For new clients, for a long-awaited position or just in order to progress in your design career, it is necessary to have a good graphic design portfolio. A portfolio should demonstrate, alongside technical skills, creativity, diversity, and knowledge of design vision. In order to be successful in your career, below we share with you the best practices that we believe will help your design portfolio excel within the very competitive market of design work.

Also Read: Mastering Graphic Design: Key Skills for Career Growth

Know the Audience You Want to Attract

The first step to take before creating or re-thinking your portfolio is to decide what kind of clients, employers or projects you would like to have. After determining the target audience, the portfolio can be prepared to showcase the most appropriate pieces of work. 

For instance, if you are targeting tech start ups, your portfolio must have sleek, contemporary and digital designs. But if your sights are in working with publication houses, include works with print designs, typography and layout works.

For this, you can use the following tools:

• Analyzing the current client based industry trends which are likely to appeal to your ideal audience.
• Determining what skills or style trends are prevalent in the area you are focusing on.
• Watching how competitors’ portfolios are built up achieves the goal and what makes successful designers in the particular niche you want to work in.

Construct with Care: Less is More

The most frequent portfolio error of many designers is making viewers get bored from the sight of a huge number of projects. Try to avoid that by aiming for a specific number of well done projects. 

For example, designers say that an average professional portfolio assumes that there will be 8-12 pieces and no more. 

Opt for projects where you can:

• Illustrate different specialties (for instance, logo design, web design, and typography).
• Bring your personality to design while being flexible.
• Connect your design capabilities and design path in a singular vision.

Beware of including dead weight: every design project should enhance your portfolio. Do not be afraid, for instance, to get rid of work that is old or not well finished if such action will cut down the overall number. A professional portfolio is always best when it contains the best pieces and not plenty of them.

Exhibit the Design Process

Employers, especially clients, would want to see the methodology that comes into play during the conception of ideas and into their resolution. One of the ways to achieve this is by giving them some parts of the design process, or all if possible. By giving them insights of your design procedure they know how you work, you think, and how you solve challenges.

In regards to what you include in your portfolio, consider focusing on:

• Rough or initial idea sketches or wireframes to show how the design processes started.
• Using mood boards and notes to show which ideas influenced the design and what was the goal.
• Revisions after revisions with responses to feedback in order to shape the end design.

Omitting the process elements will make your portfolio much less interesting.

Highlight Key Achievements and Metrics 

Each of your designs should be coupled with results to demonstrate measurable impact whenever feasible. Demonstrating the outcomes of your efforts goes beyond proofing your worth, but also bridges your creative input to the business strategy. 

For instance:

• “A redesign of the interface increased website engagement by 25%.” 
• “There was a 50% increase in click-throughs in the actual execution of the campaign in digital marketing.” 

Such criteria are particularly important in advertising projects directed at marketing professionals. Nevertheless, each of them has its own specifics. 

In this regard, if there are no indicators of success, it is possible to turn attention to the clients’ feedback, testimonials or interesting features of the clients that appeared due to your contribution. Focusing on achievements is particularly useful for attracting business-oriented target audiences who are interested in tangible results. It is especially relevant during the current volatile environment, where return on investment is a crucial factor when pitching ideas to potential clients. 

Focus on Visual Consistency and Branding 

Branding is in everything from portfolio presentation to individual marketing. Thus, paper quality should definitely not be sacrificed. This will include fundamental aspects such as font size, shapes, color and structure. There is no doubt that a well-crafted portfolio enhances professionalism. 

In this regard, possible employers will likely gain a feel for the applicant’s intrinsic style and framing possibilities. Thus, the focus may be established on: 

• Considering the establishment of a brand-aligned color palette. 
• Integrating a coherent font that matches the look of your designs and has good legibility. 
• Creating a harmonious layout with identical proportions and orientation for different images and thumbnails. 

However, there’s always a more practical angle to consider—good portfolios have to look good.

Prioritize Accessibility and User Experience

Nothing is more annoying than a gorgeous portfolio that is almost impossible to browse. Assistance should never be the last consideration which is why make it a point to ensure that your portfolio is easy to access, intuitive, and user-friendly.

Some ways to make an online portfolio user-friendly include the following:

• Having a separate section for other works and building a simple, clean navigation bar out of it.
• Having a simple and straightforward language in project titles and descriptions to help lead the viewers around.
• Keeping in mind the speed of the site loading and how well it displays on the screen and handheld devices.

Borderline should always be a user, any portfolio should be tested on different devices and screens. General usability is very important but it is more important in case of making contact with a wider, more universal audience.

Incorporate a Strong Personal Introduction

Most portfolios benefit from a brief, professional introduction. Such a statement can claim to define the designer and the directions of his or her efforts in the present as well as where he or she intends to go in the future. Descriptions of oneself are a handy tool that allows one to make sense of a lot of his or her work whilst providing a chance to connect with the audience.

A few points to remember in the introduction of any document:

• Focus on where your focus is and what makes your design different from others.
• Some passion or purpose about design work to be of relevance.
• Experience or qualifications relevant to the case, if any.

Make Use of Case Studies for Major Projects

In the case of larger and more demanding projects, a case study layout is quite useful. Case studies enable you to go deeper into a project and expand on the problem, the procedures, and the results. They are particularly useful for portfolios intended for clients or employers who appreciate the approach and the processes involved.

Set out a case study in the following way:

• Introduce the project: State concisely who the client is, what the project seeks to achieve and its chronology.
• Challenges and approaches: Discuss any specific challenges that were encountered and how it was handled.
• Results: Discuss and analyze the results a project was able to achieve (using indicators, opinions and other sources).

The case studies do not only enable you to depict your design skills but also your thought processes and effectiveness in execution of projects.

Enhance Performance Potential through Regular Portfolio Optimisation 

As a living document, your portfolio doesn’t end once you’ve completed creating it. Expectable changes should be made to your portfolio from time to time. Older projects should be vanished and replaced by fresher ones that are reflective of your current skill set and design concepts. 

It wouldn’t be a bad idea to propose a timeframe within which you’d have the possibility to polish one’s portfolio after digs on worthwhile creations or acquiring additional knowledge or insight. A strong summary of a portfolio will suggest to one and all self-improvement and constant learning that are beneficial to the industry. 

Conclusion:

A strong graphic design portfolio is not only a product of the ability; it’s a story that reflects the person’s professional personality, his creativity and what the client/employer would get in return. Following these guidelines will allow you to design a portfolio that is not only attention-grabbing but is also trustworthy and will make you more competitive in your niche.