Hey Harry,

This month, I'm doing a series on common struggles in design (as informed by my Design Hacks survey from a couple weeks ago 😎)

In today's episode (#1), I'll address creating a design portfolio. How do you make one that stands out from the crowd and actually gets you a job?

Here's my best advice, as succinctly as possible. Click links for more.

Q: How do you make a portfolio that stands out from the crowd?

Excellent visual design. Emphasis on results.

Avoid visual design mediocrity at all costs:

Overused font, blase headline, boring color, zero-effort logo, bad visual design

For better visual design, make sure you make a splash above-the-fold, avoid
"the rectangle problem", and start from your brand.

3-D effect is immediately enchanting, nicer fonts, more interesting colors

Q: How do I make a portfolio that represents me/my brand?

Your brand is simply the adjectives and phrases you want your viewer to feel about you. Start with those, then tie fonts/colors/imagery/elements into them.

I also recommend finding your own, personal Hard To Do In Figma.

(Whatever is easy in Figma becomes common and boring. So add something – anything – that's Hard To Do in Figma 😎)

Animations, front end effects, 3-D, custom photography/illustration, etc – what makes the most sense for YOU?

Note: there are amazing "clean and simple" portfolios out there too (I list some here), so "making a splash" is a smart idea, but not the only smart idea.

Q: How should I do a project writeup?

Start at the end: beautiful visuals + successful metrics.

(But Erik, what if I don't have successful metrics? 😭 Read this)

Keep the text short and scannable. No walls of text.

Do NOT do a "tour de deliverable". Real talk:

If you can achieve the results, it's understood you know how to do the process. If you CAN'T achieve the results, it doesn't matter if you can do "the process".

Q: What if I don't have any projects to put in my portfolio yet?

No sweat. Here's a guide to creating projects before you've been hired – in short:

Design an app you wish existed
Find a dev first, and design what they want to build
Volunteer for a non-profit
Design something for a friend

Etc.

Anyhow, all of this advice is from my 5-part blog series Creating a Standout Design Portfolio: The Ultimate Guide.

It’s 8,000 words long
There are 100 examples/illustrations (no joke 😅)
I wrote it to be the best free guide to portfolios on the web 💪

It's got LITERALLY EVERY PIECE OF ADVICE I repeatedly give about portfolios. If you do the stuff in here, you'll have a top 1% design portfolio.

Hopefully something here makes your portfolio-building and job-hunting easier.

Let me know how I can help 🫡

Cheers,
Erik D. Kennedy