Q&A: Answering Your Portfolio Questions
From “what if I don’t have prior work experience?” to “what platform should I use?” — let’s talk about frequently asked portfolio questions.
Earlier this month, I posted a video on Instagram talking about my top 3 tips for creating a strong portfolio. It prompted some good questions, which I’ll be answering in this article!
Getting started
What should I include in my portfolio?
Your portfolio acts as a catalog of your best work. It should be tailored toward the opportunities you’re looking for, whether a full-time job, freelance work, or other pursuits.
While best practices depend on your industry and field, generally speaking, you should include at least 3-4 examples of your work. These could be images (if you’re on the visual side, like an illustrator or photographer) or case studies (if you’re on the project side, like a designer or manager).
This work should also reflect your current interests and style. You should feel good about showing it to potential clients or hiring managers. It should be work that you’d enjoy getting paid to do more of. If it doesn’t do that for you, don’t include it! And if you’re lacking work like that, then you should consider…
How can I build a portfolio when I’m new to the field and don’t have prior clients?
If you’re just starting out, your best bet is to pursue some self-initiated projects and put those up on your portfolio. In doing this, you’ll still showcase your skills and interests to potential collaborators, even though it isn’t “paid work.”
A great self-initiated project is a weekly challenge. After a few weeks of producing work, you’ll have material to put on your portfolio.
From there, it becomes a matter of marketing your personal work to attract client work while still maintaining a rhythm of personal work. But I won’t get into that here; let me know in the comments if you’d like to hear more about how to attract client work!
If I have one-time projects while freelancing, how should I include that?
On your portfolio, this can be included as a standalone project. Tell a coherent story about it: include visuals, process shots, and write a clear story about how the project unfolded and what the results were.
On your resume, you can list this under the general role of “Freelancer” and the time period you’re freelancing within (for example, from January 2018 to Present). Under that work experience, describe the types of projects you worked on, including those one-time projects.
Do I need a website? What about PDF portfolios? Can I use a Figma prototype instead?
The strengths of a portfolio website are that 1) anyone can access it from anywhere, and 2) it shows an up-to-date catalog of your best work. So whether you achieve that through a personal website, a portfolio site like Behance, or a public Notion page, it’s up to you. But it needs to be discoverable!
Because of that, other approaches like PDF portfolios or Figma prototypes can pose challenges. They can work well if you have a website that people can search and find. But if you’re relying on people emailing you so you can send them an attachment of your portfolio or a link to your prototype, that makes it less discoverable. As a result, fewer people may stumble upon it and your opportunities may be more limited.
Organizing projects
How can I showcase multiple mediums, like photography and animation?
I’ve tinkered with different ways of doing this over the years, and the easiest method I’ve found is having separate pages in your website’s navigation.
Your home page should be whatever medium is your priority (like animation). Then, when people land on your website, they’ll immediately see your most pertinent work. If they want to browse your other work, they can navigate to other pages (like photography).
There are other ways to achieve a similar result. Your home page could contain all types of your work, and you could then provide filters by “animation” or “photography.” But a lot of that functionality depends on what website-building platform you’re using, and it could require more effort to maintain. This leads us to the final question…
Portfolio tools, software, and platforms
What’s the best platform to build a portfolio on? What website-building tools do you use?
If we think of portfolios as an asset you’ll have to maintain over the course of your career — for years, if not decades — then it’s a good idea to choose a platform that’s easy to use and manage.
Finding the right platform for you requires some trial and error. After trying out several platforms, I’ve found Squarespace to work the best for my needs, despite the functionality being limited at times. If you’re just getting started with your portfolio, I’d recommend it!
But if you’re interested in more customizability, there are tons of options out there: Webflow, Framer, or even the fully custom route. Experimenting with different platforms and tools will help you figure out which features you prefer.
What has your experience of building a portfolio been like? What other questions do you have? Leave a comment down below!
I hope you found this newsletter helpful! If you’re interested in reading more, subscribe here for free and share it with a friend. You can also find me online at wontonface.com.