Whether you’re a graphic designer, a famous illustrator, or an interior designer, you need a portfolio, and a good logo to establish a lasting successful career.
A resume portfolio showcases your best work while providing potential clients with essential information about your skills, expertise, and credentials.
You should have a hard copy of your portfolio on hand to give to potential clients—for example, when you meet them in interviews. You should also share your resume portfolio online, using the far-reaching internet to engage with more potential consumers and boost your brand.
But just what goes into an online resume portfolio?
Read on to find out.
What Is an Online Portfolio?
An online portfolio provides potential clients with a quick introduction to you as a designer.
It gives examples of your work to provide a sense of your style and gives an overview of your personal details, like your educational credentials.
By sharing your portfolio online, you can reach a much wider audience of potential clients. This is a great marketing tool. It’s also a valuable way to engage with designers and other professionals, which can lead to collaborations, cross-promotions, and more.
Modern technology makes it easier than ever to create your resume portfolio online.
The below guide provides a step-by-step breakdown of what your portfolio should include and provides tips for valuable tools to help you build yours.
Resume Portfolio Elements
Diverse elements go into building a well-rounded and compelling online portfolio. It requires more than simply compiling some images of your best work.
Here’s what every excellent resume portfolio includes.
Work Examples
Work samples provide direct proof of what you are capable of as a designer. They offer you the opportunity to showcase your creativity and style, emphasizing what makes you stand out from the crowd.
Being able to show work samples also proves that you have completed projects in the past. These visual references testify to your ability to conceptualize and carry out your vision from start to finish.
Exactly how you display your work samples will depend on the type of designer you are.
For example, if you’re a web designer, you might show screenshots of websites you’ve created, along with direct links. If you’re an interior designer, you’ll need to take photos of your work.
Blogs
You might be thinking, “I’m a designer, not a writer! Why should I blog?”
There are a few good reasons to include a blog in your resume portfolio. First, it’s a proactive way to share your expertise. You can show that you’re knowledgeable about your design field and the latest trends.
A blog is also a great way to boost your online portfolio’s visibility in search engine rankings. For good search engine optimization, SEO, you need to have content.
Your blog provides written content that search engines like Google can use to rank your content.
Improving SEO means you’ll rank higher in search engine results, which can drive more traffic to your site and help you grow your social media followers. You can also use your blog to increase website visitors directly by sharing it on social media and online forums, providing a teaser followed by a link to the entire blog.
Images and Video
Images and videos can help flesh out your online resume portfolio, creating a more compelling and comprehensive online presence.
For example, say you share work samples of a specific project you’re very proud of.
You might also share some behind-the-scenes images from the work that went into that project. Show a video of yourself in action, creating and designing.
This makes a more engaging presence that gives a more personal look into your design aesthetic.
Bio and Contact Info
If you expect people to hire you as a designer or an illustrator, you have to tell them exactly who you are. Work samples alone are rarely enough to land a gig. Your online resume portfolio should thus also include your essential bio and contact information.
When writing your bio, include your educational credentials, additional certifications, and industry association memberships.
There are professional associations for everything from industrial design to graphic design. Being a member shows you are committed to your field.
You should also include any awards or accolades you’ve received for your work in the past in your bio. Finally, include your contact information (business email and phone). This ensures that interested parties can reach you if your resume portfolio has made them want to hire you!
Shop
You can also use your portfolio as a means of making money.
How?
Set up an online shop. You can link your portfolio to e-commerce platforms like Shopify, BigCommerce, or WooCommerce—or set up your own web-based shop.
Just what will you sell in your shop?
It depends on the type of design services you offer. Say you’re a graphic designer. You could create some designs specifically for t-shirts or tote bags. You might also sell branded materials with your logo and brand name.
When setting up an online store, there are a few things to consider.
First, you need to have photos of your products. It would be best if you also had product descriptions covering details like dimensions and materials.
Presentation aside, there are also logistical issues. Determine in advance what payment methods you’ll accept and ensure these are secure. There are plenty of tools that can help you make an invoice in a couple of clicks. Also, decide how you will ship goods to customers and determine shipping costs.
Clients
An impressive client list can be a great way to demonstrate your status as a design expert. People who are considering hiring you may be convinced by the fact that you’ve already worked for big brands.
If you have recognizable clients, ask them whether you can list their names on your website as previous clients.
Most people and companies are happy to agree to this. However, you should always check first to avoid potential legal issues.
Interviews
If you’ve ever been interviewed about your work as a designer, include links to the interview (e.g., an online magazine article or video) on your website. Again, this demonstrates your expertise and showcases you as a thought leader in your field.
If you haven’t ever been interviewed, look for opportunities. You can start with local media, inviting them to interview you about a current project in the community. Advertorials (paid editorial placements) are another way to get interviews. (Read: how to prep your interview attire)
Mailing List Sign Up
A robust email list is a great way to share news and updates about your design work with your community of followers that you can send out in the form of an email campaign.
You can use your online platform to build that mailing list, paving the path for email marketing. Include a sign-up page asking people to join your mailing list.
SEO elements
A blog is just one of the ways you can help improve your online platform’s discoverability. There are other SEO elements to consider, too.
For example, you want a good domain name, a logical site structure, and keyword-driven content.
Design is also important in SEO.
A user-friendly page design with minimal pop-up ads and other distractions is a must. You also want to ensure that your platform is mobile-friendly, in addition to having a compelling desktop version.
Online Portfolio Tips
As a designer, it’s essential to have an aesthetically appealing and practical online portfolio. After all, your entire career is about creating pretty yet functional products, whether interiors, websites, or products.
Keep these tips in mind as you create your online portfolio:
- Make it beautiful: whether it’s a graphic design portfolio or something else, it will show that you are genuinely dedicated to your craft and all the details that go into great design.
- Be yourself: There are many designers in the field. Use your portfolio to showcase what makes you stand out. For example, highlight one-of-a-kind projects.
- Sell yourself: Your portfolio should be more than images. Use marketing copy best practices to sell yourself while staying humble. Highlight your assets without bragging.
- Make it user-friendly: You don’t want people to get frustrated and click away because your portfolio is too complex to navigate. Keep it simple.
- Show your best work: You don’t have to include every single piece of work you’ve ever done in your portfolio. Pick and choose your best pieces.
- Keep your ideal client in mind: Define your target audience before creating your portfolio and tailor it to their interests.
Portfolio Platforms
While you can create a dedicated website to share your portfolio resume, you can also share it on established design platforms. This allows you to broaden your reach, connecting with more potential customers and other design portfolios.
Here are five popular options:
- Behance: One of the most popular free design portfolio websites, Behance allows you to share designs, get feedback, and make connections.
- Dribbble: Dribbble gives you the chance to share your creations with a large community.
- Pixpa: Online portfolio builder for photographers, artists, creatives, and more.
- Fabrik: A new portfolio website, Fabrik lets you integrate audio, images, and video.
- Coroflot: Coroflot offers a platform for showcasing your work, plus a job board.
- Portfoliobox: PortfolioBox is a simple portfolio-building tool and comes with customizable themes to make portfolio building easy.
Social Media
Joining the above platforms can improve discoverability.
You can also further your portfolio resume’s visibility via social media. This is another effective way to expand your network and reach potential clients and other design professionals.
Instagram is ideal for designers because it’s visually driven. When using Instagram, create a cohesive brand presence by sticking to a set aesthetic (e.g., using the same filters consistently). For maximum reach, make sure to use hashtags, share live videos, and engage with others.
You can also leverage your social media by permitting other accounts to share your work.
For example, Adobe account will share your work if you send it to them. This is a great way to find new followers.
Communities
Many of the portfolio platforms described above do double duty as online communities. Others include Portfolio, Carbonmade, and Cargo.
By joining these kinds of platforms, you can connect with others in your field, learn about the latest trends, and expand your professional network.
Networking is essential in any professional field, and design is no exception.
By promoting your work through social media, email, and online forums, you raise awareness about what you do. This will boost awareness about your brand and get more eyes on your work.
Ultimately, greater awareness means more significant opportunities.
You never know if another designer may recommend you for a project, for example—or be interested in collaborative work. Cross-promotion amongst designers is another possibility.
By actively sharing your resume portfolio and participating in online communities, you are doing all you can to advance your design career.
Putting in a little bit of time and effort now to expand your online presence can reap big rewards down the line.
The Final Word: How an Online Portfolio Can Help You Succeed
An online resume portfolio is essential for any designer, whether you’re working with interiors, creating marketing graphics, or crafting websites. Your portfolio allows you to show off your work and provide necessary details about your expertise and experience in the design field.
By sharing this information in a compelling, attractive way online, you can promote your work to potential clients.
You can also network with other professionals in your field, opening the door to opportunities like collaborations and cross-promotions.
Once you’ve created your portfolio with the help of the above guide, revisit it regularly. The design field is constantly evolving, and your portfolio should reflect that. For example, you may want to update your client list or write new blog posts reflecting current trends.
Staying on top of updates in the design field can help you guide your portfolio’s evolution in the future. Joining relevant professional associations can help. You can also follow industry websites in graphic design, interior design, web design, product design, etc.
By keeping up with the latest design field, you can ensure your portfolio is fresh, current, and of the moment.
This is essential for any designer’s success.
Author Bio –
Yash Chawlani is a Freelance Content Marketing Strategist who is known by his personal brand Merlin. He specializes in SEO and Social Media and helps B2B and SaaS companies out there with his top-notch content strategies. In his spare time, you can either find him in the gym or on the football field. Feel free to connect with him on LinkedIn.
