idea of the kind of person you are to work with.
Given the choice to choose between two people with the same skills and experience, clients typically hire the person that they “like” better. Make sure that you win that choice.
12. Add a downloadable resume
Create a proper resume page that details your education, experience, projects and clients you have worked with. Make it chronological with the latest events coming on top. Your resume is all about your work and qualifications - be truthful but pick the right details, do not cram it with irrelevant or avoidable information.
Add a link to your downloadable resume as well if you are seeking a new job. You will find everything from how to make a resume website here.
13. Clearly include your contact info
You have done all the hard work, created a great portfolio, and got visitors to your website. The last thing you want to do is to make it difficult for potential clients, employers, or collaborators to reach you.
Your first option is to add a Contact Form to your website portfolio. You can sync this form to your site and allow any visitor to submit a form to get in touch. This is a great way to filter requests and find out if customers need to ask for a quote or schedule a meeting with you.
Then, Make your contact information available as clearly as possible on your website. Every lead that you get from your website is a potentially big one, so make sure that the email address or phone number you are providing is actively used by you.
Memento Grafia Studio has a clear contact details page that does the job well - Contact - Memento Grafia Studio
14. Make sure your online design portfolio is responsive
Over half of the total internet browsing now happens on mobile devices. Make sure that your portfolio website is fully responsive and optimized to display your work beautifully on mobile devices. The mobile experience of your website should load fast and leverage the basics of a touch screen interaction.
15. Add a blog
Add a blog to your website to let people know what you're working on and share behind-the-scenes experiences of your life as a designer. Write about ongoing projects and experiments that you pursue in your free time. Make your personality shine through and let people know about you as a person.
16. Get reviews from your peers
It's important to get objective feedback from others before you lock down on your portfolio website. Your peers will see mistakes, gaps, and opportunities that you would most probably miss or overlook. The constructive feedback you would get from your peers would help you re-look at your portfolio website from a fresh perspective.
17. Review and refresh your design portfolio often
You need to put in place a constant and consistent process of reviewing and refreshing your portfolio website periodically. The review should not just be about adding new work, be ruthless in deleting old work as well that you feel is no longer representative of your best work.
Make sure that you do not end up with a bloated portfolio over time, keep pruning it as you add new works.
18. Create a print portfolio
While your online portfolio website is going to be probably your first point of interaction with people, it helps to have a classy, sophisticated, and impressive print portfolio in hand when you are meeting someone face-to-face.
19. Promote your portfolio website
Your work does not end after creating a great portfolio website. In fact, that is just the beginning of the process of marketing yourself. Here is a guide to the marketing portfolio sample, which will be helpful in highlighting our skills and achievements.
Get active on social media platforms, start posting your work on Twitter, Instagram, Google Plus, and Facebook with links back to your website. Create your profile and share portfolio works on Dribble, Behance, and other such showcase platforms.
Use social media to expose your portfolio to as many people as you can and start building traffic for your website.
While you are in the process of creating your graphic design portfolio website, it's important to focus on the end result that you are striving to achieve. Your portfolio is not a vanity showcase, but a carefully constructed engine to drive your career growth and bring you more opportunities.
Also Read
Frequently Asked Questions
How do you create a design portfolio?
The first step to creating a beautiful, professional design portfolio is to find the right portfolio website builder. Having an online portfolio website is better than a physical portfolio because it is much more accessible and shareable. Portfolio websites make it easier for you to promote and market yourself as a designer.
What should a design portfolio contain?
Your design portfolio should contain your best-curated work as well as your resume. Choose pieces that show a wide range of skills and expertise. Also make sure your portfolio website has marketing and SEO tools that help you expand your reach and promote yourself better.
What makes a great design portfolio?
A great design portfolio should have a clear purpose. Don’t just fill your portfolio with random pieces but add content that tells something about you and provides value to the overall portfolio. Try to create a brand identity for yourself through your design portfolio.
To ensure you make the most of your portfolio, our guide on how to create a model portfolio will provide you with invaluable insights and strategies to showcase your skills, attract clients, and advance your professional journey.
What is the definition of a design portfolio?
A design portfolio is a curated collection of a designer’s best work that shows their skills, methods, expertise and versatility. Design portfolios are important for every designer in order to get jobs and clients.