Your portfolio is your most important job tool as a designer. Almost every design advert asks for one, and clients decide whether to trust you by looking at it. A small, well chosen portfolio beats a big messy one every time.
Choose carefully
- Pick eight to twelve pieces. Fewer strong pieces are better than many average ones. One weak piece makes reviewers doubt the rest.
- Show range that matches the jobs you want. For example, a logo with its brand guide, social media templates, a flyer and banner set, a print piece and a photo edit. If you want print shop work, show print. If you want agency work, show campaigns and social content.
- Put your best piece first and a strong piece last. Many reviewers only look at the first few.
Show your thinking
Employers want to know how you work, not just what the final image looks like. For your strongest two or three projects, add a short case study:
- The brief: who the client was and what they needed, in one or two lines.
- Your process: sketches, early ideas or the brand questions you asked.
- The result: the final design shown in use, such as the banner on a building or the post on a phone screen.
- The outcome, honestly: what the client said or what happened, without invented numbers.