website portfolio presentation

Presenting your web design portfolio: The complete guide for winning new clients

When presenting your portfolio to a potential web design client, focus on sharing your goals, ideas, and thought processes as you worked through the projects.

Design and build a custom portfolio website, visually, within 21 days.

Navigating client pitches can be intimidating, particularly when it comes to presenting your portfolio. However, with the right preparation, it’s a powerful platform to showcase your value and expertise as a designer.

Client meetings — whether they’re with large corporations or small businesses — often require web design portfolio presentations. While you might already have an online portfolio or personal website that showcases completed work, these demonstrations require walking prospective clients through your design process to express how the parts fit together.

Succeeding in these interviews requires strategic selection, curation, and exhibition of your work. If you’re giving a UX design portfolio presentation, you can use these same strategies, considering that some of your solutions may be on a smaller scale.

What is a portfolio presentation?

In a portfolio presentation, you present a small selection of design projects and explain your design decisions when creating them.

While you might end up presenting to just one person or doing a mini-presentation as part of a series of questions, most portfolio showcases are dedicated panel sessions. These last anywhere from 30 to 60 minutes, and while you might be presenting to a single decision-maker, you’ll often find yourself in front of a team that may include a project manager and other designers at the company.

From the client’s perspective, the purpose of a portfolio presentation isn’t just to evaluate the quality of your design work. They’re also scrutinizing:

• Your design process: Your overall approach to solving design problems, how you generate ideas, what you do when an idea doesn’t work, and how good you are at listening to and incorporating feedback
• Your communication skills: If you can clearly express your design intentions and findings to the committee, you’ll also be able to communicate well with people on your team and across the organization
• Your professional integrity: How you demonstrate respect for collaborators, acknowledge team contributions, and showcase reliability

How to organize a digital portfolio

As with any job application, you must align your portfolio to resonate with your audience. You can also use your existing web design portfolio to provide a deeper exposition of your chosen projects.

How many projects should you include?

The number of case studies you present depends on the length of your presentation. Plan on one or two projects for a 30-minute session and two or three for a 60-minute one. Including a spare project is prudent if you get through the material more quickly than expected.

Which projects should you choose?

Think about your past projects and decide which fit best in your showcase. Consider factors such as:

• The job requirements and technical skills mentioned in the position description
• The client’s industry and specific needs
• Projects that resonate with the client’s graphic design style or ethos
• Success stories where your design significantly impacted a client’s business
• Designs you’re proud of and enjoyed working on
• Recency (you want to illustrate you’re continually improving, so avoid older projects unless there’s a solid reason to include them)

How should you order the projects?

Once you know which projects to include, think about how to arrange them for the best logical flow. Consider beginning with a smaller self-contained project that introduces your design process and style. Then, after you’ve gained momentum, you can dive into more complex projects.

What’s the best format for a web design portfolio presentation?

Some designers flesh out their existing online portfolio and use that in the presentation. However, most create a dedicated slide deck for better manageability and logical flow.

If you’re seeking a straightforward approach to crafting slides, Google Slides and PowerPoint offer intuitive interfaces for quick and effective deck creation. You could also try Canva’s presentation tool for easy data visualizations or Haiku Deck for responsive presentations. Keep a PDF copy of the slides on a USB drive to allow for in-person displays.

You’re applying for a design position, so you should pay attention to how your portfolio looks and use consistent visual language throughout. But you can also customize the presentation of the deck for your audience.

If you’re pitching to a budding startup, highlight your willingness to experiment with bold color schemes or playful typography and showcase collaborative projects where your ideas contributed to an innovative outcome. For larger or corporate clients, display a professional look by prioritizing projects that balance aesthetics with usability or designs that improve business metrics, such as conversion or click-through rates. Avoid imitating the company’s aesthetic too closely, as this can come across as amateurish.

Build completely custom, production-ready websites — or ultra-high-fidelity prototypes — without writing a line of code. Only with Webflow.

How to present a portfolio

When you start your portfolio exposition, avoid launching into the first project immediately. Instead, open by giving your audience a broad sense of who you are and how you approach design. Take one to three minutes to briefly touch on the following:

• How long you’ve been designing
• Where you’re currently working
• Your overall approach to design (for example, maybe you incorporate principles of user-centered design or human-centered design)
• Unique qualities your designs have (perhaps you’re an expert in typographic design , color psychology , or UX design ) 
• Which projects you’ve chosen to present and why

Presenting the individual projects: 10 steps

Here’s a general framework you can adapt to suit each project. Depending on the length of your demonstration and specific features of the designs, it may make sense to combine or skip some steps.

1. Set the scene

Give a broad overview of the project, including:

• Who the design was for
• Who you were working with
• Project duration
• Any other constraints and stakeholders

2. Describe the problem

Clearly describe the problem you solved. Include the purpose of the design (for example, redesigning a website to increase online sales) and the intended downstream effects for the client or company (for example, increased revenue and company growth). Include “before” pictures if the project was a redesign.

3. Show how you broke down the problem 

Explain your initial investigation of the problem, including:

• User research you conducted
• Metrics you examined
• Root causes you found
• Additional information you sought from the client

4. State your objectives

Specify any goals you set for the design solution . If you include quantitative metrics (for example, if the client wanted to increase online sales through an ecommerce site or reduce their website’s bounce rate ), state the target you set for the improved version.

5. Present some of the initial design ideas

Give the panel a window into the ideation phase by revealing how you came up with and explored possible solutions. Include sketches, prototypes, or wireframes you developed as part of this process.

6. Present the solution you settled on and explain why you chose it

Include attractive pictures of the solution you decided on. Point out key elements and explain why you designed them this way.

7. Describe the implementation and validation phase

Illustrate how you iterated and tested the design based on different types of feedback, including website performance metrics , user feedback, and client feedback.

8. Explain how your solution solved the initial problem

Linking your solution back to the original problem demonstrates to the panel that you’re good at staying on track during the design process and communicating your ideas. Bring the audience full circle by referring to the problem you described in Step 2, the detailed analysis you conducted in Step 3, and the goals you set in Step 4.

9. Reflect on the solution

Explain what you think about the solution. If you have up-to-date information about the project’s current status, share it. Report on final client feedback and any developments that have occurred since you delivered the final design.

10. Ask for questions

Ask the panel if they have questions for you. Expect some of the following:

• What did you learn from the project?
• What was the most significant design challenge in this project, and why?
• Would you take a different approach to any of your projects?

Practicing the presentation

Align your rehearsal with the actual presentation settings as closely as possible. For an in-person presentation, try to practice in the same environment with the same equipment, such as a tablet or laptop, that you’ll use during the actual interview. Enlist the help of a knowledgeable friend or trusted colleague to act as your audience if possible. You can also approach recruiters to give you some pointers.

If the interview is online, check which video conferencing software the company will use and practice with the same — you don’t want to be off your game when you can’t find the screen-share button.

Show off your designs everywhere you can

If any clients or interviewers research your designs beforehand, you want to ensure they like what they see. To make a great first impression, consider taking Webflow’s 21-day design portfolio course to create a beautiful new portfolio or upgrade your current one. You could also browse some of the design portfolios created in Webflow for ideas.

Selecting your best work and laying bare your creative process for prospective clients can be a surprisingly rewarding experience. We wish you all the best in your job search, and we can’t wait to see what you design in your new role.

Subscribe to Webflow Inspo

Get the best, coolest, and latest in design and no-code delivered to your inbox each week.

Related articles

4 steps to creating an impressive UX design portfolio

Your UX design portfolio helps you impress future employers and attract clients. Here are four crucial steps to creating an outstanding portfolio.

How to write the perfect web design case study to win more clients

An immersive digital portfolio is the key to landing new clients. Learn how to show off your skills with a winning web design case study.

How to perfect your next client presentation

Designers at Niika share expert tips on delivering a client presentation, and a cloneable Webflow template to help you achieve that wow factor.

How to write an impressive marketing proposal

Marketing proposals are the first step to initiating new projects. Learn how to pitch a powerful proposal and close a deal with your next client.

8 things to consider when building your portfolio website

Your online portfolio is a key tool in building a design career. Here's 8 things to think about to ensure you're building yours right.

The modern web design process: setting goals

The first step to building a successful website is ... defining success.

Get started for free

Try Webflow for as long as you like with our free Starter plan. Purchase a paid Site plan to publish, host, and unlock additional features.

Transforming the design process at

• Interactions
• Localization
• Figma to Webflow Labs
• DevLink Labs
• Feature index
• Accessibility
• Webflow vs WordPress
• Webflow vs Squarespace
• Webflow vs Shopify
• Webflow vs Contentful
• Webflow vs Sitecore
• Careers We're Hiring
• Webflow Shop
• Accessibility statement
• Terms of Service
• Privacy policy
• Cookie policy
• Cookie preferences
• Freelancers
• Global alliances
• Marketplace
• Libraries Beta
• Hire an Expert
• Made in Webflow
• Become an Expert
• Become a Template Designer
• Become an Affiliate

35+ Best Portfolio Presentation Templates

Showcase your work effectively with our portfolio presentation templates. These tools provide a range of professional designs that can help you present your creative work in a compelling, visually engaging way.

Hilam Minimal PowerPoint Portfolio Template

Another minimal and clean PowerPoint template for professionals. This template is made with designers and photographers in mind. There are 30 elegant ...

Focalism Photography PowerPoint Template

Focalism is a modern, and stylish photography PowerPoint template that will surely make a solid impression on your clients. With 36 customizable slide...

Wako Elegant PowerPoint Portfolio Template

Wako is a minimal PowerPoint template that comes with an elegant slide design. It’s ideal for making presentations for showcasing interior desig...

Flopy PowerPoint Photography Template

Scouring the internet for a nice photography composition PowerPoint template? Check out Flopy. It’s a clean, and eye-catching magazine style pre...

Personas Personal Portfolio PowerPoint Template

Personas is a portfolio presentation template with a clean and visual design. It’s designed with freelancers, artists, and individual profession...

UNIGRAPH Elegant PowerPoint Portfolio Template

An elegant PowerPoint template with a dark color theme. This portfolio presentation features dark backgrounds that will make your visual content more ...

Creative Tan Black Orange Photography Portfolio PPT

The combination of the tan, black, and orange colors gives this PowerPoint template a very creative look and feel. It’s ideal for making portfol...

Portfolio Presentation Template

Portfolio photography PowerPoint is a multipurpose photographer presentation with a modern design. This template comes with 36 slides. Edit each photo...

Picxellence PowerPoint Photography Template

The best photography PowerPoint templates exude style and elegance, and that’s exactly what Picxellence stands for. It’s a classy, modern ...

Iconic Lookbook Fashion Powerpoint Template

This PowerPoint template is perfect for designing an elegant fashion lookbook presentation. It’s especially suitable for luxury fashion and clot...

Toritie Photography PowerPoint Portfolio Template

Creating PowerPoint portfolios for professional photographers will get much easier when you have this template. It comes with 40 slides with master sl...

Ordinaire Portfolio PowerPoint Template

Ordinaire is a clean and modern PowerPoint template that is perfect to use for a photography portfolio or your own portfolio with a modern layout.

Hire Business Portfolio PowerPoint Template

This PowerPoint portfolio template is made specifically for creative and freelance professionals. It lets you create a presentation highlighting your ...

CAPTIS Portfolio Powerpoint Template

Captis is another great PowerPoint portfolio template made for professional photographers and studios. The template includes 30 unique slides that you...

Imaginary PowerPoint Portfolio Template

This PowerPoint template features a highly visual slide design with lots of space for showcasing your portfolio items with images. There are 50 unique...

Profil Personal Portfolio PowerPoint Template

Create a simple and professional portfolio to showcase your professional career and freelance services using this PowerPoint template. It comes with 4...

Lexus Modern Portfolio Powerpoint Template

At first glance, you can tell that this PowerPoint template is a perfect choice for making small business and corporate portfolios. It features a very...

MOSOKSE Minimal PowerPoint Portfolio Template

You can use this PowerPoint portfolio template to design a simple and minimal presentation to showcase your portfolio. It includes fully editable slid...

Photography Portfolio PowerPoint Template

If you’re a photographer or studio promoting your services, this PowerPoint template will allow you to showcase your portfolio in a professional...

Grafica Modern Portfolio PowerPoint Template

This modern, colorful, and creative PowerPoint template has the perfect design for crafting a convincing presentation that highlights your skills and ...

Kintel Modern Portfolio PowerPoint Template

Kintel is a PowerPoint portfolio template that’s most suitable for creative professionals and agencies. The template comes with a modern slide d...

Minvio – Portfolio PowerPoint Template

Minivo is a minimal, eye-catching portfolio template for PowerPoint that equips you with everything you need to prepare a praise-worthy presentation, ...

Posh Fashion Showcase Powerpoint Template

A stylish fashion-themed PowerPoint template you can use to craft presentations to showcase fashion catalogs and design portfolios. The template featu...

Windy Modern Portfolio PowerPoint Presentation

Windy is a bright and attractive PowerPoint template you can use to showcase portfolios for creative brands and agencies. It comes with 30 slides fill...

PORTO Creative Powerpoint Portfolio Template

This PowerPoint template features a stylishly minimal content design. It will allow you to create a modern portfolio presentation while showing off yo...

JSON Freelancer Portfolio Powerpoint Template

This PowerPoint portfolio template is most suitable for web designers and developers. It includes 24 unique slides for showcasing your programming and...

Clevio Personal Portfolio PowerPoint Template

If you are wanting a gorgeous looking PowerPoint template for your personal portfolio, look no further than Clevio. It’s a creatively crafted te...

PRONTO Photography Portfolio PowerPoint Template

If you’re a fan of colorful slide designs and bold layouts, this PowerPoint template is perfect for you. It will help you design a professional ...

MELVIA Creative Portfolio PowerPoint Template

Melvia is a multipurpose PowerPoint template that comes with a sleek and modern content design. It can be used to create different types of portfolios...

Polariz Colorful Portfolio PowerPoint Template

If you want to show off your creativity alongside your portfolio showcase, this PowerPoint template is perfect for you. It comes with a very colorful ...

Pixelatte Photography Portfolio Powerpoint Template

You can create an incredible photography portfolio slideshow using this stylish PowerPoint template. It comes with 30 unique slide layouts with fully ...

Card Minimal PowerPoint Portfolio Template

A modern and minimalist PowerPoint template that’s ideal for showcasing the portfolios of creative brands and startups. This template features 4...

Legacy – Portfolio PowerPoint Template

Legacy is a modern PowerPoint template you can use to create professional portfolio presentations. It’s perfect for corporate businesses as well...

Modern Photography PPT Template

The above-featured product is a great choice for anyone looking for an elegant photo presentation template. It will take only a couple of minutes for ...

Drone X Aerial Photography PowerPoint Template

Wanting a professional, and ultra-modern template for your upcoming aerial photography and videography presentation? Look no further than Drone X. Fea...

One Photography Composition PowerPoint Template

One is a simple, and modern photography presentation template that allows you to showcase your portfolio in the best way possible. It provides you wit...

Honey Fashion Portfolio PowerPoint Template

If you’re looking to create a PowerPoint portfolio with a modern and visual-centric design, this template is perfect for you. It comes with a hi...

Gofolio Simple PowerPoint Portfolio Template

Gofolio is a simple PowerPoint template that comes with a set of clean slide layouts. You can choose from 30 unique slide layouts to craft a professio...

FAQs About Portfolio Presentation Templates

What are portfolio presentation templates.

Portfolio Presentation Templates are pre-designed frameworks used to present your portfolio in a professional and appealing way. They can be used for various purposes like displaying work samples for potential employers, showcasing skills for clients, or presenting academic work.

These templates usually possess a structured layout allowing you to systematically exhibit your expertise, achievements, and experiences. They can come in various formats including PowerPoint, Google Slides, Adobe, and more, ensuring compatibility with different software options.

Why should I use Portfolio Presentation Templates?

Portfolio Presentation Templates are tools that save time and effort while ensuring your portfolio has a professional and cohesive look. It eliminates the hassle of starting from scratch and considering design details when you're more focused on the content.

If you're not skilled in design, templates can help to structure your work in a visually pleasing way. Even if you do have design skills, templates offer a quick solution and a source of inspiration that you can customize to better fit your own style and needs.

Can I customise Portfolio Presentation Templates?

Yes, you can customise Portfolio Presentation Templates. Most templates are purposely designed to be customizable so that you can give your portfolio a personal touch. You can usually change elements such as text, color scheme, fonts, layouts, and graphics to suit your preference.

Remember, templates provide a basic structure and design elements. Your customizations help the template align more closely with your brand or identity, making your portfolio unique and compelling.

Where can I find Portfolio Presentation Templates?

You can find Portfolio Presentation Templates on various online platforms that offer free or paid resources for presentations. This includes sites dedicated to presentation templates like SlideModel, Creative Market, GraphicRiver, plus more generic ones like Microsoft Office or Google Slides.

Professional design software sites, such as Adobe, also offer templates for their programs. When choosing a platform to download from, pay attention to the potential costs, template quality, and whether the templates can be customized according to your needs.

Are Portfolio Presentation Templates suitable for different industries?

Yes, Portfolio Presentation Templates are suitable for a wide variety of industries. Many templates are designed in a generic way, allowing individuals from any field to use them by inserting relevant content and adjusting design elements.

There are also specialized templates created with specific industries in mind. These cater to careers like design, photography, architecture, and more. They offer features that help to best present the conventions and type of work usually found in that sector.

Portfolio Presentation Template

Showcase your work and help your audience visualize new designs with our Portfolio Presentation Template.

Trusted by 65M+ users and leading companies

About the Portfolio Presentation Template

The Portfolio Presentation Template is a framework for showcasing your visual design work. It allows designers to structure their portfolio presentations in an engaging and visually-appealing way. 

Using our pre-existing slides, you can add your own designs and plans to the template. Customize the layout, add new slides, and do whatever else you need to create the perfect presentation to represent your portfolio of work. 

What is a portfolio presentation? 

A portfolio presentation allows designers to present a selection of their work. It's helpful in two different scenarios:

For interviews: A portfolio presentation is often used as part of the interview process for a designer role (or other creative jobs). It’s a chance to showcase your best work and convince the hiring team that you’re the right fit for the job. 

To present new ideas: Product designers can also use this presentation to introduce new design ideas to their teams. It’s all about showing the audience what they’ve created, why they think it’ll be successful, and how it’ll impact their work. 

No matter your reason for delivering a portfolio presentation, you’ll always need to make sure your designs are clear. You need to convey your point so your audience understands the design and why it’s important. 

This is where using a Portfolio Presentation Template is helpful. With our ready-made structure, you can make sure your presentation is clear, concise, and displays all the key information. And if you want to cover additional information, you can easily add new slides. 

What should you include in a portfolio presentation? 

When delivering a portfolio presentation in an interview, here’s what you’ll need to cover: 

Introduce yourself and what you’ll cover in the presentation

Your role in each design project

The challenges you faced (and how you overcame them)

Your design process (including UX methods, UI, and any design decisions you made throughout the process) 

The end result of each design project

What you learned from the design project and how it’ll help you with the rest of your design career

If you’re presenting a new idea to your design team, your presentation will also cover the following information:

What your new design is

How it’ll impact customers 

How the new design will help the business grow

At the end of your presentation, whether it’s part of an interview or to present a new idea, you’ll also allow time for questions and a discussion.

How to use the Portfolio Presentation Template

Our digital workspace is the perfect canvas for planning and creating your portfolio presentation. You can jot down notes and ideas and keep all your key designs in one location. 

When you’re ready to pull all your information into a presentation, start by selecting this Design Portfolio Template. It’s free and easy to use, meaning you can start using it immediately. Then, follow these steps to create the perfect presentation. 

Step 1: Choose your favorite design projects

If you’re preparing for an interview, start by choosing which design projects you want to showcase and why. 

Step 2: Add the designs to the template

When you know what designs you want to talk about, you can add them to the template. It’s easy to upload files and images to your presentation — you can simply drag and drop them from your desktop to the slide deck. 

Step 3: Customize the presentation deck

Start by adding new slides and changing the order to figure out what information you want to include. Our template is fully customizable, so you can create the perfect presentation structure. 

Step 4: Add supporting information

When you’ve finished formatting your presentation, you can add the supporting information. For example, if you want to show your design team some key customer insights, you can add a chart to display your findings. Similarly, if you want to show a hiring manager the results of your previous design projects, you can add this information to back up the success of your work. 

Step 5: Do a run-through

Check that everything is in order before you deliver the presentation. You can easily share the presentation with colleagues, friends, or family members to get feedback. Then, make any last-minute changes before you give the presentation. 

Step 6: Deliver the presentation

Use presentation mode to jump into full-screen and deliver the presentation to your audience. You can use the arrow keys to move through the presentation.

Top tips for delivering a successful portfolio presentation

The way you deliver your presentation can impact the way your audience perceives the information. Here are some tips for making sure you deliver your presentation as successfully as possible. 

Prepare everything in advance. Your presentation needs to be well-prepared. If it’s not, your audience will know, which won’t give a good impression. This is where using Miro’s Portfolio Presentation Template can be helpful. With our ready-made templates, you can make sure to cover all your bases. 

Pay attention to detail. What you include in your presentation (and how it’s structured) says a lot about your organizational skills and your work ethic. Be sure to be thorough with your presentation and make sure you cover all the necessary information. With Miro’s template, you can add as much detail as you need by customizing the placeholder text and adding new content. 

Be selective. If you’re delivering the presentation as part of an interview, you’ll have a timeframe to work with. To make sure you don’t go over your allotted time, pick a couple of your best projects and spend time explaining them in detail. Don’t try to cover too much ground and spread yourself too thin. Let your presentation skills shine through while you go into detail on your favorite projects. 

How long should a portfolio presentation be?

It varies depending on the designs you want to show and the reason you’re delivering the presentation. If it’s in an interview, you’ll probably have an allotted time frame. If it’s for your work colleagues, aim for within an hour and allow time for brainstorming.

Get started with this template right now.

Critical Design Review Presentation Template

Works best for:.

Presentations, UX Design

Use this template to finalize the design phase of a project. Keep all team members on the same page and ensure that your team’s technical efforts are on track.

Consulting Proposal Template

Presentations, Business Management

Use this Consulting Proposal Template to develop an active working relationship with your prospects. Show them what you do, what you can deliver for them, and why they should work with you.

Strategy Presentation Template

Presentations, Strategic Planning

Presenting your strategies is the best way to allow people to understand what the business will be focusing on in the future. Use this Strategy Presentation Template to communicate your strategic thinking and encourage collaboration.

QBR Presentation Template

Presentations, Meetings

Use Miro’s QBR Presentation Template to give clients an overview of their business performance and show where you can add more value. Review your successes over the past 90 days and create a plan of action for the next quarter.

Training Presentation Template

Presentations, Education

Creating an engaging training presentation that effectively helps your employees level up is no easy feat. With the Training Presentation Template, you can slash presentation development time and spend more energy on the transformative elements of your training. Plus, it’s so easy to collaborate with other training staff when you develop your training slides in Miro.

Change Management Presentation Template

Employee resistance to change can block any positive initiative. You won’t have to struggle with it if you clearly communicate what upcoming changes mean and how they’ll benefit your company in the long run. Use our Change Management Presentation Template to outline your implementation strategy and spark enthusiasm among employees.

Portfolio presentation templates

Showcase your best work — and impress future employers or clients — with our collection of free templates for your portfolio presentations.

Portfolio Presentation Templates

Showcase your skills, experience, and achievements to potential clients, employers or investors with a professionally designed portfolio presentation template by Venngage.

Other presentation templates

• Pitch decks
• User persona
• Brand guidelines
• Professional
• Group project
• Valentine's day
• Book report
• Mother's day
• Father's day
• Visual chart
• Architecture
• Social media
• Advertising

Portfolio Presentation Design Templates

Popular template categories.

• Infographics
• White papers
• Letterheads
• Newsletters
• Business cards
• Human resources
• Certificates
• Invitations
• Table of contents
• Magazine covers
• Price lists
• Album covers
• Book covers
• See All Templates

Is your WordPress site slow? Get a free audit to uncover performance bottlenecks.

The Anatomy of a Perfect Portfolio Website to Showcase Your Work

Time to roll up your sleeves! Today we’re going to dive into the topic of portfolio websites and which industry experts should be using them. Learn how to create a good-looking site that uniquely showcases your work and the importance of doing so. You want visitors and potential clients to remember you for their next project.

What Is a Portfolio Website?

Why you need a portfolio website, essential elements for your portfolio website, what you need to build a portfolio website.

A portfolio website is a unique way to showcase your work and let others know about yourself. It’s like an evergreen platform for your projects, case studies, and information about you. In addition, it’s one of the best ways to express your personality, experience, and capabilities.

Having your own website means customers are always able to find you and if interested, reach out for you. If you don’t have an online presence nowadays, you are behind the times. 😉 A portfolio is a great way for photographers , designers, developers and a wide range of artists to present their work online. It lets you reflect your identity through your works – photos, graphic design, sketches, etc.

In a nutshell, you need a portfolio website to showcase your work. Whether you’re an individual, a small team of two or a company of ten people, it’s crucial that you have a unique online approach. A website portfolio will help you stand out from the crowd, show your uniqueness, build trust, and make sure that others can actually find you .

There are certain areas where a website portfolio is more important than others. If you find yourself in one of the following, it’s safe to assume that you need a portfolio like a book needs words:

• Web development (outsourcing, online shop)
• Graphic design (logo design, corporate ID, flyers, catalogs, packaging)
• Marketing (digital marketing, print design, SEO, PPC advertising)
• Art design (illustration, video, audio, photography)

But it doesn’t stop just there, the same goes with interior designers, artists, models, writers, etc. The main idea is that you are a creator and you need to showcase your work. Portfolio website lets you do that in high quality.

Example of Why You Need a Portfolio

What happens when someone needs a logo for a new product, service, or company? Most will start a search through simple Google (or they might get suggestions from friends or business partners). So firstly, you want to be searchable . To demonstrate it from your clients perspective, here is a little experiment.

Taking into account the majority approach, I used Google. I start simply by typing “logo designer portfolio” in the search bar and hope to find a real person who could create my logo. And there it is, a bunch of potential logo designers there for the taking. I browse through their websites, and they all seem to be pretty good. Now, to make a choice, it is just a question of preferences, taste and the budget.

As you see, the choice is in front of me. I can choose an individual or an agency . I can learn about each one’s service, see their portfolios, read about them, and study their project flow. Basically, their websites give me the feeling of who they are, what they do, and what to expect if I decided to work with them.

Now that you know at least one reason why you need a portfolio, it’s time to understand the most important things that should be included on your website.

Every project needs a formula – a purpose. Without it, it’s going to be very hard to impress.

The basic formula of a portfolio website would include a logo, tagline, your best work, and contact information. Sometimes this works but in many cases, it’s a poor implementation. To highlight your portfolio in another light, consider to include other key elements that will boost your portfolio’s user experience: case studies, testimonials, blog, and even a project you’re currently working on at the moment. These are vital elements.

When working on your portfolio site design, think about the elements your future clients should be able to find. Ask yourself – what is the purpose of your portfolio? Do you want to sell your services, are you looking for a job and want to be hired, or is it a website about you? The main focus of your portfolio site should be catching visitor’s attention, and the following elements will help you do that.

A Showcase of Your Work

Your about page, case studies, testimonials, call to action (cta), a blog and syndication.

It only takes a few seconds to lose a visitor’s attention, so to be sure to use these seconds smart. Your potential clients will see the visuals first and if they like what they see, they will continue looking for more details. In other words, you need an awesome and appealing presentation of your works.

It can be done in many ways – photo slideshows, video presentations, thumbnail galleries, etc. For example, if you’re a logo designer, ensure you show a great quality picture of a logo in different variations. Put the logo on products, business cards, show it in different colors – this will extend your competence.

Take a look at this portfolio website . It’s created by London-based designer and writer Tim Smith. In it, he is showcasing his work using a thumbnail gallery.

Your about page lets your potential clients see who is behind the work, get a glance of who you are, and if they would like working with you. You might ask, where do I start? Start with the most essential – with yourself. To make it easier, here is the checklist of crucial about page elements:

It sounds obvious but so many portfolios don’t have it. What if your potential client wants to do research about you, LinkedIn for example? Hi, I am Matt… is a great start to continue a story about yourself.

Picture of You

A picture gives a more personal touch. A portrait of you or a nice shot of you working on a new design. It’s the most original way to give visitors a sense of who you are. Make it simple but inviting.

Information About Yourself

Show your personality by telling a story about your professional and personal experience. Your education, what you have learned to do, projects you loved working with, awards, and recognition. Use this page to show your skills, the way you think and what are your passions. Make it brief, pleasant and memorable.

Below is an “About” page example from an Art Director, Marcin Dmoch. He presents himself using bright color design and little pieces of stories telling about his professional experience and best projects. He also has attached a downloadable CV for easy printing or resending the file to others. It’s a clean design containing all the key elements needed for an effective about page.

Case studies or presentations are the best way of demonstrating the full scope of your projects. Each project should have its own story that shows the progress of the whole process, from beginning to the final outcome. Break down this creative process with lots of photos and notes revealing what’s behind each project.

This way your visitors can get a sense of what your projects are like, and how you moved from the initial planning phase to completion. Here are the components to include in your case study:

• Purpose of the project: Why did you start the project.
• Objective: What you accomplished.
• Approach: How you accomplished it.
• Project duration: How long it took you.
• Your role: How you contributed to the team or project.
• Final product overview: Pictures, videos, links, etc.

Here is a good example of showing off case studies from Darian Rosebrook , a web designer, and branding consultant. He uses his portfolio to present the previous work through an article that reveals the essence of each project.

Another example is Kinsta. They don’t have a portfolio website, but their case studies page is a good example of a well thought out design intended to show off the work they are proud of to potential clients.

Does building out your case studies section take some time? Of course, but it’s a must-have for any portfolio website.

Having some words from your clients can be very meaningful for those who just landed on your page. You can list your skills and tell how great you are but letting others say it can have a big influence . Reach out to your previous clients and ask for quotes that you can use on your website. People who enjoyed working with you will gladly praise your good work with a testimonial.

Check out this example below from graphic designer Francesca McWhirter. To make her testimonial page really pop, she starts with a dynamic hero image and then continues with the customer testimonials below it.

A call to action compliments the purpose of your portfolio. To help you come up with a call to action for your site, remind yourself of the purpose of your website. What are the actions you want visitors to take? Your website should provide various ways clients can contact you. Be sure to include your business email address even if you use a contact form as some clients prefer it over forms.

In the example below, creative agency Lounge Lizard offers various ways for clients to get in touch. You can use an email address or fill out the “Request a Proposal” form to get an offer straight in your inbox.

Blogging is a fantastic way to share how you think and add value to those who want to collaborate. Creating regular blog content gives visitors a reason to revisit your website. It’s also great for SEO – Google loves qualitative content!

However, blogs are not the only approach. To build a buzz around your work, social media work great as well. For example, Instagram with it’s 1 billion active users is a great way to showcase your work, style, and show your unique personality. It helps to build trust and grow a relevant audience. Content marketing can also mean your own YouTube channel , a podcast or webinars. Choose your favorite way and express yourself. Creative artist Elsa Muse is a good example, she writes her own blog and posts on Instagram.

Don’t forget to syndicate your work! Just like with content syndication, you can upload your best work to places like Behance and Dribbble . So even though you might have an amazing portfolio website, make sure to take advantage of these other networks for additional free traffic.

Extra Things to Include

Your portfolio website can include anything. Apart from the basic key elements, there are more items that can highlight your site even more. A working prototype demo, free samples of icon sets, free software, themes, and even plugins.

If you have any guest appearances on blogs, podcasts, press, entertainment channels – be sure to mention them. Interviews are great for further reading if clients want to learn more about your personality and work. Also, be proud of your achievements and don’t be afraid to share details about your awards.

When you are building a website, it is important to make sure it is effective, functional and easy to maintain. Choosing the right tools is important to build a professional-looking portfolio site. One of the best and most popular website building platforms – WordPress is a perfect solution for freelancers. WordPress gives you power out of the box offering functionality through countless available themes and plugins .

WordPress theme controls the visual aspect of your website: the design, colors, and a layout. Conversely, plugins are extensions of WordPress that take the core WordPress software and edit or remove its functionality.

Page elements like contact forms, image slide-shows, marketing pop-up bars are pieces of your website that are usually created and added using a WordPress plugin. You shouldn’t overdose your website with too many plugins, as this can (not always) make your site heavy and slow. Instead, you can create your WordPress site using a website builder and a few other must-have plugins. This can save you time and help you to launch your portfolio faster (artists usually don’t have much time to spend building their own sites, right?)

After choosing the platform, the next thing you’ll need is a domain name and hosting. If you’re a freelance designer, grabbing your name in the domain name can be great for personal branding.

A quality WordPress host, like Kinsta , will ensure that your website stays online, is fast to navigate, and always available for your potential clients. Using included hosting features such as a CDN can help ensure all those beautiful showcase images load lightning fast around the globe. And don’t forget to optimize them !

Take your portfolio as an opportunity to surprise and impress your potential clients. A portfolio website lets you show off all of your work in one place. This not only looks good to a client, but it can also help inspire you on your next projects.

Tell others about your skills and personality. Express your uniqueness through case studies. Be searchable and keep the pace with your competitors. There are no rules and everything goes as long as you are able to make the visitor smile and remember you.

Linda is the Marketing Manager at Visual Composer . She enjoys the interaction between creativity and technology. You can follow her on Twitter: @LindaRagaine .

Related Articles and Topics

15 Awesome WordPress Page Builders to Cut Out Coding

WordPress Free vs Paid Themes: Which is Right for Your Next Project?

• Digital Marketing
• Local Development

Awesome post! This is worth the share. Keep up the quality work.

Great article. Thanks for the effort and research

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

By submitting this form: You agree to the processing of the submitted personal data in accordance with Kinsta's Privacy Policy , including the transfer of data to the United States.

You also agree to receive information from Kinsta related to our services, events, and promotions. You may unsubscribe at any time by following the instructions in the communications received.

12 Standout Website Design Portfolio Examples

• Orlee Gillis
• on Web Design
• Updated on: 16.02.21

A web design portfolio is a hand-picked showcase of projects and case studies that a designer chooses to present his best and most promising work examples to potential clients or employers. In the web design industry, portfolios are considered a point of introduction where designers have their first opportunity to introduce themselves, their personality, their artistic style, professionalism, and so on. Web design portfolios can include anything from live websites that the designer built, sample projects, case studies, web design templates , or even smaller-scale assets such as typography design, illustrations, logos, etc. 

As budding web creators, the time has come for us to develop a solid understanding of how web design portfolios can accelerate our careers as designers, and of the strategic thinking and planning that must go into the process of creating an impressive, sophisticated design portfolio. 

In this post, we will identify the key features that every web design portfolio should include, and derive best practices from some of the most powerful web design portfolio examples that we have come across during our research. 

Table of Contents

• Why Do Designers Need a Web Design Portfolio?​

What Should a Web Design Portfolio Include?

12 stellar examples of web design portfolios.

• 1. Robert Bürgel: Using Motion Effects To Showcase Your Talent​
• 2. ZORiN: Emphasizing Your Personal Brand​
• 3. Ueno: A Portfolio Showcasing Products, Brands and Experiences​

4. Adrien Gervaix: Sharing Your Product Design Process

5. buzzworthy: portfolio meets personality, 6. inaki soria: building client relationships through remote freelancing.

• 7. Komini Media: Using White Space Wisely​
• 8. BALLSY MEDIA: Portfolio Meets Personality​
• 9. SANJOO: Using a Content-First Approach​
• 10. Elegant Seagulls: Communicating Your Identity Through Design​

11. Codepuffin: A Colorful Portfolio That Stands Out

• 12. Studio 081: Always State Your Value Proposition​

Why Do Designers Need a Web Design Portfolio?

There are many indisputable reasons why every web designer needs a killer web design portfolio in order to put his best foot forward and get hired for the web design projects he has equipped himself to master. This is true not only for establishing his own credibility, but also for increasing his likelihood of getting hired for promising, high-caliber projects.

Reason #1: Online Portfolios Make You Searchable and Accessible To Clients

Everybody knows that nowadays, it’s all about Google. When employers are looking for a web designer, whether they specialize in a certain vertical or are located in a specific location, searching accordingly online will bring them one step closer to their candidates. 

When potential clients are looking, for example, for a freelance web designer based in Seattle, Washington, they’re likely to search for “freelance web designer in Seattle”, or something similar. If your design portfolio meets the SEO requirements , so that you’ll appear in those search results, you’re in good shape for landing that gig.

Reason #2: Online Portfolios Demonstrate Your Expertise

When looking to hire an independent web designer or a design agency, clients are primarily interested in seeing the concrete work that the designer or designers are capable of producing. 

True, stating different factors such as which tools you use for design, which design niche you specialize in , and so on, are questions that clients want to tick off on their hiring checklist, but they are in fact most interested in seeing work examples. Once they see what you can come up with, they can get a better sense of whether or not your design expertise, style, etc. are a good fit for what they’re looking for. 

This means they want to see real, tangible projects that creative professionals have done in the past. Clients want to see what your thought process involves, and how you would take their ideas and turn them into visual content, and apply your creativity and design skills while doing so. They want to see how you respond to challenges, and how you take a blank canvas and produce a unique, impressionable website that effectively communicates who they are and what they do.

Reason #3: Clients Are Short on Time

There’s also a practical side involved to why those looking to hire find project showcases and case studies to be a more efficient way of evaluating designer candidates. Clients who are seeking design professionals to create their website often receive hundreds of portfolios and resumes. Time is of the essence, deadlines need to be met, and people are looking to have their questions answered quickly. 

This means that sifting through pages of explanations of who you are as a designer and why your experience is relevant is less appealing to those short on time. Instead, reviewing projects you have completed can be a time-efficient way for clients to evaluate whether your skills are a good fit for what they need.

Reason #4: Let Clients Get To Know You

The client-designer relationship is a crucial element in a successful design project. It’s more than just building a mutual understanding of what the client needs and what the designer can create. There’s communication involved, and a personal connection that needs to “click”. This is why when viewing your portfolio, prospective customers will want to get to know you as a person, as an individual, to understand who they’d be working with and what kind of dynamic will be contributed to their team of professionals. 

The forum for letting your portfolio visitors get to know you is often on your About page, which you can think of as an individual or one-on-one version of the standard About Us page page that you’ll typically see on company websites. We’ll delve into this portfolio component later in the post. 

Letting clients get to know you isn’t only about writing your story in the About page. It’s about identifying which elements in your personality you want to emphasize, such as your bold taste and knack for bright color schemes, or your way with words which is manifest in the titles and descriptions you use throughout the portfolio. You can also consider your choice of imagery as a way to represent your personality, whether it’s choosing photographs of beautiful scenery and landscapes, contemporary illustrations, pictures of you hard at work with walls of mind maps around your workspace, and so on. The floor is yours.

Reason #5: Define Your Design Niche or Specialty

As seasoned web creators, we know that designers often categorize themselves based on what types of businesses and websites they’re experienced with and are passionate about. These design niches can range from Ecommerce websites, to online news sites, or personal services such as personal trainers and therapists. Potential clients will want to not only see work that you’ve done that is similar to what they’re looking for, but they’ll also want to know that you understand their industry both in terms of business needs and audience interests. 

Design niches are not only about industries and verticals, they’re also about web design trends and website styles. If, for example, a business owner is interested in creating a website that contains video backgrounds and savvy motion effects , they’ll want to see whether or not you’ve worked with those types of features before.

When it comes to fundamentals, there are five key questions that a web designer’s portfolio should answer:

• Who you are
• What you do
• Your location
• The work you have to share
• How to contact you 

As we discussed earlier, web design portfolios are about cutting to the chase – answering the key questions that prospective clients may have when they’re interested in learning about your work and services. Dedicating one section or page to each of these questions will be a thorough and organized way to make sure your portfolio delivers every answer your site visitor is looking for.

Homepage: A Brief Introduction

You can think of your design portfolio’s homepage as serving a similar purpose to any website’s homepage: creating an infrastructure and understanding that will allow the website visitor to navigate your site. In the case of design portfolios, the homepage will generally include a 2-3 sentence short bio that describes “who you are” in a nutshell, as well as specifying where you’re located. If a potential client is based in Barcelona and is only looking to hire a designer who’s based in Spain, he’ll want to know right away whether you fit that criteria. 

Alternatively, many companies are open to hiring remote-based designers, so if you’re open to working remotely, it’s helpful to specify that as well. Be sure to include the services you provide, although this section can also appear on your About page (or both). It’s important that website visitors understand exactly what you specialize in and if what you can offer is relevant to what they might need. In fact, many web design portfolios will have a separate page called “Services”, that’s dedicated to explaining the type of services the designer or agency provides.

About: Who You Are

This is where things get personal, and it’s your time to shine – to tell your very own personal story. It’s good to answer questions such as: “What introduced you to design?”, “Why is design important to you?”, “How can you use design to make a difference?”. You’ll want to be as unique as possible (but still conventional, on some level), and use the opportunity to shine among your competition. Employers look for designers who are bold, confident, and passionate about the work they do. This is exactly what you want to communicate. 

You can also think of your About page in a similar light to how you go about a job interview. This entails answering questions like “Describe a problem you experienced and how it made you want to be a designer”, “What makes you unique in your design work?”, “How can you contribute to a company?”, and so on. Ultimately, your “About” page should give an idea of the kind of person you are to work with, and how you can breed amazing results by creating the client’s website.

Work: What You Have To Share

This is where you need to think carefully about which of your web design projects best represent your skills, experience, and style as a designer. 

It’s also good to specify what your design workflow involved, such as what tools you used, etc. You should also make sure to include a link to the prototype or to the live website itself.

Don’t forget the value of adding testimonials to your portfolio, whether on the Work page or on a different page or section as you see fit. Potential clients will want to see good, positive feedback from real customers that you’ve worked with, and the value of customer reviews is not to be sniffed at. These also account for a positive, enjoyable relationship between you and your employers, which those looking to hire always like to see.

Contact: The Best Way To Get in Touch

Your Contact page is possibly one of the most important components of your design portfolio site. Without it, you may lose prospects simply because they couldn’t figure out how to get in touch with you. That being said, your Contact page is possibly the easiest page to design among all your other pages. It’s basically just a landing page , and the more minimalistic it is, the better. 

We recommend using a large image (ideally a portrait or candid photo of yourself), and a simple contact form . It’s also helpful to add a social icons bar to your most active social media channels. This way, if potential employers prefer to contact you on LinkedIn or even Facebook Messenger, it will be convenient and comfortable to do so. It’s all about accommodating the customer’s wishes!

1. Robert Bürgel: Using Motion Effects To Showcase Your Talent

This visual communication office’s opening design (hero section) knocks us off our feet. Building his website with Elementor, Robert Bürgel definitely knows how to make his and his agency’s presence known, yet in such a sophisticated, classy way. The swimming fish motion effect is captivating to say the least, and this Düsseldorf-based graphics agency is clearly full of talent, creativity and uniqueness.

2. ZORiN: Emphasizing Your Personal Brand

Roman Zorin is a Russian web designer who exhibits a succinct talent for taking the conventional design portfolio format and using Elementor to infuse it with creativity and a thought-provoking flair. His website does exactly what we mentioned earlier about the designer showing their thought process and design workflow that take place throughout their projects. Each section of the homepage communicates the necessary content, including the design tools he most commonly uses for his web design projects. 

Finally, he provides a professional brand guideline for his personal brand, which indicates just how experienced and sophisticated his design approach is.

3. Ueno: A Portfolio Showcasing Products, Brands and Experiences

Ueno is a world-class branding agency that serves some of the world’s biggest brands with branding, product design, websites, etc. Their portfolio site is full of their brand personality, and each page immediately gives you the sense of what they’re about: relationships, humor, creativity, and top-class design.

Adrien Gervaix is a freelance Product and UX/Ui designer based in Lille, France. Adrien uses a bold blue background to surround his modest presentation of his impressive project showcase. There are many unique design details that Adrien enhances his portfolio with, such as the animated paper airplane on the homepage,the navigation scheme in the header, and especially the “Values & Process” section which maps out the process of his design workflow and how he approaches each project.

Buzzworthy is a Brooklyn-based digital studio that specializes in developing custom WordPress sites. In terms of their portfolio site’s design, they definitely take the cake with uniqueness, as the centered, vertical menu down the middle that directs visitors to each of their portfolio projects is truly like none we’ve ever seen before. That, among other design details, is what we love it for.

Inaki Soria is a Barcelona-based (but works remotely) freelance designer whose profile emphasizes his guiding principle of how important the communication and relationship between designer and client is. His choice of imagery and screenshots that represent samples of projects he’s done are each crystal clear and easy to browse, so the visual communication is also top-notch.

7. Komini Media: Using White Space Wisely

Komini Media is an advertising agency based in Gothenburg, Sweden – who built their website with Elementor. Their site caught our attention for many reasons, one of the main ones being their clever use of white space throughout the homepage and the variation font sizes as you scroll down. If you take a look at their navigation menu, it also boasts some unusual yet beautiful hover effects on the menu items.

8. BALLSY MEDIA: Portfolio Meets Personality

BALLSY MEDIA is a digital agency based in Northumberland, a county in the northernmost county of England (bordering Scotland). Built with Elementor 3.0, what sets this agency website apart as a design portfolio is how much its design scheme mirrors its uniqueness as a business: it’s located way, way up north on the globe. The agency chooses to take this character trait and integrate it into their design identity: the interactive dark sky, the rocky, mountainous landscape, and the deep blue that represents the infinite, surrounding sky. Ultimately, this portfolio illustrates how impactful it can be to take one of your individual character traits and use it to define your portfolio’s design scheme.

9. SANJOO: Using a Content-First Approach

SANJOO is the Elementor-built portfolio website of K Sanju Singha, a digital marketing freelancer based in India. His site is actually one page only, yet is still varied, interesting and completely dynamic. We enjoy his text-based design approach, as well as combined menu popup and contact form that are triggered by clicking on the menu icon.

10. Elegant Seagulls: Communicating Your Identity Through Design

Elegant Seagulls is a digital creative agency based in Marquette, Michigan. This portfolio is what we consider to be a prime example of making your mission statement as a designer (or designers) known. This is prevalent on their homepage, their About page, where they outline their “strategy”, “concepting”, “refinement”, and so on. Last but not least, their sophisticated “Portfolio” page which features their case studies indicates the importance of presenting case studies in your design portfolio. Once you click on the case study thumbnail, the project page dedicates a clear, content-first page, filled with white space and crisp images of their polished UI designs.

Codepuffin is a web developer business (a one woman show) run by a New Zealand-based developer named Amy. Amy’s portfolio, built with Elementor 3.0, is bold and beautiful in every sense: bold colors, a logo with unique typography , and many other visual highlights. One truly unique component of Amy’s site is the way she features customer testimonials as well as her link to her Instagram page just below it. The testimonials quote is integrated smoothly into the page, with clear, readable text and an inviting blue background to finish off the page-scrolling experience.

12. Studio 081: Always State Your Value Proposition

Studio 081 is a boutique web and graphic design based in Montenegro. This is another clear example of a brand/professional who uses Elementor to build a website that positions their brand as being fully at one and clear with their value proposition. This strategy allows website visitors and potential clients to understand what the added value of working with these designers and professionals is all about. On the whole, their contact page and form are clear and accessible, their social icons are easily visible, and the thumbnail images used in their portfolio gallery do justice to their beautiful work.

Show Us What You’re Made of

In this article, we saw how creating a design portfolio can leave a lasting impression on employers. By doing this, you’re embracing your chance to show (and even prove) your unique talent – making it clear and obvious for people to understand where your strengths and talents as a designer lie. 

Portfolios that are overly generic suggest that as a design professional, there is no real specialty or niche, nor a clear message in the designer’s work. Finding the balance between following best practices of a web design portfolio, all the while adding your individual, one-of-a-kind style and skills – will attract potential clients to explore your portfolio further and take an interest in hiring you for their next project. 

Make sure to share your portfolio with us, by posting it in the Facebook community and sharing it in the comments below.

Looking for fresh content?

By entering your email, you agree to receive Elementor emails, including marketing emails, and agree to our Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy .

Product Design Bundle and save

User Research New

Content Design

UX Design Fundamentals

Software and Coding Fundamentals for UX

• UX training for teams
• Hire our alumni
• Journal of UX Leadership
• Our mission
• Advisory Council

Education for every phase of your UX career

Professional Diploma

Learn the full user experience (UX) process from research to interaction design to prototyping.

Combine the UX Diploma with the UI Certificate to pursue a career as a product designer.

Professional Certificates

Learn how to plan, execute, analyse and communicate user research effectively.

Learn the principles of content design, from mastering tone and style, to writing for interfaces.

Understand the fundamentals of UI elements and design systems, as well as the role of UI in UX.

Short Courses

Gain a solid foundation in the philosophy, principles and methods of user experience design.

Learn the essentials of software development so you can work more effectively with developers.

Give your team the skills, knowledge and mindset to create great digital products

Join our hiring programme and access our list of certified professionals.

Learn about our mission to set the global standard in UX education

Meet our leadership team with UX and education expertise

Members of the council connect us to the wider UX industry

Our team are available to answer any of your questions

Fresh insights from experts, alumni and the wider design community

Read stories from our students who have made successful careers in UX after completing our course

Your ultimate UX portfolio presentation guide: How to present your UX design portfolio in a job interview

If you’re applying for UX design jobs, you can expect to give a UX portfolio presentation as part of the interview process. This is your chance to talk through some of your favourite portfolio projects—and to show the hiring panel what you’re capable of. It’s a nerve-wracking task, but it’s a crucial step towards landing a UX job. 

The State of UX Hiring Report 2024

Learn how to start your UX career with hard facts and practical advice from those who have gone before you. In this report, we look at UX hiring trends in 2024 to help you break into the industry.

If you’re applying for UX design jobs, you can expect to give a UX portfolio presentation as part of the interview process. 

This is your chance to talk through some of your favourite portfolio projects—and to show the hiring panel what you’re capable of. It’s a nerve-wracking task, but it’s a crucial step towards landing a UX job. 

New to UX interviews and portfolio presentations? Then keep reading. 

This is your ultimate UX portfolio presentation guide . We’ll show you not only how to structure your UX portfolio presentation, but how to deliver it successfully on the day.

Here’s what you’ll learn:

What is a UX portfolio presentation?

What should a ux portfolio presentation include, how long should your ux portfolio presentation be.

• How to structure your UX portfolio presentation: A framework 
• How to prepare for (and ace) your UX portfolio presentation: 5 steps

Ready to become a UX portfolio presentation pro? Let’s begin. 

[GET CERTIFIED IN UX]

A UX portfolio presentation is a key step in the UX hiring process . Whenever you apply for a UX or product design role, you’ll likely be required to present your portfolio to a panel—either in person or via Zoom. Typically, the UX portfolio presentation takes place once you’ve passed the initial phone screen(s) and have moved to the interview stage. 

What’s the purpose of a UX portfolio presentation?

Your UX portfolio presentation is your opportunity to show the hiring manager, and the wider team, what you’re capable of. You’ll talk them through 1 or 2 portfolio projects, giving insight into your UX design process and your approach to problem-solving. 

It’s also a chance for the hiring manager to assess your communication and presentation skills. Most UX roles will require you to present to stakeholders, so employers want to make sure that you can effectively communicate your work. 

Your UX portfolio presentation should include the following:

• A brief yet powerful introduction: Tell the hiring panel who you are and what you’re all about before you jump into the presentation itself.
• 1 or 2 case studies: These are the crux of your UX portfolio presentation, demonstrating your skills, process, and problem-solving approach in action.
• Outcomes and learnings: For each case study you present, you’ll show the panel not only what you achieved but also what you learned.
• Supporting visuals: Just like your portfolio itself, your UX portfolio presentation should contain plenty of interesting visuals to illustrate the story of each project and ensure the presentation is engaging.
• Q&A: At the end of the presentation, be prepared to answer questions (usually about 10-15 minutes). 

Hiring managers will usually allocate between 45 minutes and 1 hour for your UX portfolio presentation. The recruiter should be able to provide you with the timeframe. But, if not, plan to present for around 40 minutes and leave enough time for questions at the end. As with any kind of presentation, practise a few times beforehand to make sure you’ve got plenty of time to cover everything at a comfortable speed. 

[GET CERTIFIED IN UI DESIGN]

How to structure your UX portfolio presentation

There is no universally approved template for a UX portfolio presentation. However, there are certain key components that all portfolio presentations should include, as well as a broad structure that will help you tell a logical story.

Here’s an outline you can use to structure your UX portfolio presentation. And remember: it’s just a template—adapt it to make it work for you. 

• Opening slide
• Introduction (a bit about you)
• UX portfolio case studies
• Closing slide

With that framework in mind, here’s how to structure your UX portfolio presentation .

1. Opening slide

Every good presentation begins with an opening slide. It doesn’t need to be fancy—it’s just nice to have it up on the screen while the audience settles in and you make any final preparations. 

This slide can be as simple as your name, your professional title, and the presentation title, or you can jazz it up with some fun visuals. 

2. Introduction (a bit about you)

First things first: introduce yourself. 

There may be people on the panel who haven’t met you yet, so take a moment to share who you are, what you do, and why you’re passionate about UX design (or your niche area if you’re going for a specialist role such as UX researcher or UX writer ). If you have time, you might also share a fun fact about yourself. This can be a good icebreaker!

This is just a quick overview of what you’ll cover throughout your UX portfolio presentation. It gives the audience an idea of what’s to come, and in what order. As you introduce the projects you’ll present, it’s also worth explaining why you’ve chosen to highlight these particular projects. Take this moment to convey your passion for what you do. 

4. UX case studies

Your case studies will span several slides. Begin with a title slide introducing the name of the project and, if you haven’t done so already, explain why you’ve chosen to include this project in your UX portfolio presentation. 

Is it based on a topic you’re passionate about? Did it present a particularly valuable learning curve? Was it one of your most successful projects? Explain why you’re excited to share this project—and get the hiring panel excited, too. 

Next, you’ll want to cover the following points for each case study. Each point can span 1 or 2 slides as necessary, and you can combine several points into one. All that matters is that you tell a clear, cohesive story which the hiring panel can follow. 

• Project overview: What is the project about? Set the scene and provide important context. Here you can talk about when/in what context you completed the project—for example, as part of your UX design course or bootcamp or at a previous job.
• Your role: Who were you collaborating with and what was your contribution? Explain who was involved in the project and where you fit into the team. What were your main responsibilities and areas of expertise? Who did you collaborate with along the way? This is a great opportunity to demonstrate teamwork while clearly defining your individual role.

• Your approach: How did you go about solving the problem? Provide a high-level overview of the process you followed to address the design challenge. For example, your approach might have looked something like: User research, ideation, prototyping, testing and iterating, development.
• A closer look at your process and specific methods: Zoom in on specific aspects of the process—outlining the methods you used, why you used them, what value or purpose they served, and how they shaped your design decisions. For example, if one aspect of your approach was user research , explain which research methods you used and why, as well as what insights they helped you to uncover.
• The solution: Where did your chosen process and methods lead to? How did you arrive at the final solution? Refer back to the original problem and explain how you reached your final solution. It’s worth sharing the different solutions you considered before making a decision—outlining the pros and cons of each and explaining why the chosen solution made the most sense.
• The end results: What did or does your solution look like? You’ve explained how you came up with a solution to the problem. Now share how that solution looks (or looked) in action. Did you design new features for an app or come up with user personas ? What was the impact of the solution? Are there any measurable results you can share, either for the business or the end user?
• Learnings and reflections: What did you learn from the project? What challenges did you face and how did you overcome them? What would you do differently next time? Even if you’re highlighting this as your most successful project, it’s unlikely that everything went completely smoothly. Impress the hiring panel with your ability to reflect and learn by sharing what you’d do differently next time, or how you course-corrected along the way.
• Questions: You’ll usually have a longer Q&A session at the end of your portfolio presentation, but it’s worth carving out some additional time at the end of each case study. This encourages the panel to engage and gives you the chance to elaborate on points of interest. 

5. Q&A session

Once you’ve talked the panel through your UX projects, wrap up your portfolio presentation with a Q&A. Thank your audience for listening and say you’d be happy to answer any questions they have. 

6. Closing slide

Just like your opening slide, this is a nice bookend to your presentation. A simple “Thank you for listening!” is perfect—but, as always, feel free to get creative with visuals if you want to inject some extra personality. 

Compiling your presentation is just one part of the process. To close our guide, we’ll outline 5 key steps you can follow to prepare for—and ace—your UX portfolio presentation .

How to prepare for (and ace) your UX portfolio presentation 

We’ve shown you how to structure your UX portfolio presentation. But what other preparation is involved?

Follow these steps to ensure your UX portfolio presentation is a success:

• Choose the projects you want to showcase
• Write an outline for each project case study
• Prepare your UX portfolio presentation slides
• Practice with a timer (and with an audience)
• Anticipate possible questions from the hiring panel

1. Choose the projects you want to showcase

The purpose of your UX portfolio presentation is to show the hiring team what you’re capable of. Before you start putting your presentation together, spend some time going through your UX portfolio and choosing which projects to showcase. 

You might simply go for your favourite projects or the ones you’re most proud of—and that’s not a bad approach. You want to be able to talk passionately and enthusiastically about your work. However, make sure you’re also choosing projects that highlight the skills and qualities the employer is looking for.

For example: if you’re going for a UX research role, you’ll want to present a project where you were responsible for user research. If you’re interviewing with a healthcare company and you’ve worked on a healthcare app in the past, that would be a good case study to highlight.

In short: Choose the projects which best demonstrate your suitability for the job.

2. Write an outline for each project case study

You’ve chosen your projects; now you need to plan how you’ll present them. Before you start putting your presentation deck together, draft an outline of how you’ll talk about each project and the main points you’ll cover. 

Hopefully, you’ve already been through the process of creating your UX portfolio and have several projects written up in the form of detailed case studies—which you can use as the basis for your presentation. You can refer back to our UX portfolio presentation framework (in the previous section) for an overview of the kind of detail to include, and here are the main points at a glance: 

• Project overview
• The problem you were solving
• Your approach, process, and methods
• The solution and end results

At this stage, your project outlines don’t need to be word perfect. The main goal is to have a clear idea of what each project should demonstrate—and how you’ll get the most important points across. 

In short: Pick out the most important points you want to cover for each portfolio project and draft an outline. 

3. Prepare your UX portfolio presentation slides

With your portfolio projects chosen and your outlines drafted, you’re ready to compile your UX portfolio presentation. For this step, follow the presentation framework we outlined earlier on in this guide. 

Here’s a recap of how to structure your UX portfolio presentation:

• Title slide
• Case studies
• Closing slide (thanks for listening!)

Now you might be wondering which format your presentation should take. Always read the recruiter’s instructions carefully to see if they’ve specified any exact requirements. If not, use your tool of choice to create a presentation deck (e.g. Google Slides) and be sure to download it in PDF format, too. You never know what the WiFi situation will be on the day, so make sure you can access your presentation offline if you need to. 

When it comes to designing your presentation deck, follow all the usual design rules and principles —clear, legible text, plenty of contrast, and a good image-to-text ratio. Beyond that, you have all the creative freedom you could ask for. 

In short: Use a tool like Google Slides to design and compile your UX portfolio presentation deck. Download it as a PDF, too, in case the Internet fails you on the day.

4. Practice with a timer (and with an audience)

One of the trickiest parts of a UX portfolio presentation is getting the timing right. You want to provide enough detail without going on for too long—and you want to present at a comfortable pace. 

Once you’ve put your presentation deck together, practice going through it with a timer. Most UX portfolio presentations last between 45 minutes and an hour (the recruiter should let you know how long you’ve got), so make sure you can get through the whole thing without rushing. 

Based on your practice runs, make cuts (or additions) to get your presentation to the ideal length. 

Then, if you can, practise in front of an audience. This will help you to make sure you’re telling a cohesive and logical story about each project. If your practice audience can easily follow along and finds your presentation engaging, you’re onto a winner. If they have feedback, iterate and adapt til you get it right. 

In short: Practise your presentation in front of an audience and with a timer. This will ensure you’ve got the length just right, and that you’re communicating clearly and effectively. 

5. Anticipate possible questions from the hiring panel

Most UX portfolio presentations will end with questions from the hiring panel, so it’s a good idea to anticipate what these questions might be. 

They might ask about specific aspects of your UX projects, or about your design process in general. Brainstorm some possible questions (you can ask your practice audience to come up with some, too) and think about how you’ll answer them.

While it’s impossible to anticipate exactly what will come up, having some answers prepared will help you to enter your UX portfolio presentation feeling confident and ready.

In short: Brainstorm possible questions the hiring panel might ask you and think about how to answer them. 

Wrapping up

We’ve covered everything you need to know about structuring and delivering an effective UX portfolio presentation. Hopefully, with the help of this guide, you can tackle your UX job search with confidence. For more helpful career advice and resources, check out these guides:

• Are you just starting out in UX? Here’s how to reframe your previous work experience (and use it to your advantage)
• How to recognise UX maturity while job hunting (and why it matters)
• What kind of salary can you expect as a UX designer?
• UX Portfolios

Subscribe to our newsletter

Get the best UX insights and career advice direct to your inbox each month.

Thanks for subscribing to our newsletter

You'll now get the best career advice, industry insights and UX community content, direct to your inbox every month.

Upcoming courses

Professional diploma in ux design.

Learn the full UX process, from research to design to prototyping.

Professional Certificate in UI Design

Master key concepts and techniques of UI design.

Certificate in Software and Coding Fundamentals for UX

Collaborate effectively with software developers.

Certificate in UX Design Fundamentals

Get a comprehensive introduction to UX design.

Professional Certificate in Content Design

Learn the skills you need to start a career in content design.

Professional Certificate in User Research

Master the research skills that make UX professionals so valuable.

Upcoming course

Build your UX career with a globally-recognised, industry-approved certification. Get the mindset, the skills and the confidence of UX designers.

You may also like

Your guide to landing a job in UX: Top insights from UX Design Institute’s State of UX Hiring Report 2024

UX designer salaries in the UK in 2024

What does a UX writer (also known as a content designer) do? Everything you need to know

Build your UX career with a globally recognised, industry-approved qualification. Get the mindset, the confidence and the skills that make UX designers so valuable.

Pro Tips: Building an Impressive Design Portfolio

Choose your best work

"Clients sometimes can't envision how your design would look in practice, so make sure to include links for them to see it in action for themselves."

Focus on presentation

"Always keep your presentation relevant to the position you're applying to. For example, if you're applying for UI/UX design, create a portfolio that serves as a use case for your solutions. If you do typography, use one of your custom fonts throughout your portfolio. The best way to present your design solutions is to show them in use."

Showcase your creative process

"More often than not, the story will be more important than the end result. Your design doesn't necessarily need to be appealing to everyone. It needs to cater to the client's needs and bring in the target audience. If that's clear from your case study, then you did well."

Choose the right platform

Build your own website.

"Make sure to also tell clients a thing or two about yourself. Design is a individualized process and the client will want to know who you are as a person in order to decide whether you're a good fit."

Don't forget your contact info

And what about your docs, "i'm awesome, give me the job" doesn't work.

How to Get Web Design Clients: 6 Ways to Position Yourself as a Web Design Expert

If you're wondering how to get web design clients for your business, you're in the right place. Here are 6 ways to expand your business today.

Design Proposal Writing 101: How to Win Great Design Clients Easily

To win great design clients, you need to have a great design proposal. Here's what you can do to impress more clients.

20 Unique Portfolio Layouts and Presentations

Line25 is reader supported. At no cost to you a commission from sponsors may be earned when a purchase is made via links on the site. Learn more

Many freelancers designers rely on their portfolio to land them new client work, so it’s of high importance to make sure you’re providing enough information about yourself and capturing the interest of your potential customers.

If you want to stand out in this competitive design market, it’s important to make your portfolio as impressive as you can. A touch of creativity and innovative thinking will get you a long way in your career, plus having both online and offline portfolios will also increase your visibility.

If you do a bit of research, you will definitely find thousands of inspiring and creative resumes  and design portfolios that can help and inspire you to design your own portfolio. There are also numerous portfolio WordPress Themes available on the web that you can use as-is or customize to your needs. Design portfolios come many shapes and sizes. If you’re looking to work on your  personal branding ,  these unique portfolio layouts and presentations will surely help you a lot!

But what do you have to include in your portfolio in order to make it more appealing to future clients? First of all, think about  what do you offer . There’s a massive range of skills that spread across the web design industry. Are you a front-end designer, a coder, a programmer? It’s hard enough for designers and developers to decide what job description fits each skill, so we can only imagine how confusing it can be for clients.

Talk about who you are.  The Internet is becoming more and more social, but it’s surprising how many people still don’t show their faces on their portfolio websites. A simple photograph can immediately give a personal connection between you and your clients and helps generate trust and authenticity of your services. You can even add a touch of humor with a silly message which further establishes an insight into your personality.

Who have you worked for? If you’re a veteran designer who has a number of high profile clients under your best, flaunt these on your portfolio. Having the logos of companies you’ve worked for (even if not household names) will give you extra cred that will help persuade any potential client to hire you.

How did you produce your work?  The typical approach to most portfolios is to simply attach a single image, but there’s so much more you can do to really present your work and give an insight into your design process. You can also write a short paragraph explaining the nature of the project and back up the final design with the initial sketches and detail shots to show just how much work went into the piece.

Check out these inspiring examples of design portfolios, brochures, resumes and presentations and don’t forget to let us know which one is your favorite! Also, make sure you read the tips on how to create the best portfolios!

Portfolio Booklet

This is a beautiful abstract print-ready portfolio. Get inspired by its cover design which can also be used as a brochure or company presentation.

My portfolio

This portfolio is subdivided into four sections: corporate, project, illustration and photography. The packing contains a graphic CV, a business card, and a CD.

Art Direction & Graphic Design by Chad Miller

Chad Miller is a graphic designer who created design, direction, and development for brand identity systems and digital campaigns for United Way, TimeWarner, Ray-Ban, and Honda.

Cereal is a bi-annual magazine about travel and style but also features exclusive stories, film articles, playlists and online travel guides. You can get inspired by its design and use some of the details in its layout for your new portfolio.

The Bergenfield Supply

The Bergenfield Supply is a seasonal publication about travel and lifestyle.  The art-direction and the design of the magazine are created by Sorbet Design and Nicole Millerwong.

MONO&TYPO No. 2

This is an example of visual clues versus natural eye movement created by Daniel Barba. Check out the layout and the way photography and typography were used in this design.

Cool Modern Brochure

This brochure is perfect to advertise your business in an original way. It has a horizontal design, available in A4 and letter paper formats. It contains 32 pages, which you can duplicate or reduce. Its classic design makes it easy to customize and edit.

Curriculum Vitae

This CV template, created by Fabio Moderno, has a contemporary and clean design. It will surely stand out and get you hired!

A5 Brochure – Booklet Template Minimal Portfolio

These templates look sleek and professional. They are print-ready and very easy to customize using Adobe Photoshop or Adobe Indesign.  It is an ideal way to showcase your work as a professional photographer, digital artist or web designer.

Collected design works from 2008-2012

This is the portfolio of Molly Culbertson from 2008 to 2012, an online brochure which includes many spectacular designs.

Real Estate Stripes Brochure

This brochure is a perfect way to showcase your work. It was design for real estate companies but it can be successfully used as a portfolio template. It has a horizontal design, available in A4 and letter paper formats. It contains 32 pages, which you can duplicate or reduce, and its minimal and modern design makes it easy to customize.

Bianco e nero

This process manual is an optimal combination of written and visual elements. The manual includes grid paper for sketching. It is available in a 2.0.version and it is a great inspiration for designers as well.

This project consists of the audio visualizations of the sonic environment of the different unique places in Singapore. It also includes photographs taken during audio recording.

4page Resume Template

This template pack is professionally designed and easy to customize. It contains a 2-page resume and matching cover letter, plus references page. Colors and fonts can be changed for a unique personal touch.

Professional Resume Template

This professional resume template was created by Fernando Baez and includes free fonts and icons. It’s simple and effective!

We Ain’t Plastic

This beautiful one-page portfolio for UI designer Roland Lösslein includes amazing transitions throughout the page. You can get inspired by this website design and incorporate some of its elements in a print-friendly portfolio!

Portfolio layout

This is a lovely portfolio/brochure layout inspired by God creating the world which included quotes from the Scripture.

Book binding

This is a creative DIY bookbinding tutorial featured in 8 images. Use this to create an amazing portfolio!

Viktor Daniel Portfolio

This is a simple portfolio brochure with a black and white, clean and minimalist design, which will emphasize the work you showcase in it.

Interior Design Brochure

This is an interior design brochure which can serve as inspiration for any other type of brochures or portfolios.

What about online portfolios ? Well, when designing for online, besides the tips we mentioned in the intro you should also ask yourself the following questions.

Are you blogging yet?  We always cite how a blog is one of the most crucial features of any designer portfolio website. A basic portfolio will end up gathering dust in the corner of the Internet, but a consistently updated blog will help you fly up the search engines and boost your exposure. On your blog, you can also give behind the scenes insight into the making of his brand and website.

Are you asking the right questions?  It’s too easy just to ask for a potential client’s name and email address, then struggle to generate an estimate or quote for their project. Make sure you’re collecting the vital details such as their budget and timeframe along with the finer details of their project to help you put together a concise quotation.

Are you available?  A simple addition to your portfolio website that can really help manage your daily emails is an availability status notice. If you find yourself having to constantly turn down clients due to being fully booked a notice stating your availability will help weed out those clients wanting a quick fix. Any clients who continue to get in touch will be comfortable with the expected delay.

Where else can clients find you?  We’ve already mentioned how social the web now is. If you’re an active user of networks such as Dribbble, Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn you should direct your viewers to connect. Not only will this help boost your friend and follower count, but it will also give potential clients further opportunities to check out your work, hobbies, and interests. You can add links to your social profiles with icons at the bottom of his portfolio, with an invite to be friends.

Related articles you may like

• Inspirational Showcase of UI/UX Design Presentations
• 25 Creative Powerpoint Templates for Awesome Presentations
• 20 Best Google Slides Templates for Beautiful Presentations
• Best Keynote Templates for Client Presentations

1 thought on “20 Unique Portfolio Layouts and Presentations”

This depends on if you’re going into web design or not. If you’re designing website templates, then using any pre-built service is going to look bad on your abilities. We call those Button Designers, because they can’t do anything unless a button does it for them.

Leave a Comment Cancel reply

Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.

• Inspiration
• Website Builders

In This Article

18. brad frost portfolio, 22. oropendola – oriol cervantes, 23. sara soueidan, 24. michael kolesidis – portfolio, 25. dvlpr – todor web developer, 26. carl beaverson portfolio, 27. simon le marchant – portfolio, what makes a good web developer portfolio, closing thoughts, related articles, 27 examples of web developer portfolios for inspiration.

Follow on Twitter

Updated on: February 14, 2024

Getting a job as a web developer requires some skills , but if you do not have a portfolio… how will you showcase those skills to the world?

Below are the top twenty (20) web developer portfolio examples that you can reference when seeking the right inspiration to build or improve your already existing portfolio. Because we know that having a professional portfolio is very important and it can mark the difference, we have selected what we think are the best developer portfolio examples in 2023.

[Updated the 20th of March 2023]

1. Lokkee Studios

Your browser does not support the video tag.

Ideal for responsive one-page portfolios with both horizontal and vertical sliders. It uses the fullPage.js component.

Lokkee is a passionate programming freelancer with top-notch experience in the web app and desktop application development. This includes full front-end design, brand identity, graphics, illustrations, etc.

Lokkee’s web developer portfolio makes great use of fullPage.js JavaScript component to create a beautiful full-screen experience that also serves as a way to prove his front-end skills.

If you are looking to build a portfolio with beautiful visuals and a few texts, you should consider using the fullPage.js fullscreen carousel. It will give your page a modern touch and will for sure be a different portfolio that will catch the viewer’s attention.

2. Lynn Fisher

In handy if you have many media and texts to include in your developer portfolio website.

Lynn Fisher is a digital illustrator, web developer, and UI/UX designer. Her portfolio changes yearly, which is a major feature that piqued our interest. All previous iterations are available on her “archive page.”

Her web dev portfolio includes “cliffhangers” to her past web work and art projects. She’s done it irresistibly that almost every visitor would want to engage these buttons to view. She also allows her visitors to choose between the light or dark theme , which is also worth considering.

If you want to start building your own portfolio you should check out the best portfolio web builders . Ideal to show off your no-code skills or to set up something beautiful and fast in no time.

3. Jack Jeznach

Recommended for developers with mastery of animation .

Jack is a WordPress expert and front-end developer with about 10 years of experience. How did we know all of these? Via his portfolio!

Jack’s portfolio is exhaustive informative , letting his visitors know everything and anything that needs to be known, especially about his skills and how he infuses them into helping clients smash their goals. This web dev portfolio has a blog page containing tech articles.

Jack explores seamless animation, with color combinations that work just perfectly – you would love it at first sight!

4. Cory Hughart

Recommended if you want to create a simple yet modern portfolio .

Fifth on our list of web developer portfolio examples is Cory’s website. The simple yet eye-catchy design and brilliant choice of words employed for this portfolio make it an excellent example to draw inspiration when creating your portfolio.

Cory has a unique heading created with a pixel design image. The website has a modern look, thanks to the background animation of an orbiting planetoid representing outer space Cory has included in the portfolio’s design.

Cory’s intro copy is excellent: although relatively short, the use of simple but memorable words encourages visitors to continue scrolling down the page.

5. Bruno Simon

Ideal for web developers who fancy 3D animation and want to amuse their visitors .

Bruno’s portfolio is the perfect description of aesthetics. His developer portfolio website is very interactive: a 3D setting where visitors can navigate with a jeep to various sections of the website. Bruno implements an excellent mastery of 3D animation to create a brilliant navigation system for his web dev portfolio, helping his visitors have a great user experience.

However, while the idea may seem perfect, it may be somewhat tiring and distracting. It may also be relatively difficult for potential clients who aren’t really “oriented” to navigate the portfolio quickly. Nonetheless, if you fancy interaction and want to amuse your visitors, then you can draw inspiration for your developer portfolio web from this design.

6. Dries Van Broeck

Recommended for web developers who have lots of text to include in their website.

Dries Van Broeck is a motion designer. And this reflects in his web dev portfolio’s design. Dries’ website is carefully designed, highlighting all important details, including the bright prompt text highlighting the author’s bio, the carousel, the small animated icons, etc.

Dries undoubtedly displays an expert level of design and development skills with his portfolio. His portfolio stood out for us because of the dynamic interactive effects it has on visitors, thanks to his appropriate use of animation and colors.

7. Gift Egwuenu

Ideal for developers who have more texts than media to include in their web developer portfolio.

Gift is a Netherlands-based front-end developer and content creator. Although simple , with straight-to-the-point details, Gift has also made her developer portfolio website beautiful and elegant .

The interesting thing about this website is its ease of navigation . It is also less distracting, including only a few animations and colors to catch visitors’ attention. Gift has also included a resource section on her portfolio where visitors can stay up-to-date with her as a content creator. The portfolio also allows visitors to switch between light and dark themes.

8. Patrick David

Good for web developers who prefer a text-only portfolio .

Another web developer portfolio to draw inspiration from is Patrick David’s portfolio. David is a web designer and front-end developer. He uses bold and big fonts in his portfolio. David masters the art of combining his big and bold fonts with the strikethrough chic effect, making his one-page portfolio portray confidence and originality.

If you like this one-page portfolio you may be also inspired by these 20 examples of one-page websites . They are not designed especially for web developers, but you know the quote: inspiration and creativity have no limits…

9. Brittany Chiang

For web developers with great mastery of color combination .

Brittany uses a brilliant, dark-schemed, one-page web developer portfolio . The portfolio’s design pays attention to every detail on the page. Although simple, the design is eye-catching: the consistent color scheme eliminates possible distractions, helping visitors have a great user experience on her website. The sticky header also aids easy navigation, helping visitors visit every part of the one-page website easily.

10. Matthew Williams

Suitable for front-end developers who fancy attractive interface .

In the middle of our list of top 20 web developer portfolio examples for inspiration is Matthew Williams’ website. Matthew explores a clean yet stylish black background. He’s included a short but captivating introduction at the start of the page, which preps his visitors for what to encounter in his portfolio.

11. Malte Gruhl

Recommended for those developers who have a great mastery of 3D animation .

Malte’s web developer portfolio website was designed to quickly catch the interest of any visitor , thanks to the animated elements of chemistry and physics incorporated into the site’s design. Although seemingly abstract, the website offers a deep sense of mystery that somehow grabs the attention of a typical web user, encouraging them to continue scrolling down.

12. Chase Ohlson

Perfect for web developers who want a basic simple portfolio .

Chase’s developer has a single purpose and that is to describe himself and his work.

He didn’t complicate himself. There are no crazy animations, transitions, or designs. He uses a basic layout to describe himself, his work, and his skills.

If you are looking for something simple and functional, you can take Chase’s portfolio as your example to follow.

13. Wassim Chegham

Wassim kept it very basic but his page still looks good and clean.

The only color you’ll see on his page is his own avatar. The rest uses a plain grey background with black or grey text.

He keeps everything pretty minimal and makes sure the visitor focuses more on the content than on the visuals.

14. Lounge Lizard

Recommend establishing your brand identity as fast as possible.

Another web developer portfolio example you can draw inspiration from is the Lounge Lizard website. The portfolio of the New York-based design company features an unconventional yet professional design. Their portfolio is an excellent model for web developers who are keen on establishing their brand identity and reputation as quickly as possible on their website.

15. Yul Moreau

Ideal for web developers with many media and text content to include in their portfolio.

Although old-fashionably designed, with a 1980s theme , Yul Moreau’s web developer portfolio example is perfect for driving user engagement, thanks to the creative use of visuals. The one-page website features seamlessly embedded images, videos, and scroll effects, contributing to the unique atmosphere it offers users.

16. Toy Fight

For web developers who want a simple yet artistic portfolio website.

Toy Fight’s portfolio features a combination of eye-catching color schemes to grab the attention of users quickly and keep them engaged for a longer period on the website. Exploring a relatively simple design , Toy has also included an easy-to-navigate menu to help visitors have a great web experience on their site. Toy Flight’s web developer portfolio example is recommended for web developers who want a simple yet artistic portfolio.

Useful for web developers with a lot of content to fill their portfolios.

Stereo has plenty of information, but would hardly bore any visitor thanks to the colorful yet straightforward themed images and videos embedded in the portfolio website. This portfolio focuses on deepening the emotional relationship consumers have with the brand. Web developers with a lot of content to fill their portfolios would find this portfolio useful for inspiration.

Portfolio example of a well known web developer .

Brad Frost is a very well-known web developer and his portfolio is a great example of how to keep things simple and concise.

On the landing page, he uses a simple paragraph to describe himself and then has a small menu with the basic sections of the site. Blog, contact, music, and hiring.

Because he’s the author of a book Atomic Design , he displays it on the landing page as one of his main achievements.

His contact page is very complete and contains links to the main social networks , some developer-specific ones such as Github, and Codepen, and some generic ones like Spotify, Youtube, or Last.fm.

19. Tim Smith

For web developers with numerous projects to showcase .

Tim’s web developer portfolio, MyPoorBrain, is simply easy to navigate. And that’s its special catch! Tim uses a card-themed website layout and animation effects to engage visitors easily and help them have a great user experience.

20. Shane Mielke

Ideal for web developers with plenty of projects to include in their portfolios.

Shane’s portfolio is a slickly designed website featuring an interchangeably black and white solid background plus a carefully chosen card-themed presentation of his previous project that creates an attention-arresting effect on visitors. Hovering over these cards causes them to somersault, showing the project’s name in the process. This effect is entertaining, making users even more interested in scrolling further down the page.

21. Eric Van Holtz

For web developers with many projects .

Like Shane’s, Eric’s web developer portfolio website is a good source of inspiration for developers with loads of projects to include in their portfolios.

However, Eric has animation effects in his portfolio’s design . The homepage features a distinctive fusion of massive, bold font on a solid purple background. These effects combine to make the website as visually appealing as possible, luring visitors even deeper into other sections of the website.

Example of a portfolio with clever animations and transitions .

Oriol Cervantes is a Barcelona-based Front End Developer and his portfolio makes it clear.

His portfolio displays a beautiful taste for design and he smartly combines animations and colors to create a truly unique portfolio. Oriol is brave with the use of colors and is not afraid of using many.

It uses the fullPage.js component to achieve the stunning fullscreen scrolling effect that, in combination with the other animations, it gives the page a new touch.

He shows his skills in two categories and separates “full-stack development” and “design”.

To showcase his work, he uses a different section per job and uses a horizontal slider to show us pictures of the final products.

Example of an accessible portfolio of a well-known web developer.

Sara is another great web developer who has collaborated with companies like Netflix, Codrops, Smashing Magazine, and ESLint.

She’s also very popular on Twitter and has spoken at plenty of events for web developers , postcasts and interviews .

Her website is nothing out of the ordinary but it does one thing pretty well: it’s straight to the point and easy to navigate.

As a web developer focused on accessibility , Sara’s website knows that the most important thing about a website is being able to communicate the message to everybody in the best and simple’s way possible.

The page contains exactly what you would expect from a well-known developer. The compulsory “about page”, a blog, a hire me section, a speaking page with future and previous events, and links to her social networks, podcasts, and interviews.

It’s also interesting to find a section dedicated to “endorsements” that contains quotes of people talking about her. Quite a nice idea to sell yourself!

Example of a brave portfolio using brutalism style.

If you are looking for “different”, then Michael’s portfolio is a great example of what “different” looks like.

His website design is probably considered “brutalism” , although he calls it himself “frivobrutalism” . A design that is not afraid of expressing itself in a totally unconventional manner. It’s a great technique to shock visitors and create a deeper mark in them.

He uses plenty of colors, large fonts, text shadows, filters, and “old” animations to create a such unique style. He also chooses to use very informal language as part of his identity brand.

Apart from this, his portfolio contains a collection of works as the main element, an about me section, a contact page, a list of awards, and something a bit less common: an “about this website” section.

You can access the source code of the website and download it from his Github repository .

Simple yet beautiful full-screen portfolio .

Todo is a front-end web developer and he created a website to show off his development and design skills.

His full-page navigation and taste for design make his website stand out from the rest. He’s telling the visitor that he knows what he’s doing and that he knows how to create beautiful websites.

The page follows a one-page design that visitors can navigate by scrolling up and down.

For those looking for a minimalist portfolio .

If minimalism is your thing, Carl’s portfolio won’t disappoint you. Carl is an Australian web developer

It’s not so common to find portfolios like this one among web developers. At fist glance, you might think it’s a designer’s portfolio or even a photographer’s! But nope! It’s an elegant and beautiful portfolio displaying the final products of his work as a web developer.

The design couldn’t be more simple. A picture per project containing a link to the final website.

Example for those who want to impress visitors and provide detailed information.

Simon is a senior front-end engineer and his portfolio showcases his skills in a great way.

The first thing you’ll notice is that it’s full of animations. From the top menu to the backgrounds or even the way to navigate the page horizontally.

His website drives you to his work through beautiful experiences becoming its own example of what Simon is capable of.

Each of the projects on the page is explained with a great amount of detail, including system architecture graphics, videos, and pictures. This is a great way of showcasing your work and showing off your skills and knowledge on the topic.

To have a good portfolio as a web developer you should try to include the following information:

About Me Every portfolio should include a page or section that talks about who you are. Here you can include your professional description, the name of companies or projects you’ve worked and hobbies or passions. Try to use natural language without sounding too formal. Tech people like informal and fun stuff.

Projects There’s no better way to show what you are capable of than naming your biggest achievements. These can be projects on previous jobs, side hustles, or a combination of both. Add here whatever you’ve done that serves as a way to show your skills as a web developer.

Contact Page A portfolio is not a portfolio unless you have a contact page. It doesn’t have to be a contact form. It can be just sharing your email or adding links to your social networks. What’s important is that you provide an easy way for people to contact you.

Technologies Make sure to add the technologies you’ve worked in or the ones you have experience in. Languages, frameworks, CMSs, management tools, etc. Anything that can help people identify if you are a good fit for their company or their projects.

Link to Github If you have an active Github account (which you should do), make sure to add a link to it somewhere visible on your page. You know what Linus Torvalds said: “Talk is cheap, show me the code!” Make sure you have things on Github that showcase your skills with certain technologies. They are your best CV.

Relevant Links Your portfolio as a web developer is more important than your CV. Take the chance to add anything that you think can be relevant for others to get to know your skills.

Add links to youtube tutorials you’ve done, events where you’ve been a speaker, scientific papers where you’ve contributed, important pull requests on open-sourced projects, online interviews, podcasts where you’ve participated, etc. This is your exposition. Own it.

Hobbies Don’t be afraid of adding a touch of personality to your portfolio. After all, we are all humans and we want to work with other human beings. If you have any hobbies feel free to share them. If you like photography, share your pictures. If you like soccer or basketball and you’ve won some competitions, add it too.

Accomplishments If you’ve done anything that can be considered extraordinary, share it. Awards of any kind, popular repositories, side hustles that went viral or turned into small products or services, books you’ve written, your GitHub contributions, courses you’ve taken, etc.

Blog If you can find the time to write a bit every month, this will enhance your portfolio quite a lot. Create posts about web development sharing your discoveries and struggles. The more you share the more they’ll see you as an expert on the topic and the better you’ll learn things.

Social Networks Aside from Github, if you are active in any other social network like Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, or Youtube, feel free to share your links so they can get to know you better.

We hope you have drawn inspiration from the top 20 web developer portfolio examples explored in this article. Besides, we publish a few articles and guides weekly; do not hesitate to subscribe to our mailing list to stay up-to-date with our publications.

• Best Web Developer Portfolio Templates
• 10+ UX design portfolios
• Best Way To Learn JavaScript
• 11 Skills Required to Become a Web Developer in 2023
• +15 HTML & CSS Timelines to showcase your work experience

Emmanuel Whyke

Emmanuel W. is a UK-based creative and research-driven content writer and editor with 8+ years of experience. He owns a Masters of Science (MSc) in Digital Marketing from Coventry University.

Disclosure: Some of the links in the article are Amazon affiliate links. This means that, at zero cost to you, we will earn an affiliate commission on qualifying purchases.

Don’t Miss…

• Legal Notice
• Terms & Conditions
• Privacy Policy

A project by Alvaro Trigo

The 23 Best Graphic Design Portfolios We've Ever Seen, & How to Start Your Own

Published: September 28, 2023

A great graphic design portfolio can’t move mountains, but it can change your life with a new job or opportunity. AI and other factors are impacting graphic design hiring, making your portfolio more important than ever before.

While some designers still carry a physical book of printed design examples, most portfolios are graphic designer websites. These sites show audiences much more than design skills like logo design or typography.

Whether you're a full-time graphic designer or dabbling in design as a freelancer, it's critical you create a sleek graphic design portfolio to showcase your work to potential clients.

Fortunately, we've created a list of over 20 impressive graphic design portfolios , followed by instructions on how you can create your own . Keep reading to get all the tips you need to curate the perfect space to showcase your work.

150+ Free Content Creation Templates

Access ebook, blog post, CTA, case study, and more content templates.

• Ebook Templates
• CTA Templates
• Blog Post Templates

You're all set!

Click this link to access this resource at any time.

What is a graphic design portfolio, and why does a graphic designer need one?

A graphic design portfolio is one of the most important elements a client or employer needs to see when choosing a graphic designer. A portfolio should include a selection of a graphic designer’s best work, as well as professional samples from client projects.

If you're a graphic designer a portfolio is essential for proving your design skills. It's also a chance to:

• Share your design process
• Talk about design or industry specialties
• Showcase your unique style

A graphic design portfolio, like a resume, will also include contact information. It may also feature case studies from past employers.

Most portfolios today are graphic designer websites. This means that they’re not only a way to connect with clients. They also help graphic designers build communities and share their work with potential fans around the world.

So what does a graphic design portfolio website need to include to stand out? Your portfolio is much more than proving you know how to use Photoshop. Many graphic designers will include logos, typography, print design, or web design in their portfolios.

And, some of the best graphic design portfolios today may also include:

• Motion graphics
• Original illustrations
• Product design
• Ad campaigns
• Storyboards
• Brand identity

As you'll see below, the most powerful graphic designer portfolios balance personal vision with standout client samples.

Graphic Design Portfolio Website Examples

• Jessica Walsh
• Morag Myerscough
• Heather Shaw
• Mohamed Samir
• Gail Anderson
• Gleb Kuznetsov
• Stefan Sagmeister
• Lotte Niemenen
• Luke Choice (Velvet Spectrum)
• Sophia Yeshi
• Eduardo Nunes
• Stefanie Brüeckler
• Ryan Dean Sprague (Pavlov)
• Alex Trochut
• Leandro Assis
• Peter Tarka
• Tobias van Schneider
• Aries Moross
• Nisha K. Sethi

Let’s look at some graphic design portfolio website examples to inspire and motivate your portfolio development. You could be a traditional graphic designer or experimenting with new media. There’s something here for everyone.

1. Jessica Walsh

The design industry is competitive. It takes eye-catching imagery and typographic finesse to create a portfolio that draws top clients like Apple, Benefit, and Levis.

This portfolio comes from a designer who's been named one of Ad Age’s "Top 10 Visual Creatives," among many other accolades. Currently a design professor, creative director, and head of creative agency &Walsh , this designer's portfolio on Behance makes great design the focus.

Why we love this graphic designer's website : Walsh's approach to type is bright, graphic, and complex. Her style also favors lush colorful photography and illustrations. This could get overwhelming, but this graphic designer is an expert with negative space, using careful visual composition to draw the eye and make a statement.

2. Morag Myerscough

Bright graphics, animations, and clean design make this an exceptional graphic design portfolio. This approach is great for designers who lean into the art of design. It also works for designers who take on more experimental or site-specific projects.

Why we chose this graphic design portfolio: Myerscough’s aesthetic is unique and this image-focused site quickly communicates her style.

Short sections of copy connect her visual brand to her background, professional experience, and personal philosophy. The combination makes the site feel like it shows the whole designer, not just a visualization of the work she does for clients.

3. Heather Shaw

This graphic design portfolio website includes samples of book and website designs, branding, and more. It’s good for designers who work in many different media but want to present a cohesive portfolio.

Why we chose this graphic design portfolio: Heather Shaw’s portfolio is super clear and easy to navigate. It shows a wide range of skills and approaches to solving client problems, but it’s also visually consistent.

The designer also uses text effectively to explain each project and to encourage further engagement with the work.

4. Mike Mills

Mike Mills is a talented designer, artist, and filmmaker, known for his punk aesthetic and original style. His portfolio is a reflection of his diverse interests and skills. The website offers a quick lesson in clean design, with easy-to-understand headers, professional photography, and crisp layout.

Why this is a great example of a graphic design portfolio website : When you’re a design beginner , creating your first graphic design portfolio, you quickly learn the importance of editing.

For example, a logo for your first-year graphic design class might have been your best work then. It shows that you know how to use Illustrator or other design software alternatives . But five years later, you have to ask — does that logo belong in a professional portfolio?

As your body of graphic design work grows, you'll find yourself making tough decisions about what to include, and just as important, what to leave out of your portfolio.

This portfolio example stands out because Mills has found a way to include samples of design that span from the 90s to today. This could easily feel disjointed or overwhelming. Instead, it's a beautiful and cohesive portfolio with exceptional attention to detail.

5. Mohamed Samir

Samir’s work includes branding, typography, posters, and print design. So, this graphic design portfolio zeros in on a tight collection of award-winning designs.

This graphic design portfolio is on Behance . This makes it a good fit for graphic designers who want an online presence without designing their own website.

Why we love this graphic designer's website: Besides the high quality of the design work, this portfolio shows a diverse range of approaches to typography and style. At the same time, it shows a consistent vision and passion for visual communication.

The printed design work is also well-photographed. While the designer could have added a digital file instead, the photographs give you a better sense of the final polished design.

6. Gail Anderson

Image quality matters. And if your portfolio pieces include a lot of detail, you may get stumped with your online portfolio design. This graphic design portfolio website has a simple left-hand navigation. So, with each click, you have a chance to see detailed posters, book covers, and more at a scale that shows how they look for print while also being easy to scroll on a mobile phone.

Why we chose this graphic design portfolio : Anderson's work is smart and timeless. Each piece shows her dedication to the depth and value of design thinking, technical skill, and passion for design.

7. Gleb Kuznetsov

Kuznetsov’s portfolio combines product design, user experience, and graphic design to create something entirely new. This Dribble-hosted portfolio has over 50 images, which could be overwhelming. But they're split into seven easy-to-understand projects.

This makes it a great graphic design portfolio example for designers who want to show long-term or complex projects.

Why this is a great example of a graphic design portfolio website: From the images to his brief "About" statement, this designer makes his unique vision and personality part of the work and its presentation.

8. Stefan Sagmeister

Sagmeister is a legend in the design world, and his website reflects the curiosity and power of the designer. The home page features a grid of images with text that appears as you scroll over each image. With a click, you're presented with images and/or videos that show the details of each project.

The site is a mix of collaborations, art projects, and more traditional design, like the corporate identity for the Jewish museum.

Why this is one of the best graphic design portfolio websites we’ve ever seen : This portfolio site doesn't just show the quality and technical ability of the designer. It also gives any client working with Sagmeister a sense of what the design process might be like.

Quick note : The "answers" section of the site is full of useful advice no matter where you are in your designer journey.

9. Lotte Niemenen

Great designers often let the work do the talking. That's certainly true here, with a streamlined graphic design portfolio that calls attention to client deliverables. When text is present, it adds to the value of the work, like sharing what parts of the design process their team completed. This is a great portfolio format for designers doing graphic design work like:

• Logo design

Why we chose this graphic design portfolio: This group of work is simple and to the point. It also shows off a wide range of skills and tactics with a consistent vision. Be sure to take a closer look at the website navigation — it’s clean and exciting while adding to the functionality of the site.

10. Luke Choice (Velvet Spectrum)

3D animation is an exciting design form that's growing in popularity. But if you're a client who's not in the market for an animated billboard , it may be difficult to figure out how you might use this creative form for your business.

This site is a great example of a portfolio that educates with simple text, graphics, and video. It gives both a quick look and a deep dive into how this designer approaches his art form.

Why we chose this graphic design portfolio : If you're doing something interesting and new, it may be a selling point. But truly new ideas can also challenge or frustrate people who don't feel "in the know." This means that your portfolio can't just sell your designs. It also needs to teach viewers about the new format you're using and why you think it's important.

11. Sophia Yeshi

A clear header and tile design emphasize work samples from this powerful graphic designer.

While the tiles emphasize the designer’s unique style, you can click on each tile to get the full details about each project. This is a great approach for designers who want to share the deeper story behind each project while still making the site easy to navigate.

Why we love this graphic designer's website: A distinct style is important in graphic design. That said, it can be tough to show how many ways you can apply that distinct style in a business context. Major brands, including Google, Nike, and Comcast, use Yeshi’s unique illustrative voice to speak for their brands.

This website portfolio makes that point clear, while still making graphic design the focus.

12. Eduardo Nunes

Designers often have a muse — someone or something that inspires and motivates them when the designing gets tough. Sometimes that inspiration can serve as a starting point for your portfolio design, as it did for this design portfolio example.

The landing page starts with a quote from Ansel Adams, "There is nothing worse than a sharp image of a fuzzy concept." Then, using clean motion graphics and fresh design, Nunes points to a central theme, a philosophy that guides his design approach. This leads every site visitor on a journey through his portfolio.

Why we chose this graphic design portfolio : This portfolio shows intense work, focus, practice, and care. It's an excellent model for anyone who wants to show the world what they're creating and why.

13. Stefanie Brüeckler

This portfolio includes packaging design, illustration, and web design as well as graphic design and branding work. It’s one of our favorite graphic designer websites because it’s clean and easy to navigate.

It also shows a lot of different examples of work at a glance. This makes it a great example for designers who aren’t sure how to organize all the work they want to include in their portfolio.

Why we love this graphic designer website example: Brückler’s graphic design portfolio focuses on the tiniest of details to create an excellent user experience. From the simple page-loading animation to the thoughtful use of motion graphics, this designer hones in on the stunning details.

14. Chip Kidd

Book cover designer Chip Kidd’s graphic design portfolio website uses lightbox-style pop-ups. Popups make it easier to focus on each book cover. This is a smart way to narrow in on the visuals with a graphic design site while still making it easy to see all the work in one place.

Kidd uses a range of different styles for book covers, and it’s edited in a way that makes this range look natural and exciting instead of chaotic.

Why this is a great example of a graphic design portfolio website: The dark background makes this graphic designer’s style pop. And the simple side navigation gives users a quick path to learn more about the designer and his work.

15. Ryan Dean Sprague (Pavlov)

This Texas designer's style is heavily influenced by music. So, this portfolio features illustration and design work that's bright, evocative, and fun. This portfolio website shines because it keeps the UX and site structure super simple. This puts the focus on a tight curation of exciting design samples.

Why this is a great example of a graphic design portfolio website : If you have a distinct illustration or design style, the tough sell for your portfolio may not be how good your work is. Instead, you may need to focus on showing the client how you can do your best work for their needs.

This graphic design portfolio is a vivid display of individuality that also shows clients how this designer can help them sell their product or brand.

16. MDZ Design

Concise and exciting images on this graphic designer website example give site visitors a peek at execution and strategy.

MDZ Design also offers product design and strategy to clients. This makes their graphic design portfolio a useful example for strategy-focused designers.

Why we love this graphic designer website example: The range of services this portfolio shows could be overwhelming or confusing. Instead, it’s a chance to see their approach to problem-solving. They also make it easy to see how their process leads to results for their clients.

17. Alex Trochut

This graphic design portfolio is also a home for Trochut’s product design, animations, music, and NFTs. It’s a great example for multimedia artists who want to present their work on a single website. It also works for creators with a big collection of work to show.

Why we love this graphic designer website example: The four-column layout of this site shows image thumbnails of varying sizes. Each column moves at a different pace as you scroll down the page.

This motion feels dynamic and exciting and reinforces this designer’s original takes on color, type, and layouts.

18. Leandro Assis

Sometimes a graphic design portfolio isn't just about a style — it's about a vibe. This exceptional portfolio comes from designer Leandro Assis.

From brand identity to hand lettering to package design, this portfolio displays a wide range of design skills and original style.

Why this is a great example of a graphic design portfolio website : It's not like this portfolio isn't enticing to the eyes. It's fun, bright, and a little wild. But what makes this portfolio excellent isn't just the quality of the work, it's the experience.

Fun icons, engaging UX, and lots of white space make this bold and playful site a pleasure to peruse.

19. Peter Tarka

If you're a self-taught graphic designer, you might have less guidance on where to start with your portfolio website. Look no further for inspiration than the interactive design portfolio for Peter Tarka.

Best known for captivating 3D motion graphics like the ones featured in the video below, Tarka started with a love of architecture and vector graphics that's grown to a career working with top brands like Spotify, Google, and LG.

Why we love this designer's website : The fewer clicks it takes to show people what you're doing the better. This site isn't just low-click, it's no-click.

A simple scroll shows you the work, client, and completion date for 15 exceptional portfolio pieces. If you want to see more, a quick click at the top-right brings you to more work samples, links to other portfolio sites, and contact information.

20. Tobias van Schneider

This graphic design portfolio website uses a range of type sizes and contrasts to emphasize the ideas it communicates. This is a great approach for entrepreneurial designers. It's also smart for anyone who collaborates in their design work.

Why we love this graphic designer's website: A sticky header and big blocks of color and text make this graphic designer website interesting to explore. This site also uses scale well. It combines big images with both big and small text to emphasize each client project.

21. Aries Moross

There are many ways to play up a unique style, and this graphic design website highlights this designer’s recent work as well as a full project archive. This is a great example for designers who also do illustration.

Why we chose this graphic design portfolio: Moross uses space effectively on this site. It’s easy to get an immediate sense of the designer’s distinct style. The simple navigation helps users refine their search to target a specific type of work, like hand-drawn fonts or editorial design.

LingK's portfolio features their latest project while also showing other industry niches. The structure of the website helps prospective clients quickly decide if they want to work with this designer.

Why this is a great example of a graphic design portfolio website: It can be tough to convey how campaign materials for a complex event, like a wedding or conference, work together. This designer effectively shows the breadth and depth of work for each project and makes it easy to see the value of each deliverable.

23. Nisha K. Sethi

Sethi’s portfolio is simple and straightforward. It puts the spotlight on each design project. The "About" section also tells a clear story that encourages further questions and conversation.

It can be tempting to tell an audience everything on your website. But a great portfolio should offer enough samples to entice clients to reach out and learn more, but not so much that it overwhelms. This website is a great example of offering just enough.

Why we love this graphic designer website example: This graphic design example combines hand-lettering, printmaking, and other media with digital design. While this designer works in a range of media, their portfolio shows a strong voice that is effective across many channels.

Looking for more design portfolio inspo? These designers and design studios may not be a model for your personal portfolio website, but they’re great design resources:

• Paula Scher
• Michael Bierut
• Chermayeff & Geismar & Haviv
• Wolff Olins
• Milton Glaser
• David Carson

If you've finished your portfolio pieces and want to get more website design ideas, check out this free lookbook with over 70 examples of incredible websites.

How to Make a Graphic Design Portfolio

• Curate your best work, and show a wide breadth of skill.
• Choose the right platform to showcase your work.
• Include a professional case study, or client recommendations.
• Integrate your personality.
• Describe the creative process.
• Show non-client work, or side projects.

1. Curate your best work, and show a wide breadth of skill.

Lindsay Burke , a HubSpot Product Designer, emphasizes the importance of quality over quantity when it comes to curating a graphic design portfolio. She says, "I recommend selecting your strongest projects and making these the primary focus of your portfolio website."

Ideally, your portfolio will feature your sharpest, most impressive 10-20 designs — undoubtedly, someone pursuing your portfolio won't have the time to look at more, and if your first couple projects are impressive enough, they shouldn't need to.

But it's equally critical you show potential clients your versatility. If you've dabbled in logo design as well as video animation, it's good to include both kinds of projects in your portfolio.

2. Choose the right platform to showcase your work.

Investing in a quality website with a custom domain URL will pay off in the long run by demonstrating your professionalism to potential clients.

Having your own website helps you organize your portfolio to suit all your business needs — for instance, perhaps you'll include 'Projects', 'About Me', and 'Contact Me' sections, so visitors can peruse your content and then contact you without ever leaving the site.

Take a look at this list of the best website builders if you need help choosing a platform for your portfolio.

3. Include a professional case study or client recommendations.

Lindsay Burke told me it's incredibly valuable to write out a case study to complement any website visuals — "Through a written case study, your site visitors can get a sense of your project's background, the problem you were aiming to solve through design, and the process you took to arrive at a final deliverable. A lot of time, effort, and iteration goes into design solutions, and a written case study will help communicate your unique process."

To cultivate a strong case study, consider including the background of the project, the problem, the process, your deliverable, and any next steps.

In the process section of your case study, Burke suggests including research, experience mapping, persona development, wire-framing, sketching, usability testing, and iteration.

Plus it will impress future clients if you can include recommendations from prior employers, which allows you to display a level of professionalism.

4. Integrate your personality.

As you can see in the examples above, each portfolio is drastically different depending on the artist's unique style. Someone checking out Tobias van Schneider's portfolio will expect something vastly different from someone looking at Ling K's site. Make sure your portfolio — including layout, background, and website title — reflects who you are as a designer.

5. Describe the creative process.

Each designer has a unique process when working with clients — and the sooner a potential client can learn about your process, the better. It's important you include context, so visitors can get a sense of how you handle challenges, and how your designs solve real-world problems.

Plus, including a description of your creative process can help a potential client figure out whether you're capable of handling the scope of their project.

For instance, they might be unsure of your ability to handle graphic designs for mobile until they read how you single-handedly brainstormed and created the designs for another client's mobile site. In this case, context is critical.

6. Show non-client work, or side projects.

Amanda Chong , a former HubSpot Designer, says, "Side projects are a great way to demonstrate your will to take initiative and your ability to balance multiple things at once. They're also a great way to show some of the more experimental, creative ideas that you might not be able to show through your day-to-day work."

If you're just starting out, it's acceptable to include side projects or non-client work so potential customers can get a sense of your ability and style.

Consider incorporating school work, a logo you designed for your aunt's company, or an internal design you created for your current company — ideally, your designs will negate any concerns potential clients have over your lack of career experience.

Graphic Design Portfolio Ideas

• Help a local business or start-up with its design and brand.
• Create content for your own personal brand.
• Redesign an existing website.
• Create graphic design materials for a made-up company.
• Design a logo for a brand you love.
• Create a stock theme for WordPress.
• Take part in a design challenge.

1. Help a local business or start-up with its design and brand.

One of the easiest ways to begin building your client base is by contacting nonprofits or local businesses in your area. Think about creating mock-ups or sketches in advance, These can help you give businesses a sense of your skill and vision.

Perhaps you think a local restaurant needs a new menu logo, or want to help a gift shop with their online marketing materials.

Projects like these will help you better understand local marketing challenges, and give you time to develop your skills in those areas. You never know what a pro-bono project could lead to next.

2. Create content for your own personal brand.

As you build personal brand content, take the time to make sure your marketing materials are cohesive and sleek.

Design a unique logo for your brand. Next, start building your website, and add that same design across various materials, including your business card and resume. This is also a great time to start a branded social media account, and to create posts that show off your design skills and interests.

Clients are more likely to work with you if they can see the type of high-quality work you're able to create for yourself.

3. Redesign an existing website.

Don’t wait for your dream client to give you a call. Instead, create a complete website redesign for a well-known brand to prove your skills to future clients.

This is a well-known strategy already used by plenty of designers — just take a look at some of the impressive Behance mock-ups for brands like RyanAir .

Additionally, Amanda Chong told me, "If you're creating mockups for established brands to use as part of your portfolio, it's important to pair this with a case study or description of the process that helped you arrive at your proposed design. Talk about what you think wasn't working with the existing design, some of the constraints that you think the designers were working with, and why you made the decisions that you did."

Chong added, "Mockups are great at showing your visual design skills, but don't necessarily demonstrate your ability to work in a real-world context, so you'll want to take the time to explain how you would have approached it in a true business setting."

4. Create graphic design materials for a made-up company.

If your designs are impressive enough, potential clients won't care that you created them for a fictitious company. In fact, you could impress them with your innovation and creativity.

Consider showing your skills by putting together a creative brief for a fake company, complete with wireframes and sketches. Other projects you can create for imaginary companies include:

• Style guides
• Social media ads
• Apparel graphics
• Wrapping paper
• Brochures and email newsletters
• Simple GIFs
• Animated infographics
• Trade show booths
• Branded wall art
• Pitch decks
• Book covers

In due time, real companies will take notice.

5. Design a logo for a brand you love.

Stick to the type of content you enjoy designing. If you're particularly adept at making logos, and are often inspired by the logos used by real brands, consider designing an alternative logo for a brand you like.

Then take a look at these inspiring reimagined NFL logos . While these NFL teams probably won’t make a shift, they're great examples of the designers' skills and creativity.

6. Create a stock theme for WordPress.

WordPress, a popular content management system, allows users to develop stock themes for WP. Best of all, if your theme is approved, you can sell it as a premium theme for extra cash.

Begin by studying WordPress's most popular themes, and considering how you can create an impressive alternative. Take a look at WordPress's Theme Review Requirements and this overview of how to create a child theme to learn more.

7. Take part in a design challenge.

To get inspired, practice your skills, or interact with other designers in a community and build your portfolio at the same time, think about participating in a design challenge.

Design challenges can also help you uncover skills you didn't know you had by forcing you to step outside your design comfort zone.

There are various daily, weekly, or monthly challenges that will send you prompts on things to design — for instance, try checking out the Daily UI Design Challenge or The Daily Logo Challenge .

Graphic Design Portfolio Tips

• Show your versatility.
• Display your best work.
• Include case studies.
• Make it clean and easy to navigate.
• Prominently display contact information.
• Display your unique personality.

You’ve done the work, and now you’re pulling together your graphic design portfolio. Try these tips to make your graphic design portfolio stand out.

1. Show your versatility.

A portfolio should show a range of different works, so you want to highlight what you can do. Some clients prefer a more streamlined look, while others are looking for more experimentation.

If you have clients from different industries, include some work from each industry. Then, edit your portfolio based on the kind of client you’re showing your portfolio to.

For example, if you’re meeting with a client in real estate, show work samples from similar industries.

You’ll also want to show anyone who sees your portfolio what you can do. So, if you create design logos, books, and motion graphics, include a little bit of everything in your portfolio.

2. Display your best work.

That said, try to limit your portfolio to your best work. Don’t include a piece in your portfolio just to show that you can do it. The way that you edit your portfolio shows that you understand your strengths and know how to play them up. So, edit your portfolio to include only your best work.

If you’re great with one skill set but not as good with another, edit your portfolio to spotlight that skill. If possible, create portfolio pieces that show many skill sets at the same time.

For example, if you love hand lettering, a poster could emphasize your graphic design skills alongside this unique ability.

3. Include case studies.

Every client is unique, and each will teach you something new. As you continue to work with different clients, build up a collection of these stories.

Try not to throw anything away without documenting it. That page of thumbnails might not be much to look at on its own, but this kind of work in progress is a great way to show prospective clients how you solve problems.

When you present case studies in your portfolio, start with the initial problem your client approached you with. Next, show what the conversation and ideation process looked like over time. As you pull your case study together, don't forget to include the final solution you delivered.

4. Make it clean and easy to navigate.

Design is about more than visual skills, it’s about communicating. So the format of your portfolio, whether it’s printed or online, should be clear and simple to scan.

This point is especially important for graphic designer websites. It can be tempting to build a website that shows off the latest trends or to add Easter eggs that people need to hunt for. There’s a fine line between art and design, and those approaches can be super inspiring.

But building a complex site can also mean that clients in a hurry could miss some of your best work.

For example, a graphic designer once sent his portfolio to a creative director friend of mine. They liked the designer’s drawing but didn’t see much of the graphic design or web work that he talked about in his resume. With a little digging, they found a URL in one of the sketchbook drawings, and that URL led to his website.

This hide-and-seek process was cool, but it wasn’t clear or easy to navigate. This scenario could have been a missed opportunity for that designer.

5. Prominently display contact information.

If someone wants to talk to you, there are many places they can find you online. But you want to make it easy for them, and for you. You don’t want to miss out on an important meeting because a client reached out to you with an email you don’t check anymore.

Most graphic designer websites have a contact page that has your contact information. Once you add this to your site, be sure to check that the links and forms are working.

6. Display your unique personality.

There are thousands of successful graphic designers out there, and you might be competing against some of them for your next client. So, the best tip for a great portfolio is to be yourself.

Whether you have a feel for typography or are talented with color, show off the way that you see the world in your graphic design portfolio. Think about every detail, and then execute to the best of your ability.

Whether it’s the first version of your portfolio or the 200th, make it feel like something only you could create.

The best graphic design portfolios aren’t ever finished.

You’ve learned about the value of a graphic design portfolio and checked out some of the best portfolio examples. You read about how to create your portfolio, then you scanned some smart ideas to build on the graphic design work you’ve already completed.

So what’s next?

Even the best graphic design portfolios need constant updates. Keep in mind that while your first graphic design portfolio may be complete, portfolio building won’t ever really end.

What do you want to tackle for your next project? Social media to promote your new portfolio? A new resume or professional bio to attract clients? The possibilities are endless.

Editor's note: This post was originally published in March 2019 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.

Don't forget to share this post!

Related articles.

14 Essential Design Tips for Beginners: Transform Your Skills and Create Stunning Graphics

13 Graphic Design Trends to Use in 2021 — and Two to Avoid

10 Projects to Improve Your Design Skills

6 Questions to Ask Before Hiring a Freelance Graphic Designer

The 7 Elements of Graphic Design, and How to Apply Them This Year

28 Graphic Design Terms Every Marketer Should Know [Infographic]

Free templates for blog posts, images, ebooks, CTAs, and more.

Marketing software that helps you drive revenue, save time and resources, and measure and optimize your investments — all on one easy-to-use platform

Home » Campus Life » Career Education » Get Experience » Undergraduate Research » Undergraduate Scholarly Showcase » 2024 Presentations

2024 Showcase Presentations

At the 2024 Showcase, more than 350 students from more than 25 disciplines will present nearly 275 research projects, including more than 200 posters, 28 live podium presentations and 44 video presentations.

Students who choose this format present their research in an original five-minute video in one of the following categories:

• Chemical and Cellular Frontiers (#A-01 to #A-03)
• Experiential Learning (#B-01 to #B-04)
• Green Cincinnati (#C-01 to #C-18)
• Music and Culture (#D-01 to #D-04)
• Substance Use, Mental and Behavioral Heath, and Sociology (#E-01 to #E-10)
• The Social Safety Net (#F-01 to #F-05)

As individuals or small teams, students create posters that convey the purpose, process, and outcome of their project with aesthetic appeal. Each student delivers a five-minute overview of their project to reviewers in person on Tuesday, April 16, 2024.

• View or download the Morning Poster Guide
• View or download the Afternoon Poster Guide

Podium Presentations

Students individually develop and deliver an eight-minute presentation live in person on Tuesday, April 16, 2024. View podium presentation details

Got any suggestions?

We want to hear from you! Send us a message and help improve Slidesgo

Top searches

Trending searches

41 templates

el salvador

32 templates

49 templates

21 templates

16 templates

28 templates

Personal Portfolio

Personal portfolio presentation, free google slides theme and powerpoint template.

A portfolio is essential for showcasing your professional and creative accomplishments. Whether you’re a graphic designer, artist or writer, a well-curated personal portfolio can help you stand out from the crowd! With this creative template, you can prepare a unique portfolio without lifting a finger! The unique designs, full of vibrant colors and yet, channelling simplicity will help you showcase your skills and reach new clients or recruiters

Features of this template

• 100% editable and easy to modify
• 20 different slides to impress your audience
• Contains easy-to-edit graphics such as graphs, maps, tables, timelines and mockups
• Includes 500+ icons and Flaticon’s extension for customizing your slides
• Designed to be used in Google Slides and Microsoft PowerPoint
• 16:9 widescreen format suitable for all types of screens
• Includes information about fonts, colors, and credits of the resources used

How can I use the template?

Am I free to use the templates?

How to attribute?

Attribution required If you are a free user, you must attribute Slidesgo by keeping the slide where the credits appear. How to attribute?

Related posts on our blog.

How to Add, Duplicate, Move, Delete or Hide Slides in Google Slides

How to Change Layouts in PowerPoint

How to Change the Slide Size in Google Slides

Related presentations.

Premium template

Unlock this template and gain unlimited access

Register for free and start editing online

Page Unavailable

Unfortunately, the page you requested is temporarily unavailable.

Please try again later or call 1-800-522-7297 between the hours of 8:30AM – 7:00PM EST

Akamai Reference Number: 18.1ffc733e.1713101695.b177c77

Schools are censoring websites for suicide prevention, sex ed, and even NASA

Records from across the country show just how much of the internet is blocked by school web filters, including lgbtq+, suicide prevention and planned parenthood sites. even nasa was blocked..

This article was copublished with The Markup , a nonprofit, investigative newsroom that challenges technology to serve the public good.

A middle school student in Missouri had trouble collecting images of people’s eyes for an art project. A high school junior couldn’t read analyses of the Greek classic “The Odyssey” for her language arts class. An eighth grader was blocked repeatedly while researching trans rights.

All of these students saw the same message in their web browsers as they tried to complete their work: “The site you have requested has been blocked because it does not comply with the filtering requirements as described by the Children’s Internet Protection Act (CIPA) or Rockwood School District.”

CIPA, a federal law passed in 2000, requires schools seeking subsidized internet access to keep students from seeing obscene or harmful images online — essentially porn. 

School districts all over the country, like Rockwood in the western suburbs of St. Louis, go much further, limiting not only what images students can see but what words they can read. Records obtained from 16 districts in 11 different states show just how broadly schools block content, forcing students to jump through hoops to complete assignments and keeping them from resources that could support their health and safety.

Students are prevented from going to websites that web-filtering software categorizes as “education,” “news,” or “informational.” In some districts, they can’t access sex education websites, abortion information, or resources for LGBTQ+ teens—including suicide prevention.

Virtually all school districts buy web filters from companies that sort the internet into categories. Districts decide which categories to block, often making those selections without a complete understanding of the universe of websites under each label—information that the filtering companies consider proprietary. This necessarily leads to overblocking, and The Markup found that districts routinely have to create new, custom categories to allow certain websites on a case-by-case basis. Students and teachers, meanwhile, suffer the consequences of overzealous filtering.

The filters do keep students from seeing pornographic images, but far more often they keep them from playing online games, browsing social media, and using the internet for legitimate academic work. Records from the 16 districts include blocks that students wouldn’t necessarily notice, representing elements of a page, like an ad or an image, rather than the entire site, but they reveal that districts’ filters collectively logged over 1.9 billion blocks in just a month.

“We’re basically trapped in this bubble, and they’re deciding what we can and can’t see,” said 18-year-old Ali Siddiqui, a senior at a San Francisco Bay Area high school.

The blocks raise questions about whether schools’ online censorship runs afoul of constitutional law and federal guidance. 

Catherine Ross, professor emeritus of law at George Washington University and author of a book on school censorship, called the blocks “a very serious concern—particularly for those whose only access is through sites that are controlled by the school,” whether that access is limited because they can’t afford it at home or simply can’t get it .

“We’re setting up a system in which students, by the accident of geography, are getting very different kinds of education,” Ross said. “Do we really want that to be the case? Is that fair?”

Though banned books get more attention than blocked websites in schools, some groups are fighting back. Students in Texas are supporting a state law that would limit what schools can censor, and the American Library Association hosts Banned Websites Awareness Day each fall. The ACLU continues to fight the issue at the local level more than a decade after wrapping up its national “ Don’t Filter Me ” campaign against school web blocks of resources for the LGBTQ+ community. 

Yet as the culture wars play out in U.S. schools, Brian Klosterboer, an attorney with the ACLU of Texas, said there are signs the problem is getting worse. “I’m worried there’s a lot more content filtering reemerging.”

'Human sexuality'

A middle school teacher in the Rockwood School District has a poster on her wall about The Trevor Project, whose site offers suicide prevention resources specifically for LGBTQ+ young people. But middle schoolers can’t access the site from their school computers. 

Nor can they visit It Gets Better, a global nonprofit that aims to uplift and empower LGBTQ+ youth. They can, however, see anti-LGBTQ+ information online from fundamentalist Christian group Focus on the Family and the Alliance Defending Freedom, a legal nonprofit the Southern Poverty Law Center labeled an anti-LGBTQ+ hate group in 2016.

Bob Deneau, the school district’s chief information officer, said his department works with teachers to determine the curricular benefit of unblocking certain categories. “When we look at it, we say, ‘Is there educational purpose?’” he explained.

The policy is to block first and only unblock in the face of a compelling case.

Rockwood School District uses web filtering software called ContentKeeper, which has a “human sexuality” category that captures informational resources, support websites, and entertainment news designed for the LGBTQ+ community.

The ACLU’s “Don’t Filter Me” campaign, launched in 2011, urged filtering companies to get rid of categories like this one and the “sexual content” category a widely used rival filter called Securly has. The Securly category covers “websites about sexual health and LGBTQ+ advocacy websites,” not, as one might think, porn.

The ACLU won a lawsuit against Missouri’s Camdenton R-III School District in 2012, successfully arguing that the district’s filter amounted to viewpoint discrimination because it blocked access to supportive LGBTQ+ information while allowing access to anti-LGBTQ+ sites. 

Yet complaints have continued. Cameron Samuels first encountered blocks to LGBTQ+ web pages during the 2018–19 school year while working on a class project as a ninth grader in Texas’ Katy Independent School District. Like Rockwood, Katy uses ContentKeeper to filter the web; to Samuels, the LGBTQ+ category of blocks felt like a personal attack. Not only did Samuels find that the LGBTQ+ news source The Advocate was blocked, the teen also couldn’t visit The Trevor Project.

“The district was blocking access to potentially lifesaving resources for me and my LGBT identity,” Samuels said.

The teen went on to petition Katy ISD to unblock the sites and succeeded at the high school level, but Anne Russey continues to fight for access for younger students. A mom of two elementary schoolers in the district and a professional therapist for LGBTQ+ adults, Russey has gone so far as to file a discrimination complaint with the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights.

“My biggest fear is that we lose a student as a result of this filter,” she said. The Trevor Project estimates that at least one LGBTQ+ person between the ages of 13 and 24 attempts suicide every 45 seconds.

Representatives from Impero did not return repeated calls and emails requesting comment about ContentKeeper for this story.

Securly’s vice president of marketing, Joshua Mukai, offered no comment on the idea that blocking LGBTQ+ advocacy websites through the “sexual content” category is discriminatory.

Reproductive health

Maya Perez, a senior in Fort Worth, Texas, is the president of her high school’s Feminist Club, and she and her peers create presentations to drive their discussions. But research often proves nearly impossible on her school computer. She recently Googled “abortion access Texas” and was stymied.

“Page after page was just blocked, blocked, blocked,” Perez said. “It’s challenging to find accurate information a lot of times.”

What students say: A digital book ban? High schoolers describe dangers, frustrations of censored web access

Alison Macklin spent almost 20 years as a sex educator in Colorado; at the end of her lessons, she would tell students that they could find more information and resources on plannedparenthood.org. “Kids would say, ‘No, I can’t, miss,’” because of the filters, she remembered. She now serves as the policy and advocacy director for SIECUS, a national nonprofit advocating for sex education.

Only 29 states and the District of Columbia require sex education, according to SIECUS’ legislative tracking. Missouri is not one of them. The Rockwood and Wentzville school districts in Missouri were among those The Markup found to be blocking sex education websites. The Markup also identified blocks to sex education websites, including Planned Parenthood, in Florida, Utah, Texas, and South Carolina.

In Manatee County, Florida, students aren’t the only ones who can’t access these sites — district records show teachers are blocked from sex education websites too.

The breadth of the internet

Rockwood School District sophomore Brooke O’Dell most frequently runs into blocked websites when doing homework. Sometimes she can’t access PDFs she wants to read. Her workaround is to pull out her phone, find the webpage using her own cellular data, navigate to the file she wants, email it to herself, and then go back to her school-issued Chromebook to open it. When it’s website text she’s interested in, O’Dell uses the Google Drive app on her phone to copy-and-paste text into a Google Doc that she can later access from her Chromebook. She recently had to do this while working on a literary criticism project about the book “Jane Eyre.”

Recounting her frustration, O’Dell bristled at the need for any web filter at all.

“While you’re in school, they are in charge of you,” she said, “but that doesn’t mean they need to control everything you’re doing.”

In Forsyth County Schools in Georgia, which blocks a relatively narrow set of categories, records obtained by The Markup reveal a spate of blocked YouTube videos: several about Picasso as well as history videos, a physics lesson, videos of zoo animals, and children’s songs about the seasons and days of the week.

Mike Evans, the district’s chief technology and information officer, said the district tries to apply filters fairly. “We’ll always have different families on one side or another,” Evans said. “Some would rather have things more restricted if they don’t agree with any LGBTQ-type material or video that might be available, but we try to stay away from that type of (filtering) altogether.”

Among the 16 districts that released records about their blocked websites, 13 shared the categories tied to the blocks. Games and social media were the most frequently blocked categories, along with ads, entertainment, audio and video content, and search engines.

Sites labeled “porn” or “nudity” didn’t crack the top 10 categories blocked in any district. Only in Palm Beach County, Florida, and Seattle were they even in the top 20.

In Manatee County, Florida, students in the schools can’t access the local public library catalog; most social media platforms; or sites with audio and video content including Fox Nation, Spotify, and SoundCloud.

The Manatee County district’s chief technology officer, Scott Hansen, described a filtering policy that errs on the side of blocking. If a category isn’t seen as having an explicit educational purpose, it is blocked.

Hansen said he gets few requests from teachers to unblock websites.

But interviews with students and teachers around the country indicate many have simply resigned themselves to being kept from much of the internet. The overarching rationale for the filters — keeping students safe — seems unimpeachable, so few people try to fight them. And schools have the right to limit what they make available online. CIPA lets the FCC refuse internet subsidies to school districts that don’t filter out porn, but the law doesn’t identify any consequence for excessive filtering, giving districts wide latitude.

In a survey by the Center for Democracy and Technology, nearly three-quarters of students said web filters make it hard to complete assignments. Kristin Woelfel, a policy counsel at CDT, said she and her colleagues started to think of the web filters as a “digital book ban,” an act of censorship that’s as troubling as a physical book ban but far less visible. “You can see whether a book is on a shelf,” she said. By contrast, decisions about which websites or categories to block happen under the radar.

In the Rockwood School District, O’Dell recognizes that web filters prevent students from playing games on their computers, but she doesn’t believe technology should play that role.

“It’s not really teaching kids the responsibility of when to pay attention in class,” she said. “It kind of just takes that entire part of learning completely away.”

A stubborn status quo

The American Library Association has been calling for a more nuanced approach to filtering the internet in schools and libraries since 2003, when it failed to convince the Supreme Court that CIPA is unconstitutional. 

In 2011 the FCC emphasized that blanket blocks of social media platforms are not consistent with CIPA, and the original law only says districts are required to block obscene or harmful images.

Deborah Caldwell-Stone, director of the ALA’s Office for Intellectual Freedom, called CIPA “a handy crutch” for censorship that is not justified by the law. “The FCC makes it clear that it’s not (justified), but there’s no remedy for the kind of activity other than going to court,” she said, which is too expensive and time-consuming for many families.

Lawsuits also have limited reach, often changing behavior in only one small part of the country. Rockwood School District has a filter doing what the ACLU sued Camdenton for over a decade ago and the two districts are in the same state, just 150 miles apart. Battling discrimination carried out via web filters is like a game of whack-a-mole in a nation where much of the decision-making is left to more than 13,000 individual school districts.

And the question of what students have a right to see is only getting murkier. In 2023 alone, the American Library Association tracked challenges to more than 9,000 books in school libraries nationwide.

But it doesn’t have to be that way. Schools could use the wide latitude the FCC leaves them to take a more hands-off approach to web filtering.

In Texas, Samuels, the Katy ISD grad who encountered blocks to LGBTQ+ web pages, co-founded Students Engaged in Advancing Texas to fight for open access to information statewide. The group supported legislation introduced in the state legislature last year that would have prohibited schools from blocking websites with resources about human trafficking, interpersonal or domestic violence, sexual assault, or mental health and suicide prevention for LGBTQ+ individuals. It didn’t go anywhere, but Samuels hopes it will in the future.

Unfortunately, Samuels said, “Censorship is a winning issue right now.”

This article was copublished with The Markup , a nonprofit, investigative newsroom that challenges technology to serve the public good. Sign up for its newsletters  here .