I found designing my own portfolio to be hard. That’s because I’m doing it alone. I don’t have anyone else to collaborate with. It’s not like I have a teammate working towards the same goal. It’s also hard because I’m the stakeholder. I make the final call. It’s easy to get off track and get stuck in the rabbit hole.
The most important advice I can share with you is to treat your portfolio like you’d be the client. Set goals and expectations, and keep yourself accountable. With that in mind, I’ve gathered 16 portfolios to inspire you. I find it helpful to keep the creative juices flowing when I’m exposed to beautiful designs created by others. Let’s start with some self-promotion by checking out my own portfolio.
01. Paula Borowska
The reason I want to include my own portfolio is the way I structured my case studies, aka portfolio pieces. I wanted to experiment and see how I could make an impression on people who view my portfolio.
So, I remove all visuals until the end. I structured my case studies around progress. I talked about the problem, end goal, and brainstorming, followed by user research, mockups, and any iterations I made. Eventually, I showed the final visual design as well. I must say, I’ve received positive feedback from clients about it :).
02. Steven Mengin
I like Steven’s portfolio for all the different animations and transitions. It definitely makes the website much more interesting and captivating.
The portfolio doesn’t come off as showy, though. The animations are small and subtle. They aren’t distracting at all. I think the hover effects are my favorite. The topography is nice, too. I’m a big fan of the big type for the titles of his projects, for instance Duracell. The font is called Gza.
03. Ghostly Ferns
The quality of design of Ghostly Fern’s website is unreal. It’s just so good! The homepage is filled with beautiful photos of freelancers and their workspace.
The design is light, which I enjoy. The white background with the charcoal gray font is a nice touch. But, I also like the pink color thrown around occasionally. It makes the design feel much warmer and friendlier.
04. Susan Lin
Susan’s homepage is fantastic! Susan is a great visual artist. She is also an illustrator who makes beautiful watercolor trees—it’s just her thing. Her Gameboy-like pixel art homepage is a unique touch. Only a few portfolios do something like this.
There are a navigation and a scrollable graphic on the page. The first time I saw it, I was pleasantly surprised. Now, every time I think about portfolios, I think about her homepage. It was a great move to design it this way. It makes it so much more memorable.
05. Oykun Yilmaz
I’ve included Oykun’s portfolio into this list because of the visuals. His portfolio isn’t a cookie cutter, as it features many overlapping elements. There are many out-of-grid elements, too.
I enjoy the iPhones that are showing off his mobile UI design; it looks like they have been just thrown on a table. It makes the presentation of his work much more interesting. Overall, I think Oykun has an amazing eye for design and presenting his own work.
06. Jan Losert
A piece of Jan’s work became viral a few years ago. He redesigned Facebook as a concept and it became an utter sensation. It was a good design. His current portfolio is well designed, too.
The typography is big, which is something I really like. It makes it easy to scan the copy. It can’t use too much jargon because there isn’t much place for it either. I like his light use of color, too. The design is pleasant. I like that it’s heavily focused on big typography.
07. Samuel Medvedowsky
My favorite part of this portfolio is the pastel-colored blocks on the homepage. I like that they are not arranged in a perfect grid. I don’t know if I would call this masonry, though.
There are only three portfolio pieces and one is coming soon. Yet, this portfolio looks high quality. The limited portfolio pieces are strong. This goes to show you don’t need a lot to wow someone.
08. Samuel Burrows
There is a lot to like about Samuel’s portfolio. First, I noticed the use of color. The almost navy blue type and the background is a great color.
The use of white and light blue throughout the page has was a good design decision as well. But, the best part of this portfolio is the story it tells as you scroll. It’s not a standard portfolio by any means. This is a portfolio of a great storyteller.
09. Ales Nesetril
Ales is a product designer from Prague. I like Ales’ portfolio. Besides the big font, I like the use of a monotype font. It makes this portfolio a little different.
I think Ales’ portfolio deserves a mention for its cleanliness. It doesn’t have any bells and whistles and that’s okay. Not everyone’s portfolio needs to put on a show. A portfolio should show off one’s work. Ales’ portfolio does this exceptionally well.
10. Joe Mortell
I think I have a thing for non-black fonts. I often use charcoal for text but I’m starting to get into using dark blues like in Joe’s portfolio.
The navy blue text looks so good with the light blue background and the mid-blue shade for the subheading. It looks really great alongside with the accent red. Both of these colors and their shades look good with the small accents of white, too. Who says gray or black has to be part of a design?
11. Sean Halpin
I love the graphics’ of Sean’s portfolio. The hero image on the homepage is so sweet. Obviously, Sean knows a thing or two about emotional manipulation within a design. Don’t you just love how adorable the design is? It’s a mixture of high-quality illustrations with a beautiful shade of green. The light use of pastel colors takes it over the top!
12. Jake Blakeley
The reason I included Jake’s portfolio here are the animations. Specifically, I’m interested in the transitions between the pages. Most page transitions use the typical reload effect. Jake took this to a whole another level.
The portfolio piece image moves around and becomes the header image. The illustrations within the header move around, too. The text kind of jumps into the page. None of this is jarring. Everything is smooth, pleasant, and impressive.
13. Waaark
This is another portfolio for a web design studio. But it’s a studio of two, not a big agency. I think we can throw this in here, too. Especially because the design is of amazing quality. What I love the most about this portfolio is the meticulous attention to detail.
The hover animation of the logo, the dripping pain of the letter “J” on the About page, and the transition effect when the website loads. These small details make this website that much more beautiful.
14. Anton and Irene
Anton and Irene are a couple of two creatives. Their portfolio is unique. It definitely grabs your attention. The portfolio is heavily focused on scrolling through the homage.
The creative expression in this design is oozing from every pixel. This ranges from the photos in the header to the way the figures move out of the way for the upcoming section. It continues throughout the whole website. I’ve never had so much fun scrolling.
15. Aaron Porter
Aaron is a creative filmmaker. It’s no surprise that his website is well designed, too. I like that the design features bright red lettering. Red seems like something most web designs avoid. Especially red which is that bright. Yet, it works here.
I also like the incorporation of video to show off Aaron himself between the homepage and About page. He walks up to you from the stool when you click “About me” and goes back to his stool when you return to the homepage.
16. Admir Hadzic
I’ve included Admir’s portfolio because of its messiness. Personally, I believe in cleanliness. But, business or messy design can be a good design, too. Too often, we associate busy with bad design when people threw everything at the user, all at once, hoping something will stick.
Amir’s portfolio doesn’t have this problem. The goal is very simple, it’s to show off his work using various design elements. However, showing everything makes the site much more chaotic than we are used to. At least for me. That’s why I enjoy this design.
Conclusion
Portfolios come in so many varieties. I know it can be hard to design one for yourself. Like I mentioned at the beginning, my best advice is to treat it as you would do a regular design project.
Ask questions of yourself. What goal is this portfolio solving? For instance, I wanted my potential freelance clients to know I could help alleviate their business problems through design. I cannot tell you what that is. It varies from person to person. But, I can share with you some beautiful portfolios. Hopefully, I can inspire you to make something beautiful and amazing, too.
Related Posts
Reader Interactions
Droppin' design bombs every week! 5,751 subscriber so far!
That again was no use: he but got another smile and a friendly look of the sort he no longer wanted. I said I thought I could gallop if Harry could, and in a few minutes we were up with the ambulance. It had stopped. There were several men about it, including Sergeant Jim and Kendall, which two had come from Quinn, and having just been in the ambulance, at Ferry's side, were now remounting, both of them openly in tears. "Hello, Kendall." We have this great advantage in dealing with Plato—that his philosophical writings have come down to us entire, while the thinkers who preceded him are known only through fragments and second-hand reports. Nor is the difference merely accidental. Plato was the creator of speculative literature, properly so called: he was the first and also the greatest artist that ever clothed abstract thought in language of appropriate majesty and splendour; and it is probably to their beauty of form that we owe the preservation of his writings. Rather unfortunately, however, along with the genuine works of the master, a certain number of pieces have been handed down to us under his name, of which some are almost universally admitted to be spurious, while the authenticity of others is a question on which the best scholars are still divided. In the absence of any very cogent external evidence, an immense amount of industry and learning has been expended on this subject, and the arguments employed on both sides sometimes make us doubt whether the reasoning powers of philologists are better developed than, according to Plato, were those of mathematicians in his time. The176 two extreme positions are occupied by Grote, who accepts the whole Alexandrian canon, and Krohn, who admits nothing but the Republic;115 while much more serious critics, such as Schaarschmidt, reject along with a mass of worthless compositions several Dialogues almost equal in interest and importance to those whose authenticity has never been doubted. The great historian of Greece seems to have been rather undiscriminating both in his scepticism and in his belief; and the exclusive importance which he attributed to contemporary testimony, or to what passed for such with him, may have unduly biassed his judgment in both directions. As it happens, the authority of the canon is much weaker than Grote imagined; but even granting his extreme contention, our view of Plato’s philosophy would not be seriously affected by it, for the pieces which are rejected by all other critics have no speculative importance whatever. The case would be far different were we to agree with those who impugn the genuineness of the Parmenides, the Sophist, the Statesman, the Philêbus, and the Laws; for these compositions mark a new departure in Platonism amounting to a complete transformation of its fundamental principles, which indeed is one of the reasons why their authenticity has been denied. Apart, however, from the numerous evidences of Platonic authorship furnished by the Dialogues themselves, as well as by the indirect references to them in Aristotle’s writings, it seems utterly incredible that a thinker scarcely, if at all, inferior to the master himself—as the supposed imitator must assuredly have been—should have consented to let his reasonings pass current under a false name, and that, too, the name of one whose teaching he in some respects controverted; while there is a further difficulty in assuming that his existence could pass unnoticed at a period marked by intense literary and philosophical activity. Readers who177 wish for fuller information on the subject will find in Zeller’s pages a careful and lucid digest of the whole controversy leading to a moderately conservative conclusion. Others will doubtless be content to accept Prof. Jowett’s verdict, that ‘on the whole not a sixteenth part of the writings which pass under the name of Plato, if we exclude the works rejected by the ancients themselves, can be fairly doubted by those who are willing to allow that a considerable change and growth may have taken place in his philosophy.’116 To which we may add that the Platonic dialogues, whether the work of one or more hands, and however widely differing among themselves, together represent a single phase of thought, and are appropriately studied as a connected series. Before entering on our task, one more difficulty remains to be noticed. Plato, although the greatest master of prose composition that ever lived, and for his time a remarkably voluminous author, cherished a strong dislike for books, and even affected to regret that the art of writing had ever been invented. A man, he said, might amuse himself by putting down his ideas on paper, and might even find written178 memoranda useful for private reference, but the only instruction worth speaking of was conveyed by oral communication, which made it possible for objections unforeseen by the teacher to be freely urged and answered.117 Such had been the method of Socrates, and such was doubtless the practice of Plato himself whenever it was possible for him to set forth his philosophy by word of mouth. It has been supposed, for this reason, that the great writer did not take his own books in earnest, and wished them to be regarded as no more than the elegant recreations of a leisure hour, while his deeper and more serious thoughts were reserved for lectures and conversations, of which, beyond a few allusions in Aristotle, every record has perished. That such, however, was not the case, may be easily shown. In the first place it is evident, from the extreme pains taken by Plato to throw his philosophical expositions into conversational form, that he did not despair of providing a literary substitute for spoken dialogue. Secondly, it is a strong confirmation of this theory that Aristotle, a personal friend and pupil of Plato during many years, should so frequently refer to the Dialogues as authoritative evidences of his master’s opinions on the most important topics. And, lastly, if it can be shown that the documents in question do actually embody a comprehensive and connected view of life and of the world, we shall feel satisfied that the oral teaching of Plato, had it been preserved, would not modify in any material degree the impression conveyed by his written compositions. breakfast in the kitchen by candle-light, and then drove the five The bargaining was interminable, something in this manner:— Then follows a long discussion in Hindi with the bystanders, who always escort a foreigner in a mob, ending in the question— There was a bright I. D. blanket spread on the ground a little way back from the fire, and she threw herself down upon it. All that was picturesque in his memories of history flashed back to Cairness, as he took his place beside Landor on the log and looked at her. Boadicea might have sat so in the depths of the Icenean forests, in the light of the torches of the Druids. So the Babylonian queen might have rested in the midst of her victorious armies, or she of Palmyra, after the lion hunt in the deserts of Syria. Her eyes, red lighted beneath the shadowing lashes, met his. Then she glanced away into the blackness of the pine forest, and calling her dog to lie down beside her, stroked its silky red head. The retreat was made, and the men found themselves again in the morning on the bleak, black heath of Drummossie, hungry and worn out, yet in expectation of a battle. There was yet time to do the only wise thing—retreat into the mountains, and depend upon a guerilla warfare, in which they would have the decided advantage. Lord George Murray now earnestly proposed this, but in vain. Sir Thomas Sheridan and other officers from France grew outrageous at that proposal, contending that they could easily beat the English, as they had done at Prestonpans and Falkirk—forgetting that the Highlanders then were full of vigour and spirit. Unfortunately, Charles listened to this foolish reasoning, and the fatal die was cast. "They said they were going for our breakfast," said Harry. "And I hope it's true, for I'm hungrier'n a rip-saw. But I could put off breakfast for awhile, if they'd only bring us our guns. I hope they'll be nice Springfield rifles that'll kill a man at a mile." "Dod durn it," blubbered Pete, "I ain't cryin' bekase Pm skeered. I'm cryin' bekase I'm afeared you'll lose me. I know durned well you'll lose me yit, with all this foolin' around." He came nearly every night. If she was not at the gate he would whistle a few bars of "Rio Bay," and she would steal out as soon as she could do so without rousing suspicion. Boarzell became theirs, their accomplice in some subtle, beautiful way. There was a little hollow on the western slope where they would crouch together and sniff the apricot scent of the gorse, which was ever afterwards to be the remembrancer of their love, and watch the farmhouse lights at Castweasel gleam and gutter beside Ramstile woods. "Yes, De Boteler," continued the lady, "I will write to him, and try to soothe his humour. You think it a humiliation—I would humble myself to the meanest serf that tills your land, could I learn the fate of my child. The abbot may have power to draw from this monk what he would conceal from us; I will at least make the experiment." The lady then, though much against De Boteler's wish, penned an epistle to the abbot, in which concession and apologies were made, and a strong invitation conveyed, that he would honour Sudley castle by his presence. The parchment was then folded, and dispatched to the abbot. "A very pretty method, truly! You know not the miners and forgers of Dean Forest!—why I would stake a noble to a silver-penny, that if you had discovered he was hidden there, and legally demanded him, he would be popped down in a bucket, to the bottom of some mine, where, even the art of Master Calverley could not have dragged him to the light of day until the Forest was clear of the pack:—but, however, to speak to the point," perceiving that the steward's patience was well nigh exhausted—"I saw Stephen Holgrave yesterday, in the Forest." HoME欧美一级 片a高清
ENTER NUMBET 0016ftx71.net.cn maxview.net.cn www.hectfd.com.cn procoqhd.org.cn pinlaser.com.cn mskvt.com.cn www.taipot.com.cn pczz-ku.com.cn www.wfaqyljx.com.cn www.pupemi.com.cn
I think I have a thing for non-black fonts. I often use charcoal for text but I’m starting to get into using dark blues like in Joe’s portfolio.
I love the graphics’ of Sean’s portfolio. The hero image on the homepage is so sweet. Obviously, Sean knows a thing or two about emotional manipulation within a design. Don’t you just love how adorable the design is? It’s a mixture of high-quality illustrations with a beautiful shade of green. The light use of pastel colors takes it over the top!
Leave a Reply