5 tips to create a killer portfolio

What is a portfolio?

Your portfolio is a collection of the best work you have done to date.

What do you want your portfolio to say about you?

Now, this is what you need to think about!

Your portfolio should reflect your true self, your story!

Tip: You don’t have to include all the work you have done, just the ones you feel really proud to share.

Now, you need to create a story from the first page till the last, and it’s not going to happen by arranging a few images to make it look good, it’s going to happen if it represents the real ‘you’.

Yes, “YOU”.

You want to make a lasting impression in less than a minute, so be yourself.

What is included in a design portfolio?

Cover page: You can include a render or sketch made by you, with your name and profile. Avoid using images from the internet and if you do, source them.

Resume: It’s absolutely your call whether to include or exclude your resume in your portfolio.

Table of content: Here, you need to mention the contents of the portfolio with page numbers.

Project 1: Sketches, Doodles, Drawings, Renders, Description

Project 2: Sketches, Doodles, Drawings, Renders, Description

Project 3: Sketches, Doodles, Drawings, Renders, Description

Project 4: Sketches, Doodles, Drawings, Renders, Description

Project 5: Sketches, Doodles, Drawings, Renders, Description

Project 6: You may or may not want to include any more than five projects

Miscellaneous work: You can include detail drawings, sketches, narratives.

How to create a killer design portfolio?

Just follow along!

ARRANGE YOUR WORK

This is the first thing you need to start with. Collect all the work you have done in the past and choose what you want to include. 

Once you have finalised the projects you want to include, finish all the drawings or renders that you want to include in your portfolio. 

PS: Try not to include more than one kind of project. You never know which project from your portfolio might land you that job you have been looking for. 

FINALISE A THEME

When it comes to portfolios, presentation is everything. You are selling yourself through your work for which you need to decide a theme that looks creative yet professional. 

PPS: You may want to recreate a few renders to go with the theme. So you need to finalise the theme at this stage only. 

Choosing a theme doesn’t mean that your portfolio should have fancy borders or graphics but using a particular pattern throughout the portfolio, even if it’s a colour.

Let’s say you have chosen monochrome theme. Your entire portfolio will show monochrome without having any fancy graphics or borders. Although if you are trying to use a bright colour, try to tone it down using a neutral colour and don’t be afraid of blank space.

DETAILS ARE IMPORTANT

And I don’t mean just detail drawings, but the detail in presentations too. Your drawings should be easy to read and the details should correlate with each other.

Pay attention to the font styles and grammar as well.

Tip: Don’t forget to source if you are including case studies or narratives.

DESCRIPTION

You might want to include a short description for each of your work to make it easy for your employer to understand. The description should talk about the design stages that you went through and the requirements. 

PS: Always mention the area of the project. It becomes easier to understand the scale of the project.

DON’T MAKE IT TOO FLASHY

To be completely honest with you, I turned down a few applications just because the portfolios were too flashy – they had too many colours, really loud fonts and too much happening on one page.

It was impossible to read them. 

So, you want to keep it professional, which doesn’t mean it has to be boring. 

Right?

Got questions?

Hit the comments section.