Building Your Portfolio Website: Six Things to Always Do

photo: vanessa kennedy

So by now perhaps you've read through last week's advice column on how to keep from making the most common mistakes when creating your online portfolio (and perhaps you've written in to say how horrified you are that coroflot would suggest using a template, rather than building the whole thing from scratch -- that's fair, there are some good arguments on both sides). Assuming you've decided to make the leap and start publishing your work, whether through a template, a custom-designed site, a hacked blog, or something else of your own (hopefully low-Flash) design, there are a few additional suggestions that have cropped up since then from an array of sources.

Besides last week's expert adviser (Miles Begin of Pollen Design), I was lucky enough to attend a talk at Portland-area stationery store and designer's mecca Office on the subject of...portfolios. Representatives from a number of local creative employers were there, including Nike, Nemo, and UNKL, and although the discussion was more broadly focused on both physical and digital portfolios, some excellent tips came out; some confirming last week's caveats, and others building on them.

1. Make sure you are in there somewhere.

One point that all of last week's presenters agreed upon, and Begin reinforced, is that the world is full of good portfolios, physical and otherwise. The ideal candidate, from the point of view of many creative employers, is someone who combines talent and obvious passion, and communicates both simultaneously. So in addition to showing projects from school, freelance gigs, and assorted other "official" projects, it can be surprisingly effective to post work that you got excited about.

This can include client work, of course, but it doesn't strictly have to. "I want to see your best work, regardless of where it came from," explained the first presenter, a graphic design lead from Nike. This brought up a string of recollections: applicants showing short films they'd made about past projects; applicants taking a dead concept from a client job, resurrecting it, and completely fleshing it out simply because they loved it. This kind of vanity project can seem too indulgent to go in a serious portfolio, but if it's well executed it can become the star of your collection. A portfolio that contains nothing but sober, perfect client work can get in line with hundreds of others just like it.

2. Get your own domain.

It's true that there are plenty of places to get your site hosted for free, and they'll give you a domain name too. But the fact is, if you're trying to look professional, yourname.blogspot.com feels kind of like a business card printed at home on bond paper: fine for students and newbies, but lame otherwise. Getting your own domain is so cheap and so easy these days (ten bucks and 15 minutes, typically) that there's really no excuse not to. Not sure where to start? Here's a list of registrars.

3. Be broad. And deep.

There's a great term that a lot of design shops are using these days to describe their ideal new hire: "T-shaped" (I think IDEO's Tom Kelley coined it, but tell me if you know otherwise). The T-shaped creative professional is someone who has a breadth of ability and experience, with deep competency in a few select areas. This implies professionalism, but also an ability to entertain dissimilar points of view and work smoothly with multi-talented teams.

T-shaped is an excellent way to think of a well-designed portfolio too. You'll hear a lot of experienced designers say that you don't want to show every single thing you've got on a website or in a mailer; you want to save that for an in-person interview, where you can present your work to its best effect. But when browsers examine an online portfolio, they expect more than just one or two minutes worth of material, especially if they like what they see. Says Pollen's Begin, "If you're doing a website, you've got to show a lot of work...not a lot of projects necessarily, but a lot of process. That's how I get an idea of what kind of designer you are."

The T-shaped portfolio solves both these problems: by giving an overview of a large number of projects, then depicting a few of your best in greater detail, you demonstrate both flexibility and expertise without overwhelming the viewer. This means showing research, process sketches, alternate proposals, maybe even some interim screenshots. As long as there's not too much of it, this can go a long way toward giving an understanding of how you think, rather than just some cute pictures.

4. Make sure at least some of your images are professional quality.

This one's mostly for the ID folks. No, not every single photo you upload needs to have been shot in a studio under $12,000 worth of strobe lighting, but the difference between a crappy snapshot and a carefully lit and post-processed photograph from a decent SLR is tremendous. If you've got the inclination to learn, a little product photography skill can reap some great rewards. Get a reasonable camera and a tripod, build yourself a lightbox, and spend a few days experimenting. If that doesn't appeal, get some pics from marketing if they've had some done, or pay someone better than you to take care of it.

Note that scanned sketches, drawings, and other process work can be rougher, and that's OK. As long as there are a few shining instances of your work looking its best in every project, supporting images can stay sketchy and still contribute to the overall story.

5. Pick--and stick to--a consistent visual style.

OK, you're a designer, so you knew that already, but it's remarkable how many otherwise aesthetically with-it people completely lose their marbles when they start working on the web. So pick yourself a palette, one or two good fonts, and a consistent graphic layout that highlights your work without calling attention to itself. Then use it. Religiously. Remember, a lot of the people viewing your site are creative professionals too, and will notice if you keep breaking your grid, or switch from Arial to Tahoma halfway through.

The designer from Nemo related a story of an intern applicant from last year, who got hired based on two qualifications. First, that her work as a graphic designer was outstanding, and the second, that the visual style that permeated every piece of information she published--blog, portfolio, MySpace page, even her personal style of dress--held together in a consistent and original way. In her case, it was a strong palette of black, white, and red, a slightly spooky goth-tinged aesthetic, and a strong commitment to personal craft, down to clothes and accessories modified to fit her custom image. "It wasn't exactly the sort of style we would use here at Nemo," she explained, "but the fact that she was able to apply this style so universally made us think 'My God, this woman really knows what she's doing.'"

6. Make it easy to get additional information.

What's your Dream Client or New Employer do after they've read through your portfolio and been impressed? She might want to contact you, so make sure your contact information is front and center on every page. She might need something to print out and show to the Luddites upstairs, so have a PDF of your resume/CV and some work samples ready for download. And of course, include links to past employers, clients, media coverage you've received, or anything else she might want to see; not only does it make things easier for the reader, it's likely to bump up your search engine rating too.