How to Showcase Your Experience

Perhaps your career has given you the opportunity to work on a variety of projects. In this case, it makes sense to steer your portfolio toward the types of work you are hoping to attract. Lead with your typography and logo design projects, for example, if you are looking to land corporate and branding jobs, while omitting or de-emphasizing earlier projects where you worked on user experience (UX) or web design.

If you’ve recently graduated school or you’re early in your career and light on graphic design experience, then you may not have many options from which to choose. Your graphic design portfolio will simply feature the best work you’ve done. Regardless of your experience, your portfolio will need to provide context around the works you feature that show the roles you’ve had, the graphic design clients for whom you’ve worked, and the results you have achieved for them.

The work you put out is the work you get

In addition to leading with your best pieces, your portfolio should highlight the type of projects you are looking to do more of in the future. 

You are more likely to get an interview for a job or contract if you provide ample evidence that you have the right mix of skills and experience required for it. The work you choose to feature on your landing page will likely lead to similar projects. If you have had a variety of experiences but want to focus your career toward a particular area of expertise, then you may want to focus on a niche area to show the depth of your experience.

There are options for how to establish your niche. You can specialize around a specific area of design, a particular industry, or a certain style. And not all niches are the same size. Establishing a narrow niche could mean that you will find a match with fewer clients, but that may also mean you have less competition when applying for jobs. The opposite also holds true that a broader niche could lead to opportunities with more clients, but greater competition from other designers angling for the same job.

For designers short on experience, it’s to your advantage to display a wide array of projects to prove you have a diverse range of skills. Plus, at this stage of your career, you are likely open to any type of graphic design work to begin to build or expand upon your experience. 

Find a portfolio template that best matches your style and provides a consistent design that highlights each work you include. For most, a clean design that communicates the clear purpose of showcasing your best work is most effective.

Each designer has a distinctive style with a unique set of past clients. Take a look at the clients that you’ve worked with and those that have approached you recently. Are they from similar fields? If so, you may want to gear your portfolio toward that field and those types of companies to attract similar work.

Add context to the works you include in your portfolio

The landing page of your portfolio website should emphasize your work by featuring large images and little text. After grabbing the attention of prospective clients with your dazzling designs and creative projects, you need to add context to each of the pieces you choose to highlight. Turn each piece into a case study that explains the client or agency you worked with, the objective of the project, your role, and the result it achieved. You can also include any awards you won along the way.

Each hero image on your landing page can lead to a dedicated project page where you have the space to provide these details. In addition to outlining the parameters of a project, you could call out specific details of a piece. You can also include sketches to show how the design process unfolded from early concept to the final product. Taking potential clients inside the design process and what your design accomplished gives you an opportunity to prove your value as a collaborator.

Learn best practices for a graphic design portfolio