Putting together a kick-ass graphic design portfolio isn’t just something you need to worry about when you’re a student. You need to think about maintaining, improving and evolving your portfolio throughout your graphic design career.
If you’re looking to get your portfolio to the next level, then below you’ll find a selection of 35 graphic design portfolio websites to inspire you, curated by teachers and graduates from our graphic design course. W e also offer our very best graphic design portfolio tips to help you raise your portfolio and make it your best tool for career success.
A graphic design portfolio is a collection of a designer’s work. Traditionally these would have been a folder or bound volume, but nowadays a large majority of graphic designers have a document (most likely a pdf) that showcases the best of their design work from across their career—more on what a designer might put in their portfolio below. Graphic designers then use these portfolios as a ticket to the industry—they’ll be shown to any employers or potential clients before they decide if they want to work with you.
So, a winning portfolio is vital when you’re going for a new job. But that’s not all. You might be called in at a moment’s notice to chat with your art director to discuss a promotion opportunity or a hot new project you didn’t even know about. And you don’t want to be caught short by a graphic design portfolio that’s not all it could be.
As we said before, a graphic design portfolio is a collection of a designer’s work—so it should showcase exactly what you can do. It doesn’t have to contain every single project you’ve worked on since you first learnt InDesign, instead it should reflect who you are as a designer no matter where you are in your career—so pick and choose your top projects that display your full range of skills.
The work in your portfolio shouldn’t just be the finished, polished product either, you should use your portfolio to show process too. It’s a great idea to show how you got to that polished product, from your initial concept and ideas onwards. Again, your portfolio is all about showing you as a graphic designer and what you are able to do.
