At some point, every designer decides they need to get their work up on the internets. And we turn out to be our worst clients. We stall, we procrastinate, we have notebooks full of ideas that never see the light of day. And our portfolio site — if you were lucky enough to have one in the first place — just sits there and sits there and sits there gathering dust and you’re completely unhappy about it but never quite do something about it.
Welcome to my world.
I had an old portfolio site. In fact, the only reason that site ever got done was because it was a final project for a class. (See the need for a hard deadline?) But my portfolio sat there for four years. It very rarely got updated because it was kind of a pain in the butt.
It sat there and sat there and sat there. In four years, I picked up some mad ninja skills and that portfolio never reflected that. Finally, fast forward to June 2010 and my trip to the Creative Freelancer Conference and HOW Conference. I had been going solo for almost a year and wanted to push to make new connections at these conferences. But not with the indignity of a super-outdated portfolio! So I finally got it done. And learned a lot in the process about portfolios….
First off, the finished work, which you can see at http://jenndelafuente.com:
This sketch of my portfolio site had been sitting in a notebook for — I kid you not — almost a year. It was so great to finally see it come alive.
In redesigning my portfolio, I knew there were several things I wanted it to accomplish:
1. It had to be easy to update. (Duh!)
2. I wanted it to show off the skills that I try to sell to clients. (Duh again.)
3. I wanted people to be able to connect with me easily via a myriad of options.
4. I wanted it to have some personal style and verve. I wanted my spirit to be on display.
When setting out to do your portfolio, knowing what you want it to accomplish is half the battle! Designing without a purpose is completely useless.
I think I managed to cover all those points in the design. The portfolio is in WordPress, which makes updating a snap. I’ve also started billing myself as a “WordPress ninja” — it’s on my business card, really! — so having a portfolio using the platform I’m trying to sell my clients on is a plus. I think it’s a pretty solid demonstration of the “outside-the-blog” nature of WordPress.
People have lots of options to connect, whether via the contact form, or Twitter or Flickr or this lovely blog. I like the running commentary on the sidebar — it also helps to keep fresh content painlessly on the the site.
And lastly, I think there is some personality. I don’t write stiffly (never have). Plus, the red background is an original pattern that I made a while ago (it’s also on my business cards), so there’s an extra added personal touch.
Next came selecting what work would go in the portfolio. One of the best tips I read somewhere is to display the work you want more of. That really helped narrow it down (especially when it came to choosing what websites to display).
And voila! My new portfolio. So glad to finally get it up there.
