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Great article. Thank you! :-)

Thanks SM for the great tips! Speaking of which, I think SM needs a face-lift…current design has been on long enough.

Another great one for in the book!

Could I asked, from where did you get these portfolios? Any website gallery?

Great article, I am going to incorporate these on my personal site. Thanks!

been working on my portfolio site lately and this def comes in handy, thanks! and big props to all the designers listed.. awesome sites!

Very Nice Article Lee…. I like the details.

DKumar M.

Wow…really great list. Very inspirational. Glad to see Elliot Jay Stocks made the list. His portfolio has always been one of my favorites.

Great post, am in the process of building my portfolio myself >.<

Thanks, have my portfolio up recently and it needs improvements!

Great article Lee, nice one, some quality ideas and showcase sites.

Cant imagine why you would 1st up showcase cssjockey as an example of a good logo representation? maybe not the best logo work going around in this selection.. Alot of similarities between some of these designs. Nice to see some fresh aproaches among them. Overall a nce post though. Thanks for the time to gather the article.

Increíblemente inspirado!… Gracias por el necesario recordatorio. Es que a veces si sabes lo que DEBES hacer pero no encuentras esas preciadas horas para darle un buen avance a tu propio proyecto. :(

Thank you for featuring my portfolio, Nine Lion Design! It’s nice to be included in lists like these. I really like the illustrations of Chirag Solanki’s site.

Great article.

One thing you might have mentioned is to try to avoid the overused, cliche tagline a million portfolios seem to be using nowadays:

We (verb) (adjective) (noun)’s

Great tips and very great list, most of them are my idol

Great list! Nice design work by all. Will definitely archive this post and check out the sites in more detail.

My all-time favorite portfolio site has to be Dave Werner’s 2006 Portfolio site:

http://www.okaydave.com/

Inspiring collection, nice to see my Leigh Taylor and 9lions featured many times. My favorite of the lot is vlouenco

I do have an issue with portfolio sites that are very busy – i thinkyour own site should leave the center of the stage to the client work you’ve done.

It can become confusing when the designer’s website and it’s content clash.

great job Lee

There’s something to be said for a dark background, especially on sites that are more likely to be surfed at night with the lights off.

Or maybe that’s just me, from getting my start in adult internet. :)

What weird timing. Last weekend my fiance designed her portfolio and I did the coding -> http://www.kristinanaude.com You can read more about how I implemented the design on my blog http://www.russellheimlich.com/blog/kristinanaudecom-from-comp-to-code-in-12-hours/

One of these days i’ll probably get around to redoing my portfolio.

Thx… Nice article with cool sites….

I would only disagree with #5. You want people to get their entire first impression of you from
your work alone. You don’t want people judging you on appearances until you meet in person.
You don’t want a client ditching you because you look too young (or old), too cool or too straight
or even too black/white/asian/hispanic/etc.

Thanks so much for featuring my site! Looks like I am definitely in good company :) I’m flattered.

Great work in getting all of these together. I just want to let you know that NineLion is on the list twice. A few of the sites are based on templates too (not sure which came first, the template or the design, which was then released.) Those guys have done a fabulous job in portraying who they are.

It would be interesting to do a study on how effective a portfolio site is in gaining new business.

Thanks for the post! It’s really great source for inspiration! ;)

Like this article. Thanks for writing

I’d like to thank you so much for featuring us on your website, in this list. Its such an honor to be here. I tried to stick to the basics the right way when I was designing CSSJockey. And I see that it’s been quite fruitful. Thanks again.

Those are some nice tips and portfolios! Nice work done, putting them up together.

Thanks for this post, Im freelance Webdesigner, I respect the 1,2 and 3 point.
But I think I must rethink the 4 and 6 point to return it more clearly.

I should change my site after this post
Stop thinking start doing ))

Thanks for this. After years of neglect i’m about to redesign my portfolio site so this article has come at the perfect time. Thank you

Yea there is a whole lot of similarity going on here, accepted that the vast majority of these sites are following all of the conventions of large type, personal tone, obligatory use of museo (which I love, but time to change) and bold subheadings. In short readers of this kind of article.
Nice list but more diversity would be nice, This is the style of website I always expect to see on smashing, it would be nice to get a suprise once in a while.

Good tips.
Thank you.

Nice Article…… Thanks 4r the tips

nice tips, there’s a lot to do now.

Aye Smashing, talk about validation…hehe

http://validator.w3.org/check?uri=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.smashingmagazine.com%2F&charset=(detect+automatically)&doctype=Inline&group=0&user-agent=W3C_Validator%2F1.606

great article!
what do you guys think should portfolios be in english or in your mother tongue?

wow, nothing new.

Or if you’re an IA/Interaction designer with little graphic design skills, the site could
be very plain, but highly usable. My clients don’t mind this at all.

It seems the cat is still not out of the bag among GD’s on the single biggest
way to boost traffic to your website – Its pretty obvious, but heck I aint gonna say
what it is – then Id lose my advantage! It has to do with keywords and metadata.

Looking good Lee! Really good pointers here to follow

Lee, thanks for this brilliant post.
I am having my freelance site and blog redesigned and your tips and examples are very inspirational.

Wow! I haven´t seen all the portfolio websites, but some of them are really cool! Thanks for sharing with us designer such good thing ;)

Thanks a lot, I’m currently working on my portfolio so it helps a lot :)
It’s in french, but you can check the beta : http://beta.deadpx.fr (click on any link to experience the JS navigation !)

great tips and good timing. I’m trying to redesign my portfolio, although I never seem to have the time.

Nice tips. Very useful. Should come in handy for my next design of pushingbuttons.net

10 step to have a portfolio like everyone else would be a more apropriate title

These sites aren’t that “good looking” to be honest. I only liked cartonblanc. The rest of these sites have cliched designs… Well that’s just my personal opinion…. The tips though is good

Hi!! Nice post, the theme is surely interesting for us visitors and essencial points were taken.
I’m really glad to see Mopa listed (they rock!!) although I prefered their old site. And other brilliant brazilian designers! \o/

The point I don’t agree with is about the social networking sites (#9). I don’t really see the advantage on posting so many of them. If the idea is to show other aspects of your life I think this is not the best way to do it.
Of course I enjoy very much when I see a link to Flickr. It is a great tool show creative process, alternative versions, sketchs (but please, avoiding to repeat the same works already presented!!) and stuff. It will atract the visitor if he is interested enought to see more pieces of your work and able another contact way to other flickr users. In this way it’s highty recommended.
About the rest of them, isn’t it better to have your site link added to your profiles rather than the contrary?

What I think it’s missing in the list is a link session, like ‘faves’, ‘friends’, ‘respect’… It’s a nice way to present yourself as part of a networking, to show you are participating and have interesting contacts at your field. Also to be grateful for those who may have helped you and increase friendship with other professionals. Trading spontaneous links helps to promote yourself and is great for visitors who are looking for similar kinds of work.

Hugs.

Great article. I was wondering if you could possibly elaborate on the Blog portion. Like possibly give us some links to blogging software and anti-spam software we could use to help us get started.

Thanks!

Just after ive finished designing my portfolio site for uni…typical!

This is great and will help me tweek my design.

Trends > creativity.

All your steps are obvious.

Nothing new on Smashing.

Fantastic stuff.. Just when I am about to go Freelance.

Cheers :)

I think one of the most important aspects of this is to use social networking tools. Very important.

Ummmm… where to begin?

1. Logo. Sure. Whatever. Why not the middle? Hell, one of my favorite portfolios has it on the upper right. You’re a designer, you should be able to make anything look good.

2. Tagline. Good idea, but for fuck’s sake don’t start out your introduction with ‘Howdy’ or ‘Hi there!’ You are not there, and your clients are probably not from the southwest.

3. Portfolio. Yes yes yes yes, clear, high-quality images and active links only.

4. Services. Tacky, but probably good for SEO – don’t use fucking checkmarks for christ sake though.

5. About me. Location is always useful to know, but unless you are very attractive keep your terrible, trendy haircut off your potential client’s screen.

6. Contact. Your e-mail address and number should be right there on your home page. Anything else is pretty superflous. Contact form pages are not only a hallmark of a bygone era where webmail barely existed but they are unreliable. Let people compose and autosave their shit in gmail.

7. Blog. No. No. No, unless your blog is your portfolio/recent work. Your clients don’t care how you make rounded corners as long as they work.

8. Call to actions are for banner ads, not your fucking book.

9. Social Network Profiles. Same thing as your haircut. Probably not very interesting, and really doesn’t do much visually for the page.

10. Copywriting is an extremely overlooked part of web design, as shown by this article and this example. Under no circumstance, should you ever say ‘What’s up?’ in your portfolio, and “web standards” is two words.

Holy crap. This is all wrong.

I’m not visiting any one of those websites, and I’d never work with any of those people. Why? Because they’re trying to wow me with their website – not their work/thinking, they’re all the same website essentially (same formula), and every single one of those websites are the result of trends and not thinking. Differentiation and great work is key. Let’s please understand this now.

Hello SM,

Today i am very happy and Thank you lot accepted me as your eligible user of you site. and Its such an honor to be here.

Thanks for all the comments

@Chikezie Ejiasi :- Thank you so much you like my site as well your site also gr8 and creative look

My Blog is : http://www.cjscreativemall.com/

Thanks again SM

@Gordon – I agree.

@Gordon fair comments and I just don’t coincide with you at #7 and #8.

I think it’s very important to have references, and in the case you target being contracted by a client or a creative agency, it’s nice to show, in some way, you have them. Here that ‘friends links’ I was talking about (93) also suits.
Of course it depends on the content you put at your blog. If I wanted to contact a designer for a comissioned work or as a partner in some project, I’d love to see more of his creative process, and maybe know further about his experience dealing with clients, getting into visual communication events, posting interesting news and discussions concerning his field and so on… it would surely show me he enjoys what he does and keeps increasing his references. And, as Lee Munroe says, “prevent your website from lying static”.

A portfolio I ended up visiting on daily basis was Fabien Barral’s Graphic Exchange. I might have visited his portfolio once or twice but what made me put a link at my bookmark bar was the great quality of the references he posts and how often he updates it. Once in a while he posts personal work, besides the fixed link, and I’m sure he has many many loyal users like me taking a look at it when he does.

I also like the way Bosque, for example, puts some personal pictures at their site. They write literaly ‘Life’ at the menu, even already having a blog linked, and present random pictures of people, personal work and everyday images and fun. The client looking at that may like it or not, but if he does like and hire them I’m sure the workflow will suit their personality much better than if the client haven’t seen it before.

And the ‘Call to actions’, working as a ‘next step’ was the most relevant topic this post bought to me! I definetely put it in consideration now on.

AWSOME! really cool article!

Great post very inspiring

This is why I don’t suggest people hire “designers” because the best work they will ever do is their own portfolio. Case and point, all the examples were of web designers. Ever think that more than web designers use the Internet or care about design? Get out of your bubble once in awhile.

very useful, thanks. and so clearly chunked down. very good work!

just don’t forget that the main idea is to show your work to others

Great sites!
A piece of advice: Some of you are proudly stating that your sites are validated XHTML, CSS, etc. Unfortunately some of these designs also break in Internet Explorer 7, which is still the most commonly used browser out there.
Idealism is good, but pragmatism is what most companies need, to keep all of their users happy (non geeks included). Make the nescessary hacks for IE, and Bob’s your uncle.

115: Blair
This is why I don’t suggest people hire “designers” because the best work they will ever do is their own portfolio. Case and point, all the examples were of web designers. Ever think that more than web designers use the Internet or care about design? Get out of your bubble once in awhile.

Interesting. Who then, would you suggest a professional, image conscious company should hire to design a website if not a graphic/web designer?

Maybe, just maybe….next time? Ah never mind!

Portfolio site

Gamer??

“and if you’re a Web designer, developer, writer, gamer or any other type of creative, then it’s essential that you have a good portfolio website.”

Confused, not sure what type of portfolio site a gamer would have. But, I confuse easily. Nice writeup ;)

I’m I already followed most of this advice but it sure would have been easier had this blog been here 2 years ago!

Absolutely agree with Benjamin, I don’t understand the negative comments, design is so subjective. A portfolio should reflect the deisgner creating it, most of the designs in his/her portfolio often are directly influenced by the client, so the portfolio is a good vehicle to stamp your own mark/style, all the design decisions made are made yourself without any influence or direction from the client, hopefully resulting in a piece of work that is truly your own.

What if you have multiple talents? I mean, you want to show what you’re best, the trade you’ve learned but you still want to show that you have learned on your own other styles, mediums, or types whether it’s in the arts or not.

We would like to get your website on first page of Google. All of our processes use the most ethical “white hat” Search Engine Optimization techniques that will not get your website banned or penalized. Please reply and I would be happy to send you a proposal.

super awsome ideas deffffffffffffffff liked the one ps. email me some more cause my computer broke down

Great Inspiration for my own portfolio site, Thank You

Thanks a lot, I’m redesigning my website right now and this is pure gold. (:

Мне вот интересно, а есть тут кто-то, кто не согласен с автором ? :)

i love horizontal portofolio site

EXTREMLY useful! I love this post, thank you very much!
I can now start thinking of making a portfolio on a good base. :)

The FREAKIN BEST thing I’ve ran into so far!!!

So simple, very informational, perfectly composed!!!

Thumbs UP!!!!

PUURFECT!!!

“In the Western world, we read from left to right”…So Israel is part of what? China?

Thanks guys. This article played a big role in how I redesigned my site.

These are some great tips. I think people overlook the fact that they need an “about me” page on their site. Commonly, I see portfolio pages that fail to give the user a little information about them. I also, think is very important to include social networking site. Let’s face it everyone either has a facebook, myspce, linkedIn, twitter, youtube, ect. It gets people talking, too. You are really limiting yourself if you fail to put these on your web site. I have been freelancing for about a year now and have implemented all these tips into my website.

On another subject I failed in getting a lot of jobs early on in my career when I would got to GetAFreelancer and bid on different design projects. I could spend 24 hours and only get 1 project if I was lucky, and waste a handful of days. I hate sites like that! Luckily, I have found site where you can actually get in direct contact with clients for projects via email or telephone.