Building a Design Portfolio That Attracts Dream Clients
As a designer, it was only a matter of time before I had to jump into talking about portfolios! Above any other industry, a designers’ portfolio is so important and can be key to help you attract clients, find the right ones and showcase the amazing work that you can do. I would even say that your portfolio can be the difference between someone being on your website and deciding whether you are the right designer for them or not!
It feels like as soon as you finish a project, it should be added immediately to your portfolio - but believe it or not, this isn’t always the best thing to do and there is a right and a wrong way to go about your portfolio. This is one of a few little mistakes that we can make whilst pulling our work together that can affect the type of work we will book and possibly hold us back in the future from the work that we really want to be doing.
So I’m going to talk through some tips in this episode to make sure your portfolio is prepped and ready to get those dream clients rolling in!
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1. Only use work you would want to do again
The biggest lesson to be learnt from creating your portfolio is you only want to be showing off work that you would want to do again. This means that when people see your work, the ones who get in touch are the people who love the style you want to be doing and then want you to create more of that.
This creates a snowball effect of dream clients and gives you even more great work that you love to add to your portfolio!
It sometimes feels like you should add everything you do in there - so think of this the other way. The more people get in touch for the work you didn’t like doing, you’ll create a snowball effect of that work instead and get further and further away from those dream projects.
Maybe you only have a few projects in your portfolio, but they’re all your style and completely represent the work you want to do!
Tip - Pick three projects you loved working on and loved the outcomes of and start with those as your main portfolio. It may feel empty but it’s much more intentional!
2. Work on some personal projects
There’s always a stage in business where either your projects don’t feel right or you haven't had any clients yet or you could be making a pivot into a completely different style or set of services. So what do we do when we don't have anything to put in our portfolio? We can create personal projects!
Conceptual personal projects are an amazing way to showcase the work you can do and showcase your design ability with total creative freedom. We can also think about our dream clients and create projects that match up with that type of client to attract more projects like that. It doesn’t matter that it wasn’t a real project, people just want to see what you could do for their business.
If you’re worried about whether people will see that it isn’t a real project and be put off or not like it, just make sure you’re being really transparent that it’s a conceptual project in your notes.
Tip - Use your personal projects to test out your design process and make sure it works for you too!
3. Remember your own website & brand
One of the first things that people will see when they find you online will be your branding and website. If they find you on social media, they will probably see your logo, colours and any elements you’ve added there and then they will most likely click through to your website and have a scroll through there.
This means it’s really really important to remember that your own brand and website design is such a key part of your portfolio! Not only is it the first thing people will see, it’s the best area for you to really show off your skills and showcase everything you can do for potential clients. Just like a personal or conceptual project, creating your website gives you 100% creative freedom and flexibility and it’s also the best place to add some personality to your design and represent who you are.
If you can really show off your design skills in your own brand and website, this can act as an amazing portfolio piece in itself and again, even if you haven't had any client work, you can showcase what you can do if they work with you.
Tip - If you aren’t a web designer but want to showcase your personality and style on your website, try creating the design yourself as a mockup (Adobe XD is great!) and collaborate with a web developer to bring it to life.
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4. Show off your full range of services
It’s likely that when you’re setting up your business, you will create a range of services you can offer to potential clients which may be ranging in investment (a small, medium and large package for example), or ranging in different deliverables (you might offer a brand design package, a web design package and both) or maybe you have a few completely different offerings which work for different clients. Whatever you’ve got set up, you will most likely have different services.
Within your portfolio, you want to be showing off all of the services you offer. Not only does this show a range of your amazing talents, but it also gives potential clients an idea of what deliverables are including in each of your packages or what they could get if they work with you on a certain service. You are making sure anyone who might be interested in working with us is getting a full view of what we can do and as much information as possible.
Tip - If your services feel a little scattered at the moment, try to work through them and create some easy-to-manage packages first.
5. Do some explaining
Last but definitely not least is that it is so valuable and so helpful for people if you also give a bit of information with your portfolio pieces. Although I don’t think this is essential, I do think it can give people a really good idea of how you work, the kinds of projects you work on and what you can include in the projects you work on.
You want to find a good balance between a good amount of information but also not overwhelming your reader and making it easy to digest. Bullet point and separated chunks of text are your friends here!
Tip - Include the aims of your project and the results (e.g. client wanted more sales and increased their sales) to show how your designs can help them and their business
I really hope this has helped you perfect and build a portfolio which doesn’t just showcase your amazing work, but also attracts your dream clients!
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