How To: Design a Portfolio Site

Step one: Be Picky

Obviously choose your best work, but don't assume you know which pieces those are. Ask your people you know what appeals to them most and take that into consideration.  Aim for 15 pieces that represent work you want to keep doing.

Image from Gina and Matt

Step two: Don't Reinvent the Wheel

Don't be afraid to use a portfolio template site.  I made my own site and hosted it for nearly a decade, and after getting hacked several times I'm over it.  Now I'm on Squarespace because it's easy to manage and stylish.  Plus, if something goes wrong, I'm not on my own.  They have AMAZING customer service.

Screenshot of Squarespace

Step three: Big Images, Small Type

Images should be at least 500px wide. If possible, take photos of your work in context: photos give your work presence and warmth and context shows your work's personality.

Keep your type small and classic. Use a nice, legible font with a bit of personality. As a general guide, choose sans-serif for headings and serif for descriptions. Don't try to wow with your typography skills since your images should be most important anyway.

 

Type sample from Jessica Hische

Image from the Heads of State

Step four: Describe your Work

SEO (being found by a search engine - "search engine optimization") is a big consideration for your portfolio since that's how you can get new clients, customers, and fans.  I've been told by the experts that writing meaningful descriptive headings (with proper html tags like H1 for the title, H2 for the sub-heading, P for paragraph, etc. ) and explanations of your work using key words (words that you want to target specifically, ex: modern, bold, illustration, etc.) is the best way to be found.

Comic Collaboration

I teach an Intro to Illustration class this semester with my friend Chris Patchell who is an avid comic maker.  He posts weekly to his blog Monster Mondays.  For our last assignment we had the students create their own comics, so we did a "make and switch" hand-off for the writing portion.  This is how they turned out:

Philippines Wildlife Charity Print

After the horrible destruction of Super Typhoon Haiyan, I wanted to do something to help even though efforts from half way across the world seem sort of puny. I found these amazing stamps from the Philippines looking on google for wildlife images, and I was inspired. So, in the next week or so, I'm goint to work on a print that combines three native species: the tamaraw, the Philippine Eagle, and the Tarsier.  All proceeds will go to the Red Cross Haiyan Relief Fund.