Crafting the Perfect Portfolio Website Some tips and tricks

1. Know your audience Who are you targeting? Consider who will be viewing your portfolio Potential clients Potential employers Head-hunters

2. Putting all your work up Potential clients and employers will not go through all your work You need to curate your work carefully You can put in all your work, but it needs to be organized well

3. Putting very few work up The opposite is just as bad Too few works can leave a bad impression Don’t be afraid to show “student work” or “personal projects” if you don’t have many commercial work to show

4. No explanation Don’t think that your work is self-explanatory Remember who your target audience are. What would they want to know? Eg. What was the brief? When was this work done? How was it done? Was it an individual project or team collaboration? What was the big idea/concept? Adding notes, WIP sketches, showing the design process, makes the work so much more interesting. https://www.behance.net/tomanders

5. Incomplete personal information You need a clear explanation of who you are in your “About me” page Showcase your personality Where are you located? What are you currently doing? Working fulltime? Freelancing? What’s your design aesthetic/ art direction? HOW TO CONTACT YOU <- don’t just give personal social media pages please…

6. Mobile friendly Always make sure your portfolio looks just as good on a small screen. Are your images too small/tiny on a small screen? Are they too big/bulky to load on wifi/mobile data?

7. Out dated and without a purpose You need to constantly update your portfolio to keep it fresh Sign up for Google Analytics to track your visitors Know the purpose of your portfolio website: Looking for freelance projects? Looking for permanent employment? Building a reputation? Make sure it is stated clearly on your website Last but not least, look at other professional’s portfolio websites for inspiration