In this video I'm going to show you how we've designed our
portfolio to gain interest from both large and small clients.
From the corporate giant to the small coffee shop from down the
road, and how you can do it too.
The first thing to think about is what do clients look for.
To make a good impression on your portfolio
you first need to know what your clients are looking for.
What I mean by your client is what industry segment of the
market or group of people you're targeting with your portfolio.
Just like any other business venture, you need to research
your target market.
Over the past year, we've pivoted to become a brand
identity agency for startups and large corporations.
Our website and portfolio of the past design work reflects
this by showing work we've done for corporations and for people
and businesses with high influence within a sector.
This doesn't have to be the same for you though, especially
if you're freelancing in a small town or community.
You should be looking at your target market within that and
asking yourself, what are they looking for in a graphic designer?
When I first started out, I was making videos and posting my
work on Behance.
All I knew was that in order for me to get the clients I want,
I need to show those clients my skills.
I didn't have any experience, I never worked with anyone else before.
So what I did was something that changed the game for me completely.
I worked on a fictional coffee brand because I worked on the
fictional brand that allowed potential clients to see that
I was capable of making their brand story a success.
So no matter who you are, how many clients you have or
haven't worked with, if you're looking to work with someone or
a company, be your own mirror client and target your work to
be useful for them.
Clients are much more interested in what you can do
rather than who you've worked with, especially smaller scale clients.
The proof really is in the work as the quality will speak for itself.
Now, the second part of this video is answering the question
what platform should I host my portfolio on?
I've been asked this question so many times in the comments
and the livestreams, and I've never been able to give a
definitive answer until now.
There are plenty of platforms to choose from, like Instagram,
Behance, Dribbble, TikTok and your own personal website.
But which one is going to be best for you and your needs?
Well, for me, it's obvious all of them.
Nearly all these platforms are free, so there's no barrier to
entry when posting portfolio work that could entice your next client.
Now, remember this it's not about which platform to use,
it's how many are you going to use.
Social media has been an amazing platform for our design business.
From making YouTube videos, talking about and showing the
process of our design work to posting hand lettering on
Instagram to show the handcrafted quality of our work.
Our work is everywhere, but our home is our website.
Our portfolio is fully branded.
By that I mean it's got our own style and voice everywhere
from the layout, colour scheme, button styles and voice. Our website is home.
All the other platforms are used to invite potential
clients to our home.
So what does that mean for you?
Well, it means you should 100% have your own website that is
fully your own and branded.
And it also means that you should be using many social
media platforms and portfolio platforms as possible to drive
interest to your home website.
When you do this, you'll soon realize the effect it has on
the amount of work offers you get from those seeing your work.
Now, as well as thinking about where to post and host your
work, there's something else you need to consciously and be
intentionally thinking about when designing your portfolio
what work you are going to show?
I've spoken to a lot of you guys and freelance graphic
designers and other creative professionals about the work they do.
Most of the time they really enjoy the work they're doing,
their freelance after all.
Other times they really hate it.
They normally say I hate doing that kind of work.
When I hear this, I always ask what work they've shown in
their portfolio and they always respond by saying they post the
work they hate
on their portfolio because it's the only commissioned work they've done.
You do not need to take on the work you hate doing.
If you're posting work you don't enjoy doing to your
portfolio, you're obviously going to get clients who want
something similar to that work.
So a quick fix for this is to only show work you enjoy on your portfolio.
Life is too short to be working on something you don't enjoy
doing, no matter what your vocation is.
Now, if you're just starting out, you're probably wondering
what work should you show to gain clients?
The simple answer is to show the work you've enjoyed working
on the most.
No matter if it's a client or passion project, if you've
really enjoyed the work, then that's what you should be
adding to your portfolio.
It doesn't matter if it's paid for work.
People want to see what you can do. One of the most important
things you can do to have a successful portfolio is to show context.
If you look at any successful graphic design project on a
portfolio, you'll notice one thing, context through images.
You'll rarely see a logo sitting by itself.
You'll always see a logo on something. Not showing context
by visually giving the client or viewer the chance to see how
the design works on a product the company is selling means
they'll have to guess which is open to a lot of interpretation.
Throughout our portfolio, we've used mockups from today's
sponsor Envato Elements.
The cool thing about Envato Elements is that you get all
these mockups and 50 million other resources to download
with a simple license for $20 a month.
I think it's less than on an annual subscription.
If you look at this project, it is all the mockups here are from
Envato Elements.
Here in the studio we love using Envato Elements.
It makes our lives easier and more productive, knowing we can
focus our time on designing amazing logos without spending
hours looking through different websites for appropriate mockups
with the correct licenses, we just have them all there for us to use.
It's pretty cool.
So if you're like me and you'd like to literally save hundreds,
if not thousands of dollars, click the link in the
description to try them for free for seven days.
That's over 50 million design assets for less than $20 per month.
Insane.
The next part of this video I'm going to title show the how, not the what.
So we need to show how we solve the problem.
If this doesn't make sense, then let me try to explain it.
When clients are looking for you, they're looking to see
whether you can solve a problem for them.
They hire you not always based on your personal ability, but
rather how you think or how you solve problems.
This means we need to be able to communicate how we solve
problems and achieve the goals of the brief in our work.
You can have the best portfolio in the world with amazing aesthetics.
But if the client doesn't understand what you've done or
how you've achieved the client's goal, then they most
likely won't trust you enough to take the leap to work with you.
Harsh realities.
If you look at our portfolio page, each project has a
description to help the viewer understand, who the client is,
the goal of the work, and how we did it differently.
There is mystery behind what you do and everyone works differently.
So show that.
Show them how you work differently compared to others.
Let them know what makes you unique and how that works
within that project.
For example, on our website, you can see the hero image, the
logo, plus additional mockups and branding, which shows this
project as a whole.
It's also got an overview and a client's feedback too.
It shows the whole project on one page, so the future clients
can clearly see what they're looking at.
So it doesn't matter who you are or what you do, you can
create an amazing portfolio.
Remember, it's all about the context and targeting that
client that you want.
And by no means am I saying that we have worked it all out.
The way that I look at it as a freelancer for ten years and
then owning an agency is that we've kind of been successful
in what we do because we've followed these principles and I
think they'll help anyone else who's graphic designer or a creative
professional today.
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