Your work speaks for you, which is one of the advantages of networking for graphic designers. It’s not necessary to court potential customers with a flowery cover letter or clever repartee. Simply present your target audience with examples of your greatest work, abilities, and design expertise through a portfolio of graphic design work, as it has been done for generations. The good news is that making one is now simpler than ever.

Graphic designers used to have to submit their single, massive graphic design portfolio by hand to prospective clients for review (and then retrieve it). Today, all you need to do is construct a website for your digital graphic design portfolio and send interested parties a link to it. You may boost the likelihood that new clients will find you through a straightforward Google search by updating it frequently and using SEO keywords.

Then how can you put together a professional digital design portfolio that catches the attention of art directors, creative directors, a creative agency, a digital agency, and important decision-makers? Easy! For inspiration, look through the following 15 portfolios of graphic design work.

To assemble the components of your portfolio, refer to our checklist. Then, create the ideal digital portfolio with free portfolio website themes. Treat this task with the respect it deserves because it is a stepping stone to your next important position. Companies will understand exactly why they should engage you from your expertly prepared professional graphic design portfolio.

Elements of a Good Graphic Design Portfolio

If you want to take your portfolio from good to exceptional, the next three components can make all the difference.

  1. Simple Layout

The simplistic design is essential for your portfolio website, especially if you have a lot of projects to highlight. To avoid confusion, make sure your portfolio is simple to scan and that different projects are separated from one another. Your pal here is space. The best option for your graphic design portfolio is a straightforward image grid, but if you want to highlight your web design skills, feel free to get a little more inventive with the arrangement.

  1. Descriptive Case Studies

Case studies are crucial, so remember that if you only remember one thing from this article. Each project in your portfolio should have its page. The following items should be covered in the description you provide for each project.

  • The target audience for the project
  • Your contribution and whether you worked with anyone else
  • Project objectives and goals
  • A summary of your method (you may choose to add sketches and early revisions to further clarify your thought process)
  • Project outcomes and client feedback

The images you produced for the project should be the primary emphasis of your case studies. Through the use of sizable visuals, images, and mockups, showcase as much detail as you can in your graphic design portfolio. Case studies for their portfolios are rarely written by independent graphic designers. In addition to establishing you as a professional, doing so will provide you with an advantage over the opposition.

  1. Excellent Mockups and Images
    Image quality is crucial for any graphic design portfolio, as should go without saying. Mockup a variety of scenarios and applications to showcase your work. Add illustrations and other elements to add fun to your design portfolio.

You can make your own or you can save time by downloading ready-made mockup templates, free illustrations and other design elements on a wide range of stock websites and platforms. 

How to Build a Graphic Design Portfolio

You need to decide what you want to include before you put your labor of love into a stylish gift that displays your artistic talent. To make the greatest graphic design portfolio, follow these steps:

Curate Your Best Work
You only have a few seconds to capture the audience’s attention and make them want you and you alone. Don’t blow this opportunity. Highlight all the eye-popping visuals because it’s more like a business card paired with a movie teaser. Edit your designs ruthlessly and, if you feel they are worthy, choose 15 to 20 of the greatest examples of what you do, including your most recognizable designs.

Check out your hand picked work once more. Do all of your chosen projects showcase the style or the personal branding you want to be recognized for? Are there any exceptions? Then throw them out. Imagine that you are defining your brand identity and letting creative people know who you are. You can even create your own logo to help people get to know you better. 

Include a Case Study
Clients are interested in how you approach the design difficulties they present you with as well as the details of your design methodology. Offer them what they desire! Briefly describe the project assignment, then demonstrate how you progressed from the start (the assignment) to the finish using a previous project that you’re especially proud of (the final deliverable). Include some of the draughts, screenshots, or other revisions of the work in progress that preceded the finished product. Use your design abilities to thoughtfully arrange them.

Pick the Appropriate Platform
A website for a graphic design portfolio is the most obvious option for an online design portfolio. The optimal layout for you will depend on how much information you want to include and how you want it organized.

Display Your Individuality
It’s time to put the finishing touches on it by ensuring that your individuality shines through. Your personality is demonstrated in many ways than only your designs. Your use of language to describe yourself and your work, the typefaces and colors you decide on, your profile picture or other prominent photos, and other small details all give away who you are. Make sure your graphic design portfolio contains a healthy dose of you because you’re marketing both yourself and your work.

Spread the Word
It’s time to launch your graphic design portfolio after it has been finished. Social media is an excellent platform for showcasing your visual skills, and keywords can help with SEO so that you show up in design-related search results. Platforms like Instagram, LinkedIn, and Pinterest may easily serve as miniature portfolios that showcase your distinctive designs to clients you aren’t even aware are out there. Create a PDF portfolio to finish. It’s crucial that potential customers can access your work offline.
Keep one on your desktop or hard drive, offer it for download from your website, or do both. After completing everything above, you will have a professional portfolio. Congratulations! You just made a significant investment in your future. Don’t forget to update your graphic design portfolio as you continue to work new jobs and have fresh work to share. When the portfolio template is perfect, updating it is simple.

15 Awesome Graphic Design Portfolio Examples for Your Inspiration

Kati Forner

Full-service creative agency Kati Forner has a graphic design portfolio of slick, contemporary, and fun graphic designs. The webpage has large graphics, bold writing, and subtle animations. For context and insight into the design process, each project page has a thorough case study with full-width mockups and just the proper amount of text.

Ramon Gilabert

Product designer Ramon Gilabert has a graphic design portfolio that is simple and elegant. The portfolio is limited to four projects and is straightforward and well-curated. However, each project page has a detailed case study that goes over the project’s objectives, issues, strategy, and outcomes. This website is an excellent illustration of how to focus on the specifics that are most important while showing your work.

Leta Sobierajski

Leta Sobierajski uses a variety of artistic methods and technologies to produce distinctive pictures. Her portfolio is striking, vibrant, and captivating, and each piece on the page reflects her sense of style.

Adam Ho

The portfolio website of graphic designer Adam Ho defies conventions of layout and typography in a captivating way that piques your interest. You can learn more about a variety of his past endeavors with notable clients by scrolling down. He has created a thorough case study that details his method and justification for each assignment.

Fedor Shkliarau

Freelance product designer Fedor Shkliarau has a clear, uncomplicated, and user-friendly portfolio website. His website makes extensive use of white space, which highlights the significant headlines and graphics. The case studies on Fedor’s website are user-friendly and interactive. Overall, this website fulfills every requirement for a successful portfolio.

Taylor Dunham Design

Designer Taylor Dunham places a strong emphasis on the use of design as a tool to address issues. When you first visit her website, a fantastic method to convey the value of her expertise is to position her as a problem solver as opposed to a pixel pusher. Taylor’s case studies are comprehensive, illustrative, and feature client endorsements as social evidence.

David Shrigley

Worldwide status has been conferred upon David Shrigley by his hilarious and frequently sinister pictures. His portfolio website’s white background and handwritten headers and titles perfectly incorporate his trademark artwork into it. His portfolio is simple to use and gives his work the focus it deserves.

Milton Glaser

With a simple, breezy style, Milton Glaser’s internet portfolio elegantly displays his enormous amount of work. Milton Glaser and his multi-disciplinary design team are still producing top-notch work today, and are best known for their poster designs and the enduring I heart NY logo. His elegant portfolio website is unquestionably befitting of a legend and business titan, offering his frequently cited quotes ample screen real estate.

Aaron Lowell Denton

Up-and-comer from Indiana Aaron Lowell Denton began designing Glaser-inspired tour posters for his band only a few years ago. Larger and larger bands began to turn to him for collectible, generally, screen-printed posters. His designer portfolio is modestly laid out in a grid arrangement, with his graphic design portfolio of poster designs divided into threes, allowing his impressively rich posters the room they deserve.

Leif Podhajsky

Leif Podhajsky is another indie music fan, best known for his trippy album artwork for Tame Impala, The Horrors, and Foals. His over-saturated, bright work samples definitely stand out against the portfolio’s black background.

Caterina Bianchini

Located in London Caterina Bianchini is building a name for herself in the graphic design world. Caterina rose to prominence for her nightclub posters, but she now has an enviable client list that includes Reebok, Levi’s, and Yoko Ono.

Caterina’s graphic design portfolio displays her work in a centred alignment, reflecting the endless scroll of social media that her millennial fans are accustomed to. Links to her ‘About’ and ‘Contact’ pages are arranged vertically, a concept she frequently employs in her poster designs.

Jessica Hische

Designer of typefaces, lettering, and illustrations Jessica Hische is known for her “Should I Work for Free?” infographic and stunning typeface design for the film the Moonrise Kingdom. Her website emphasizes her excellent client work as well as a wealth of fantastic information for aspiring graphic designers.

Jessica Hische’s graphic design portfolio webpage has multiple type hierarchies because she is a lettering artist. The ribbon marker emblem and the drop cap in one of the first paragraphs are also subtle nods to her personal love of literature and book design.

Alan Fletcher

Alan Fletcher, a co-founder of Pentagram, was dubbed “the most highly acclaimed graphic designer of his generation” by the Daily Telegraph in his obituary in 2006. His portfolio website emphasizes his workspace, with a few of his designs tastefully placed into the background. This method conveys a sense of serenity and quiet while highlighting the pleasure he derives from his day-to-day work ahead of the eventual outcome.

Ping Zhu

The gorgeous emotive watercolors of New Yorker Ping Zhu can frequently be found in The New York Times. Her designer website is meticulously planned out in a widescreen grid format, with each artwork sitting boldly on the page as though you were flipping through her notebook.

Vashti Harrison

New York Times bestselling author-illustrator Vashti Harrison mixes her images and type design to demonstrate her approach, giving you an immediate sense of what she’s about. She is well-known for her children’s book Little Leaders: Bold Women in Black History, and she effectively incorporates some of her characters into her graphic design portfolio’s homepage and headers.

Conclusion

Building a graphic design portfolio website is the first step toward establishing a strong online presence. Highlight your greatest design efforts and incorporate elements that will make your site easy to use and navigate while developing your website. So, what are you waiting for? Build your site!

Also Read: Top 10 Amazing Design Tips for Social Media Graphic Design