Having an impressive portfolio is crucial for many careers like design, writing, photography, art, web development, and more. Your portfolio showcases your best work and talents. It helps potential clients or employers understand your skills and abilities.
But with so much competition out there, how can you make your portfolio really stand out and impress? In this post, we’ll reveal 10 powerful tricks to level up your portfolio game. With practical examples and insights, you’ll learn how to craft a jaw-dropping portfolio that gets you noticed.
From your personal brand and portfolio design to the content and projects you feature, we’ll cover smart strategies to highlight your strengths. You’ll also learn what mistakes to avoid based on commonly seen flaws.
So whether you’re a seasoned pro looking to refresh your book or a new graduate building your first portfolio, this guide will show you how to impress and land your dream job or clients. Let’s dive into the 10 tricks!
1. Build a Personal Brand
One of the most impactful first tricks is building a cohesive personal brand that carries through your entire portfolio. This adds a professional, polished look while making it clear who you are and what you do best.
Define Your Niche and Specialty
The first step in creating your brand is defining your specific niche, specialty or expertise area. Don’t be too broad or general – get laser-focused on pinpointing your precise skills and services.
For example, are you a:
- Lifestyle/Portrait Photographer?
- UX/UI Designer?
- Technical Writer?
- Front-End Web Developer?
- Social Media Marketer?
Clearly identifying your specialty up front shapes the rest of your brand identity and portfolio. It allows you to target your ideal clients/employers from the start.
Example: Jen defines her niche as “Product Design & Branding Expert for Health/Wellness Companies.” She can then build her entire portfolio around showcasing her skills in that specific area.
Develop Consistent Visuals and Messaging
Once you’ve landed on your niche, it’s time to create consistent visual and messaging themes that capture your brand. This includes:
- A logo or signature mark
- Color palette (around 2-4 main colors)
- Typography and font styles
- Voice, tone and writing style
These visuals and themes should be used across all touchpoints of your brand and portfolio. This could include:
- Your website/portfolio platform
- Printed portfolio materials
- Business cards/leave-behinds
- Social media channels
- Email marketing/newsletters
Seeing a cohesive, unified brand represented makes you look significantly more professional.
Example: Amelia is a freelance illustrator who develops a whimsical, hand-drawn logo mark reflecting her illustration style. Her color palette incorporates bright, cheery hues that evoke a sense of playfulness and energy.
She carries this bright, energetic branding through her website design, portfolio case studies, social media visuals and more. Her illustrations immediately pop!
Document Your Brand Guidelines
For added polish, document your full brand guidelines and visual identity into a multi-page PDF file. Include:
- Logo usage guidelines
- Color hex/RGB/CMYK codes
- Approved font families and sizing
- Examples of branded templates, layouts, graphics
- Messaging and tone guidelines
This shows impressive foresight and attention to detail. Having such formal guidelines demonstrates your level of professionalism and branding know-how.
Example: Michael is a freelance content writer. In his brand guidelines document, he includes:
- Logo with approved versions/colors
- Color palette swatches and usage examples
- Featured fonts for headers/body copy
- His tagline: “Compelling Copywriting for SaaS Brands”
- Sample brand-aligned layouts and formatting
With this portable brand package, he can wow agencies and potential clients by showcasing his understanding of branding from day one.
A well-defined, cohesive personal brand woven through every element of your portfolio is guaranteed to impress. Clients and employers will immediately recognize your professionalism.
2. Create An Impactful Portfolio Website
In today’s digital world, your online portfolio website is one of the first things potential clients or employers will look at. So it needs to be clean, modern, and aligned with your brand.
Use a Sleek, User-Friendly Platform
Don’t settle for subpar website builders or outdated platforms when showcasing your work. Invest time researching and selecting a high-quality, visually-appealing, user-friendly portfolio platform.
Some popular and versatile options include:
- Squarespace
- Wix
- Format
- Adobe Portfolio
- WordPress
- Cargo
Most offer responsive designs, robust portfolio layouts, and seamless integration for media-rich websites to beautifully display your work.
If you’re a web designer or developer yourself, another route is to build your own custom website from scratch as a coding portfolio sample.
Example: Brenda is a graphic designer using the Squarespace platform to build her impactful portfolio site. Its minimalist design and grid layouts let her visuals pop without distraction.
Design for Intuitive UX and Navigation
When creating your online portfolio, design it with the user’s experience in mind. You want it to be extremely intuitive and easy for visitors to navigate and view your best work.
Keep the main navigation clean and simple:
- Work/Projects
- Services
- About
- Contact
And ensure your key projects and most impressive work is prominently featured “above the fold” – meaning visible without scrolling down.
Use established UX patterns for seamlessly browsing projects, like image grids/sliders, filter or category menus, and easy clicks to view details.
The more effortless it is to explore and view your work, the better experience you create.
Example: Robert is a UX designer whose online portfolio leads with a simple “Work” gallery grid highlighting his top projects. Clear calls-to-action allow visitors to easily view more details, case studies, and supporting materials for any piece.
Optimize for Speed and Mobile Devices
Don’t let a sluggish or unoptimized website drag down your polished portfolio. Take steps to ensure it loads quickly and functions seamlessly across all devices.
- Compress images and media files before uploading
- Enable browser caching
- Limit scripts, plugins and other resource-heavy features
- Make sure your site is mobile responsive
Test on different devices and use online speed tools to identify areas for optimization. A snappy, mobile-friendly portfolio makes a much better impression.
Example: Photographer Amanda’s portfolio is image-heavy. But she takes care to:
- Compress her image sizes for web
- Only show optimized thumbnails initially with “expand” options
- Stagger .gif and video loads for performance
This allows her portfolio to load blazing fast and look incredible, regardless of device or internet connection.
With a sleek, modern design and intuitive user experience, your online portfolio will immediately wow visitors and keep them engaged with your work.
3. Tell a Compelling Story
Just as important as your portfolio’s visuals and functionality is the underlying content and narrative storytelling. Each project you include should aim to take the viewer on a compelling journey.
Set the Context First
Too often, portfolios just launch straight into showcasing project visuals without any framing or background. This can feel jarring and make it hard to understand the purpose or goals.
So before displaying your project work itself, set the context first:
- Describe the overall challenge, problem or brief
- Explain the target audience or users
- Define your role and responsibilities
- List key objectives and metrics for success
Providing this upfront context shows your strategic thinking and process. It makes it clear how your work effectively solved a particular problem.
Example: For each case study, Designer Kim starts by explaining:
“The Ask: A wellness startup hired me to concept branding and packaging design for their new line of healthy snack boxes delivered monthly.”
This opening line immediately captures interest by framing the challenge she had to solve creatively.
Walk Through Your Process
Once you’ve established the context, take the viewer through your full design process and journey for that project. Explain each key phase and decision made along the way:
- Research and discovery findings
- Initial concept ideation and exploration
- Strategy or planning stages
- Execution and implementation details
- Testing, feedback and iteration cycles
- Final launch, delivery or deployment
Giving a behind-the-scenes look at your step-by-step process develops credibility and shows how you overcame any hurdles or roadblocks. It elevates you from an amateur to a strategic professional.
Example: Developer Kenji breaks down his portfolio case studies into clear phases:
- Project Planning
- Whiteboarding Product Flows
- Designing Wireframes & Prototypes
- Frontend Build Process
- Beta Launch & User Testing
Illustrating his full development journey in this way helps potential employers deeply understand his technical skills and workflow.
Share Project Results and Impacts
Finally, loop back at the end by highlighting the project outcomes, impacts, solutions and end results you delivered. This shows the true ROI and value you brought.
Include both qualitative feedback/quotes if available as well as quantitative metrics or data points:
- Sales or revenue increases
- Efficiency or productivity gains
- Design/quality scores or ratings
- Successful launches or implementation metrics
- Cost or time savings
- Consumer behavior, engagement or usage data
Demonstrating real, proven results through numbers makes the project’s success tangible.
Example: At the end of her packaging design case study, Kim shares:
“The new snack box line shipped profitably in under 3 months with an outstanding 4.8/5 customer rating. Sales hit $250K well ahead of forecast based on the branding’s appeal.”
Seeing this clear ROI impact immediately elevates the value of Kim’s portfolio work.
By taking this comprehensive narrative approach – establishing the context, detailing your process, and quantifying the end results – you create an engaging, easy-to-follow story arc. It brings your work to life in a compelling way that helps you truly stand out.
4. Make it Visually Stunning
As a creative professional, potential clients and employers will evaluate your portfolio first and foremost based on its visual appeal and aesthetic quality. It needs to grab their attention and impress from the very first scroll or click.
So take time to ensure every aspect is thoughtfully designed with beauty, artistry and details in mind:
Utilize Striking Visuals and Layout Designs
The actual visuals, artwork and project pieces you choose to feature should be your absolute best, most impressive work. Show the depth of your creative talents and design skills:
- Vibrant colors and imagery that pops off the screen
- Clean, modern typography and text styling
- Unique, innovative, attention-grabbing layouts
- Sophisticated use of whitespace, grids and alignment
- Masterful composition and photo/art direction
For added punch, consider complementing static images with videos, motion graphics, animations and other immersive visual formats.
Example: Fashion Photographer Emma’s online portfolio is stunning, featuring:
- Full-bleed images and sumptuous fashion photography
- Elegant overlay text and captions using stylized serif fonts
- Parallax scrolling effects blending videos with stills
- A bold accent color palette of crisp black, white and deep burgundy
From the moment you land on her site, you’re visually wowed.
Pay Attention to the Micro-Details
World-class portfolios elevate themselves by going above and beyond on the micro-visual details as well. It’s those tiny touches that convey next-level artistry, design chops and craftsmanship.
Impress by including thoughtfully designed:
- Animations, transitions and micro-interactions
- Dynamic scrolling, hover effects and UI touches
- Highly custom, unique icons and graphics
- Creative image/content treatments and manipulation
- Artistic uses of shapes, lines, patterns and textures
While small, these meticulous visual flourishes combined leave a major impression of your taste level and refined aesthetic sensibilities.
Example: Multimedia artist Raj’s digital portfolio open with a hypnotic, programmatically-rendered animation of his “RAJ” initials cycling through abstract shapes and colors.
Every click and scroll surface incorporates immersive interactions like particles, distortions or canvas effects. His custom iconography is sleek and geometric.
It’s clear he built every micro-interaction by hand with incredible precision, showing his immense talent and attention to detail.
Consider Printed and Leave-Behind Materials
For a truly deluxe portfolio treatment, think about designing premium printed portfolio pieces or other physical leave-behind materials as well. This gives an even richer sense of your production quality and presentation skills.
Beautiful options could include:
- Printed portfolio books, brochures or card portfolios
- Stylized business cards with unique cuts/materials
- Custom artifacts or branded swag items
- Sleek packaging, cases or portfolio boxes
- Mock-up graphics featuring your design work
Adding tangible, physical portfolio materials you can leave behind after an interview or client meeting makes you truly unforgettable!
Example: Graphic Designer Emily includes a printed branding portfolio book to share during final interviews.
It features thick, high-quality matte paper stock with blind deboss of her initials. Her branded stationery system and business card with glossy red accents are attached.
With treasures like these in hand, Emily blows clients away and has something ownable to differentiate herself from the digital-only competition.
Put simply: If you want jaw-dropping reactions, you must prioritize creating a visually breathtaking portfolio down to the finest details. Aim to make every project gallery, animation and printed piece look like museum-quality works of art!
5. Curate an Impressive Project Selection
While the visuals and storytelling are critical, ultimately it’s the quality and impressiveness of your actual project selection that matters most in a portfolio. Be very strategic and selective about which pieces you choose to highlight.
After all, your portfolio isn’t meant to be a dumping ground for every little task you’ve ever done. It’s a curated “greatest hits” collection – your creative best!
So be stingy and hyper-critical about what makes the cut. Look for those crown jewel projects that check several or more of these boxes:
Resulting in Impressive Business Outcomes
As mentioned earlier, it’s extremely compelling to showcase projects that delivered outstanding real-world business results, metrics or ROI. Think work that:
- Generated X in new revenue/sales
- Boosted productivity by X%
- Slashed expenses/costs by X
- Increased web traffic/engagement by X
- Achieved viral social sharing/growth
- Led to patents, awards or press recognition
Having those numbers and end-impact stats immediately grabs attention while demonstrating your ability to move strategic needles.
Example: In her portfolio, SEO Consultant Christine highlights revamping a fashion brand’s web presence resulting in:
“Grew organic search visibility 174% in 8 months through keyword research, content strategy and on-page optimizations leading to over $500K in new incremental online revenue.”
Showcasing Your Technical Skills
Another smart strategy is to use your portfolio to highlight and “flex” your most valuable technical skills and capabilities, even on smaller-scale projects.
Look for opportunities to showcase:
- Mastery of specific tools, software or programming languages
- Expertise working with niche mediums, materials or technologies
- Creative problem-solving through new techniques or innovations
- Handling complex projects with multiple components
These projects emphasize you’re an elite talent who can handle sophisticated, intricate work.
Example: As an iOS app developer, John features projects like:
“Built AI-powered feature using Core ML and IBM Watson to provide personalized shopping recommendations based on purchase history and browsing data.”
This shows his experience with bleeding-edge technologies and frameworks, even in this one portfolio piece.
Displaying Your Design Thinking Process
While end results are important, employers and clients nowadays also want to see evidence of your strategic process and decision-making methodology.
So in your portfolio, be sure to include multiple case studies detailing the full end-to-end workflow you followed:
- Upfront discovery, research and requirements gathering
- Brainstorming, ideation and concept exploration
- Low-fi prototyping and wireframing phases
- Visual design and creative iterations
- User testing, feedback and implementation cycles
Walking through these phases proves you approach projects with intelligent intentionality rather than just winging it.
Example: In her case study for a fintech app redesign, UX Designer Sara details phases like:
“User Interviews – I spent weeks interviewing 20+ customers to define pain points…”
“Low-fi Wireframes – Here’s how I explored various UI patterns and flows for the primary features…”
“Prototype Testing – Over 3 rounds of usability tests, I uncovered key issues like…”
Including this level of detail gives a data-backed accounting of her work rather than just showing pretty UI pictures.
Highlighting Your Versatility and Range
If you’re able to work across diverse arenas or wear multiple creative hats, use your portfolio as a chance to showcase the full breadth of your versatility.
Mix in projects covering different:
- Styles, aesthetics and themes (e.g. corporate vs. lifestyle)
- Content types (web, print, video, multimedia, etc.)
- Deliverables (branding, marketing, UX, art, etc.)
- Target audiences or industries
This range helps demonstrate your flexibility, ability to pivot between projects, and willingness to constantly evolve your skillsets.
Example: Will is a multimedia creative hoping to be brought onto ad campaigns, so his portfolio includes:
- UX/UI screens for a banking app
- 30-second brand videos and animated GIFs
- Photography artwork for a fashion lookbook
- App icon and brand identity exploration
- Print ads and outdoor billboard designs
By showcasing such a varied array of styles and outputs, Will positions himself as a versatile asset able to execute unified campaign elements across any medium.
Sharing Unique Processes or POVs
Finally, consider featuring some projects that capture your own unique processes, POVs, methodologies or approaches that differentiate you.
Perhaps you:
- Developed your own proprietary system or framework
- Combined tools/techniques in an innovative new way
- Took an unorthodox or counter-intuitive creative direction
- Brought an underrepresented perspective or POV
Including these “showcase” projects proves you aren’t just following the herd, but are a true thought-leader pushing boundaries.
Example: For her thesis project, architecture student Emily decided to:
“Explore generative design algorithms using video game engine tools to develop an adaptive, modular affordable housing concept that could respond to residents’ changing needs.”
This avant-garde approach using unexpected technologies allows her to make a name for herself even before graduating.
The most impactful portfolios go beyond just displaying pretty pictures. They strategically curate a variety of work samples that comprehensively capture your skills, thinking, processes, unique POV, and the impressive results you can deliver.
6. Let Your Personality Shine
While your portfolio absolutely needs to look incredibly professional, that doesn’t mean it has to feel corporate and soulless. In fact, some of the most memorable portfolios let the creator’s genuine personality and human strengths shine through.
By infusing your character into your materials, you create an engaging, resonant impression that helps you stand out. You show there’s a living, breathing person behind the work.
Some ways to let your personality shine include:
Share “Behind the Scenes” Looks
Give viewers a behind-the-curtain glimpse into your work process, creative environments and the making of your portfolio projects.
You could include:
- Photos or videos of you actually working in a studio, office or out on location
- Sketches, doodles or brainstorms that reveal how pieces originated
- Snapshot “turntable” videos letting work seamlessly rotate
- Fun time-lapses of illustrations, products or pieces coming to life
- Screen recording videos narrating how you use various creative tools
These types of casual, informal glimpses immediately make your portfolio feel more authentic, approachable and human.
Example: In her UX portfolio, designer Monica sprinkles in short :15 second videos briefly explaining her process:
“Here you can see me whiteboarding our initial user flow concepts based on our research findings…”
“With this uncommon layout, I took an iterative approach to getting the spacing just right as you’ll see…”
Having her face, voice and working examples makes it feel like she’s presenting her work directly to you.
Spotlight Your Creative Philosophies
Many impressive portfolios also make room to dig into the creative thinker’s own driving philosophies, inspirations and points of view.
You could include sections that discuss:
- Your personal “Why” or origin story for how you began
- Core creative principles or processes you follow like a manifesto
- Lists of inspirations, influences or “creative heroes” that shaped you
- Your unique distinguishing perspectives or approaches to work
- Videos or written pieces unpacking your belief system around creativity
Giving these sorts of insights into what makes you tick adds authenticity and shows your self-awareness as a thinking creative professional.
Example: Zack’s graphic design portfolio devotes an entire section to his “Less = More” philosophy, writing:
“I believe striving for minimalism, simplicity and negative space to intentionally highlight key ideas is the most powerful way to cut through clutter and communicate clearly…”
This type of strong POV instantly sets him apart from just being another “pixel pusher.”
Share Personal Interests and Passions
While you’ll definitely want to lead with your professional strengths, it can be remarkably humanizing to blend in some personal interests, passions or hobbies as well.
Maybe you’re an avid globetrotter or hiker and can include photography from your adventures. Or you have a passion project like a blog or podcast you produce.
As long as it’s appropriate to the context, layering in these sorts of personal details makes you feel multi-dimensional rather than just a resume on a page.
Example: Miguel’s motion design portfolio begins with:
“Growing up, I became fascinated with animation after seeing Looney Tunes and Pixar movies. Ultimately, this passion for delighting through movement led me to kinetic art and motion design…”
He then shares a handful of looping, animated kinetic sculpture .gifs he’d made just for fun before transitioning into client work.
These sorta of origin stories and creative seedlings make clients and viewers feel an engaging personal connection.
Remember, your portfolio is ultimately a marketing tool selling your unique talents and abilities as a creative professional. By allowing glimpses of your true self to shine through, you’ll create way more memorable, emotional bonds with viewers compared to a sterile, impersonal packet of work samples.
7. Leverage Multimedia Formats
While imagery and written case studies will likely comprise the bulk of your portfolio, be sure not to sleep on the incredible power of incorporating multimedia elements as well.
Potential employers and clients today are drawn to rich, engaging multimedia experiences across channels. A smart portfolio should leverage the full range of audio, video and other interactive formats to make an unforgettable impression.
Consider multimedia options like:
Video Reels and Breakdowns
Lopeing video pieces highlighting your absolute best motion work are essential for fields like:
- Animation and motion graphics
- Videography, filmmaking and cinematography
- 3D modeling, CGI and VFX
- UX/UI design and user Experience (UI animations)
These can be auto-playing reels showing sample vignettes all stitched together. Or you may choose to do individual longform video breakdowns further detailing the story behind each major piece.
Example: Motion Designer Vivian’s portfolio includes a :90 second showreel with a rapid-fire edit showcasing:
“Animated brand vignettes, app UI interactions, 3D character animation from TV spots, celluloid titles and motion graphics packaging.”
She also has full-length case study videos deep-diving into her process for several hero projects.
Interactive Prototypes and Schematics
For roles that require showcasing application flows or structural concepts, build out interactive prototypes your viewers can click through:
- Website or app designs via InVision or Marvel
- Digital product flows and user experiences
- Architectural designs, building models/maps
- Industrial design and product visualizations
These allow viewers to self-navigate through your vision, rather than just passively watching or reading.
Example: Raj’s web design portfolio is built with hot-linked InVision prototypes so employers can:
“Experience each responsive design by clicking through screens and user flows as if they were live products.”
He includes schematics illustrating overall site architectures as well.
Original Audio and Music Works
For creative fields and roles that involve music, sound design, voice performance or audio production values, you’ll absolutely want to incorporate purposeful use of audio elements in your portfolio.
This could include:
- Soundtracks or beds for video pieces
- Voiceovers or narration walkthroughs
- Musical scores
- Sound effect embellishments
- Full song or audio production samples
Used tastefully and intentionally, the audio dimension adds fidelity and richness to the overall experience.
Example: Hans is an audio engineer and producer. Each track in his online portfolio includes:
- Full master audio recordings users can stream
- Behind-the-scenes video breakdowns of his mixing and production process
- Intricate 360 vizualiztions of the soundscapes created
Embracing multimedia beyond just flat imagery allows you to truly showcase the full capabilities of what you can create.
8. Optimize For Mobile (and Beyond)
With most creative portfolios being browsed and shared across a multitude of devices these days, it’s absolutely essential to ensure yours is optimized for every channel and viewing environment.
It can be severely detrimental if a potential client or employer goes to view your work on their smartphone or tablet only to find your portfolio utterly breaks or under-delivers. They’ll quickly move on and find somebody else whose portfolio is fully optimized.
So as you’re designing and developing your portfolio pieces, be sure build a responsive, adaptive experiences that flex to any screen size or dimension:
Design For Mobile-First
With mobile traffic and browsing rapidly overtaking more traditional desktop environments, the savviest creatives design and develop their portfolio with a “mobile-first” mindset.
Start by mapping out the ideal, streamlined portfolio experience for smaller screens and iOS/Android device specifications. Create delightful micro-interactions and flows for this contained mobile canvas.
Then, expand and scale for desktop proportions while retaining the core mobile-optimized functionality rather than trying to shoehorn down desktop experiences.
Example: Digital Illustrator Julie keeps her mobile portfolio lightning fast and lean:
“Images load in stacks using progressive enhancement so mobile users aren’t weighed down at the start. Navigation is streamlined into a hamburger menu that disappears to fullscreen images.”
Once on desktop, the layout modules naturally extend to a column grid layout with consistent navigation and fullscreen detail views.
Test Comprehensively
As you’re creating your portfolio, make ample time to comprehensively test and debug the experience across a wide variety of device types, operating systems, and browsers.
Don’t just assume your desktop-designed portfolio will magically work perfectly on someone’s old Android phone. You need to scrutinize every detail:
- How does navigation function on small screens?
- Do video or animations load properly?
- Does text reflow cleanly as viewports scale?
- How seamless are transitions and load times?
- What happens if someone rotates orientation?
Rigorously test using mobile emulators, tablets, proxy browsers and more. Identify and squash any inconsistencies or device-specific issues in the experience.
Example: UXer Torri books time during each portfolio update for a full multi-device test pass:
“I check every project using iOS, Android, Chrome, Safari and Firefox across my laptop, Chromebook, iPad Pro and range of Android handsets for inclusive accessibility.”
Her testing checklists scrutinize every granular interaction to ensure nothing sticks or gets distorted no matter the user’s setup.
Prepare for What’s Next
While optimizing for today’s prevailing form factors like desktop and mobile, be sure to also future-proof your portfolio experience for emerging platforms as well.
Anticipate and plan for:
- Smart TV/streaming box experiences
- In-home voice assistant interactivity
- Augmented reality and mixed reality
- Fully immersive virtual reality environments
- Next-gen interfaces like wearables, IoT and more
Carving out a leadership position early on burgeoning platforms is a savvy way to stand out as you enter new creative disciplines.
Example: As an experience designer, Neil already has sectional builds creating immersive AR and VR rooms that prototype how his portfolio designs could manifest in spatial computing environments.
While likely overkill right now, evolving technology ensures these proof-of-concepts will soon become real platforms with demand for designers.
As creative professionals, our portfolio work represents the cutting edge of our skills and capabilities. That portfolio experience needs to fluidly translate no matter what the medium, device or emerging technology that’s potentially viewing or engaging with it.
9. Promote Extensively
Of course, just creating an awesome portfolio is only the first half of the equation – you also need to thoroughly promote it and share it with the right audiences.
Too many creatives mistakenly toil away on finely-crafted portfolios that then tragically gather dust in a corner of the internet. You need a proactive promotional plan to drive eyeballs and traction!
Try multi-pronged promotion tactics like:
Search and Social Optimization
Just as you’d optimize any piece of digital content for search engines and algorithms, be sure to employ similar tactics with your portfolio:
- Ensure proper on-page SEO best practices like titles and metadata
- Include relevant keywords and phrases throughout project copy
- Add schema markup for rich search result previews
- Build an XML sitemap file submitted to search engines
- Get social sharing integrations and Open Graph tags buttoned up
- Develop a strategy for ongoing updates and content marketing
Not only do these tactics help improve search discoverability, but shared/embedded previews will look clean and polished on external sites.
Example: Chelsea is a graphic designer who has optimized her site for “ace graphic designer austin texas” and similar location-based keywords. Her Twitter posts automatically share rich preview cards for new portfolio additions.
Portfolio Community Involvement
Another angle is to get active and contribute within online portfolio communities, directories and resources in your field. Getting featured and sharing your work can significantly boost your exposure.
For example:
- Behance, Dribbble, Portfoliobox
- Adobe Portfolio, Crevado
- design_critique, AIGA, TypeEd
- Local community portfolio exhibitions
- Field-specific portfolio review sites
- Guest articles on creative blogs or podcasts
You can network, get feedback, uncover new opportunities, and put your work directly in front of relevant audiences.
Example: Illustrator Ian regularly shares works-in-progress and participates in the:
- r/illustration Reddit community
- Society of Illustrators student competitions
- DiscussingDesign illustration forums
- Local college portfolio showcase events
This community engagement has enabled Ian to rapidly grow his online following and solicit valuable critiques to level up.
Traditional Promotional Channels
Finally, remember to also leverage more analog outreach and traditional promotional channels like:
- Physical letters, postcards or mailer campaigns
- Email outreach to prospective employers or clients
- Submitting to professional award competitions
- Networking events, expos and conferences
- Building a press/influencer media list for pitches
Blending digital and IRL promotion is an added touch of class that can make an impact.
Plus, printed portfolio pieces make great leave-behind collateral after interviews or pitches that allows your work to be appreciated later.
Example: Savvy Graphic Designer Saki orders low-cost printed portfolio compilations showcasing her latest client work. She includes one per creative agency pitch packet she delivers.
A QR code inside provides access to her full online portfolio as well. By promoting broadly offline and online, she’s able to maximize her team’s visibility.
The best creative professionals proactively hunt for opportunities and take initiative to get their work seen rather than sitting idle. Developing a thorough multi-channel promotion and distribution strategy is key.
10. Gather Feedback and Iterate Often
Finally, the tenth trick for impressing with your portfolio is to continually seek out feedback to help iterate and evolve your materials over time.
A common portfolio pitfall is creating something once as an initial deliverable (for a school project, etc.) and then never updating or refreshing it again as your skillsets grow.
To avoid this stagnation, be proactive about gathering critique and soliciting feedback from:
- Mentors, teachers and supervisors
- More experienced creative professionals
- Clients and target employers
- Peers and classmates
- Online portfolio community reviews
Look for specific constructive criticism around areas like:
- Quality and relevance of project selections
- Clarity of case study narratives and context
- Visual design, interface and interaction polish
- Mobile responsiveness and performance
- Accuracy of written project details and copy
- Depth of materials and wow-factors included
Those with an outside perspective can often identify shortcomings, content gaps, or areas for improvement you may have overlooked.
Example: after receiving a peer critique identifying their UX case studies as too text-heavy, aspiring Product Designer Tanya incorporates:
- Embedded video walkthroughs of key apps
- Animated prototypes and user flow diagrams
- Product renderings showing multiple device screens
- Simple iconography and descriptive motion graphics
These enhancements based on feedback helped transform her written case studies into richer, easier-to-digest multimedia narratives.
Also routinely monitor performance metrics of your online portfolio like:
- Top traffic sources and channels
- Most popular/viewed content
- Error page analytics and drop-offs
- Engagement metrics like time on site
- Conversion rates to inquiries/contact form fills
These quantitative measures can highlight where users are getting stuck or dropping off so you can resolve issues and optimize moving forward.
Put simply: Your creative portfolio should never be considered a finished, comprehensive artifact. Make it an evergreen, living document that you update and enhance on an ongoing basis as you grow.
Embracing a mentality of enthusiastic self-critique, combined with incorporating feedback from all corners, allows you to continuously level up the quality and impressiveness of your portfolio over time.