With over 15+ years of experience as a designer and hiring creatives, Martin has found that poor presentation is the number one reason your portfolio doesn’t stand out
For best practice
- Avoid boring screenshots, use mockups, flat-lays and lifestyle shots.
- Instead include close-ups of interesting details. Show the outcome in a few different ways so viewers can get an idea of how it will look in different contexts. You can download mockup PSDs to display brands, editorial work, posters, business cards etc. Or you can also use Adobe Firefly to generate mockups based on specific prompts that match your designs theme and style
- Start and finish with your best projects – Recruiters don’t have time to go through portfolios, they quickly skim through them, so starting with your strongest pieces will most likely get you noticed
- Pay extra attention to the copy – absolutely no typos allowed, no one wants to work with someone who constantly needs their spelling corrected
- Make sure everything is set to a good resolution so it does not appear pixelated on the web. You can use Nightshade or Glaze to make sure your designs are safe from scraping by AI bots. You can learn more on these AI here
- Showcase your process, not just the final result. Don’t be afraid to show initial sketches or the first few rounds of the design process.Include Information about the brief, even if you made it up yourself. Viewers/recruiters need to get an idea of the challenges you faced