Four Tips for Creating a Great Portfolio
A career as a freelance writer, graphic, or web designer can be lots of fun and, with the right projects, highly rewarding. However, it can be difficult for even some of the most talented professionals to get their name out there and get noticed to be considered for high profile jobs. If you are hoping to attract new clients and build a better career, you might want to take the time to develop a great designer portfolio. Being able to design portfolios that are recognizable and informative can go a long way towards helping you get the jobs you want the most. Fortunately, there are several tips to help make sure your writing, web, or graphic design portfolio stands out from the rest.
1. Provide Context
It can be difficult for businesses looking to hire a freelancer to determine if they want to hire someone if they have a portfolio full of work with no context. One of the important jobs for a freelancer is being able to understand what is being asked of them and achieve that objective. So many of the best design portfolio examples might also include a creative brief that makes the work easier to judge.
2. Keep it Clean
If you have a lot of work you are proud of, then it might be tempting to include every great piece in design portfolios. However, doing so can be wasteful, especially if there are outdated pieces in there that really have no relevance to the job hunt today. Regularly updating and maintaining your portfolio so that it only features the most up to date and relevant work is a must to make it useful.
3. Demonstrate All of Your Skills
Most talented individuals are not only good at writing, web development, or graphic design. In fact, some of the best might be good at all three. If you fall into that category, you will want to build a portfolio that shows off all of those skills. Even though you might be only looking for a certain kind of work, employers might like to see that potential hires have lots of skills and are adaptable to different situations.
4. Consider Your Goals
While it is important to show flexibility when working to design portfolios, you should also think about who you are specifically targeting. For instance, if you are looking for work blogging, you might want to tweak your portfolio so that past blogs come to the forefront, rather than showcase graphic design work. In the same way that businesses try to portray themselves in a certain light towards specific consumers, you should do that for the companies you want to work for.