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Inspiration
Since working with many designers over the course of my career, I’ve seen a lot of people struggle with their portfolios.
For new designers excited to break into the industry, they become inundated with the mountain of platforms, tools, plugins, templates, programming languages, and resources at their disposal. For experienced designers, consolidating years of work becomes an extremely daunting task that is put off until the very last minute of job applications.
Personally, maintaining my portfolio has always been a struggle as well. I pour my heart and soul into my work and completely glean over the time it takes to create a case study out of my efforts. The night before an interview, I am frantically writing and designing my case studies, promising that I would never put myself in the same position again… to only repeat the same thing during my next application cycle.
With the rise of online education, I see a lot of portfolio courses presenting itself as a once-and-done solution. But really, for as long as a designer is designing, their portfolio is with them for the rest of their lives. It is a living, breathing artifact that follows us throughout our lives and provides more detail about our work - beyond what a resume is capable of.
In a way, a designer’s portfolio is both good and bad. While it takes a bit of effort to put together, when done properly, it can change a designer’s life.
And similar to other fields such as nutrition, fitness, and mindfulness, the cumulative effort defines greatness. Working on a portfolio little by little, week by week (or finding a duration that works best), is the most optimal way of capturing the essence of a project for everyone to see how brilliant the designer really is.
Portfolio Design Club was created to make the arduous task simple ✔️, fun ?, and inspirational ✨.
Each week, you’ll get fresh picks of inspirational portfolios, tools to help you create, and tips to improve your portfolio, including a quick 5-minute tip that you can do if you’re reeaally strapped on time!
You can reach out to me at [email protected].
Happy portfolio-ing!
-Steven
