What a Portfolio Is
A portfolio is a designed document. It’s not a folder of files. It’s not one image on each page. Each piece needs to be supported with text. The text will state the brief, your role, and what the design problem was that has solved. This text serves two purposes. It supports your hiring argument in this course. It will become the copy for your portfolio website in Web Design 4.
You’ll not be creating new work. You’ll be presenting the work you have. Your job will be to assemble your re-worked pieces, your brand, and your positioning into one portfolio that makes a hiring argument. Each piece will be evidence supporting that argument. The brand is the voice. The sequence is the case you build for why someone should hire you.
The final version will ship. It won’t be finished, because a portfolio is never finished. It’s presentable. A junior designer can put this in front of an employer and stand behind it. This doesn’t mean there can be errors or sloppiness in your portfolio. It must have a high level of craft. It’s only that your skills will improve with time.
Note: your portfolio PDF is not the same thing as your portfolio website. This course builds the PDF. Web Design 4 builds the site. The site draws its content from the PDF.
The Medium Is Part of the Message
How you present your work is part of the argument. The container says as much as the contents.
If you’re marketing yourself as a web designer, then you build a drag-and-drop template, this will contradict your pitch. If you’re a motion designer who fights to build fragile hand-coded portfolio site, you’ll be burning hours that should go into your motion reel. Match the content to the claim. Let each piece exist in its real medium. Motion belongs on video. A printed piece belongs in your hands, ready to pass across a table. Respect how the work is actually judged.
Formats
Submit your portfolio as one PDF file. Each piece appears in the correct format for its medium.
- Print work: Photograph the piece. Place the photo in the document. Have the piece printed as if off the press.
- Web work: Add a screenshot of the site and the live URL.
- Motion work: Add a poster frame from the piece and a link to the video on Vimeo or YouTube.
Include a minimum of five pieces.
The dimensions of your PDF are up to you. The most common dimensions are 16:9, which is 1080 × 1920. This aspect ratio displays well on a computer screen. If this doesn’t work well for your portfolio pieces, you’re free to choose something else.
We still don’t want to rule out someone printing your portfolio. Beware of page backgrounds in full colour if that’s a concern.
Case Studies
Not every piece needs a case study. The trap is treating it as all or nothing.
Think in two tiers. Anchor case studies go deep. Gallery pieces stay light and let the craft speak. Two or three case studies are enough. The rest show range, volume, and consistency. A portfolio of all deep case studies is exhausting to read. A portfolio of all gallery lacks depth. The mix is the goal.
A case study consists of:
- The problem. The brief, the audience, and the constraints. What was actually being solved.
- Your role. What you personally did. This matters most in group work, where honest credit counts.
- The process. Research, exploration, sketches, and iterations. This is the path, not just the destination.
- The decisions. Why this typeface, this grid, this direction. Employers read this part closest, because it shows judgment.
- The solution. The resolved work, well presented.
- The outcome. What it achieved, or what you learned, or what you would change. For school work with no client metrics, honest reflection is a great substitute.
Its reason for being is simple. A finished image shows you can execute. A case study shows you can think. Employers are buying a problem-solver, not a computer operator. For a junior this is the main lever, because your craft may not yet match a senior’s, but your thinking can. A case study also proves you can explain a decision. That is the same skill you use to defend work to a client and to brief a team.
Avoid the common traps. Avoid unedited narration of every step. Avoid tool lists in place of decisions. Avoid process with no payoff. Avoid invented outcomes. A case study is curated like the work itself.