69 Sexy Portfolio Designs To Inspire You
Today designing a unique, compelling portfolio has become a crucial task for designers, studios, companies and everyone whose business is on the Web. Not only does it help one stand out among the numerous competitors, but it is also a great tool for self-expression and demonstration of skills.
Now designers face new challenges in attracting the capricious web audience – a plain web page with a project list on it is out of date and boring, while fancy Flash websites with intricate navigation are annoying. Fortunately, despite all difficulties beautiful and artistic designs are appearing in an endless stream. Designers skillfully use all the benefits of the digital age and create websites that are rich in effects and eye-popping yet simple and accessible.
In this post you can see a collection of 69 new, ingenious and beautiful portfolio designs that will hopefully become a decent inspiration source for you. The collection includes both Flash and HTML websites, however all the designs are stuck to the balance of visual attractiveness and usability. Notice that every screenshot is clickable and leads to the website itself.
69 Exquisite Portfolio Website Designs
This By Them
The portfolio of This By Them is done in cool retro style. Just look at these awesome graphics and regard for details! Neat accordion slideshow pattern enables to navigate the site at ease.
Nora Rose Travis
Creative idea, contemporary style, exquisite implementation of clever JavaScript & CSS hooks make the portfolio of Nora Rose Travis look magical. And now a trick (not for the faint of heart!): open this design in IE6. See? Internet Explorer kills the design magic.
Carlos Cabrera
This design successfully combines features of portfolio and online store. It provides easy accessibility and navigation; plus, featured works floating in the background deliver additional efficiency and visual appeal.
ThousandMinds
A super stylish dark web design with enjoyable navigation.
Puppetbrain
A funky old-school design with a funny curious character running all through the website.
Huan David Perafan Baez
A beautiful Flash website with horizontal navigation and amazing uninterrupted illustration in the background. The preloader is impressive here as well.
Nick Hand
The portfolio of Alaska-based designer Nick Hand looks awesome with its vintage grunge background, sleek transition effects and transparent areas wrapped in dotted lines. Great example of one-page portfolio design.
Corking Design
This beautifully dark website belongs to Daniel Cork, a web designer from Manchester, England. Nifty texture, elegant logo and typography implemented in this design are really striking.
CreativeThe
Each section of this single-page portfolio has its own background texture and graphic elements that are interwoven very smoothly. Urban graphics at the bottom of the page unites all section designs and contains navigation bar and copyright info. Such design technique can be rarely seen today; it’s really beautiful and unconventional.
Mutant Labs
Mutant Labs studio claims to be a new breed of media scientists. Well, the scientific experiment on their portfolio style was a success – we’ve got an original and tasty design.
Nosotros
Beside clean and simple layout, the portfolio of the creative agency Nosotros provides prominent data visualization and infographics.
Camellie
While many websites in our collection integrate several elements that make up a beautiful design, Camellie’s portfolio highlights the only element that dominates the overall design theme. Splendid, original illustration is the very spice that makes this site look awesome.
Imaginaria Creative
Beautiful textures, large typography in the backgrounds, warm colors and smooth transparency result in an exquisite website design.
Mika Mäkinen
Although this website is Flash based, it won’t confuse you with cluttered interface and complicated navigation. Instead, it is straightforward and beautiful. Among the major features of Mcinen.net are liquid resolution, large-scale layout and wonderful photographic background on the main page. Excellent work!
Atomic Cartoons Inc.
Wonderful single-page portfolio with vertical navigation. Atomic Cartoons did justice to themselves by featuring amusing illustrations throughout the website.
Toy.ny
This “toy” is really worth “playing” with. Sober colors and unobtrusive, minimal Flash animation which beautifully renders the typo, provide an enjoyable visual and content exploration experience.
Fat-Man Collective
The portfolio of Fat-Man Collective is really something. The way this “lovely bunch of digital creatives” combines simple navigation, amusing Flash effects and original content presentation will win your sympathy immediately.
Project 365
Light and clean one-page portfolio of Project 365 looks fresh and positive, mostly due to lovely doodle typo used in this design.
Filipe Carvalho
Classy typography and good color management is what makes this portfolio design stand out.
Mikio Inose
The portfolio of the Japanese interface designer Mikio Inose has a sleek, Apple styled design. Bright colors and wide space in the header, non-standard fonts in the post titles and one-column layout make this design unique.
Diego Latorre
Sexy design of Diego Latorre’s portfolio won’t leave you cold. Here everything from textures to the smallest graphic element is about details. Nothing left hanging here, great work indeed.
Esteban Muñoz
Neat black-and-white portfolio design is featured by original line-art illustration that sticks to your mouse cursor and can be moved around the bottom of the page.
Nouincolor
Style, laconism, individuality.
Kashmir Creative
The portfolio of Belgium business communication agency Kashmir Creative looks stylish and contemporary. Much of this is due to the choice of colors and a professional photo filling up the background of the site.
Kyle Steed
The header of Kyle Steed’s portfolio is beautified by his own hand drawn font “Steed”.
Synch Media
A cool robot illustration and all this cheerful geometry make this design look positive and fresh.
Daniel Kusaka
Although personal portfolio of Brazilian graphic designer Daniel Kusaka is based on Flash, it loads fast and provides good content accessibility. Colorful clues chaotically stretched about the project gallery, as well as good work with thumbnail lighting, make this design look topnotch.
Garbadge.ro
You may be confused with the navigation of this website at first, but you will quickly figure out how to get to the work gallery and the personal stuff of designer George Petrescu. This Flash-like motioned grid is developed by means of fancy jQuery.
Pirolab
Again, lots of awesome visual effects here and no Flash!
Kidd81
A big fun in this one. No doubt, this cartoonish, childlike design took some really adult skills to be done.
IAAH
This design is everything but ordinary. As the guys from IAAH say, this site is meant to challenge the concept of space and how it is perceived within the browser window. Experimental layout may frustrate the advocates of simplicity and usability standards, but if you enjoy approaches that push the boundaries of web design, portfolio site of Iamalwayshungry studio will appeal to you.
Glasshouse
The portfolio of Cape Town based digital communication studio Glasshouse is beautiful, original and well developed.
Laureano Endeiza
This portfolio design offers a wide range of various options – you can switch between several design themes, filter displayed portfolio categories and read the site both in English and Spanish. Great!
Nide.inc
If grid layouts are classics of web design, this Japanese website is avant-garde, without fail.
MopStudio
The border between originality and weirdness is rather fuzzy here. Perhaps it will take us, Western culture representatives, a few years to understand the delicate philosophy of Japanese web design.
spritzstuhl
November 24th, 2009 7:33 amFirst! Nice examples.
Nicola
November 24th, 2009 7:34 ama great list, thanks!
Oscar Barber
November 24th, 2009 7:36 amHi, Nice collection and thanks to include my website!!
Glad you like it Julia & SmashingMag Staff ;)
TheSolidStudios
November 24th, 2009 7:38 amHa, great number of sexy portfolios. Analytics will be interesting.
Alesia
November 24th, 2009 7:54 amwow, great work, thank you, it makes think over and pushes to create something special of your own.
frazer
November 24th, 2009 7:58 amSome great stuff, I usually always find people dont promote themselves well enough through websites. With all the potential of web, people often fall into this ‘square grid of thumbnails’ style, and designers with great work and top clients make it hard to find that out.
Importantly, a site should reflect your style of design and be your unique place, but I feel its important to be on some collective sites to show yourself alongside other designers.
Vanilla Man
November 24th, 2009 8:05 amthanks for a great collection!
krugi
November 24th, 2009 8:10 amOh… I’m jealous :(
Bogdan Pop
November 24th, 2009 8:10 am75% of the images do not load, and I don’t think the problem is on my side :(
Alex Blundell
November 24th, 2009 8:36 amLots of good designs here (rethink my portfolio re-design)… but as above lots of the images are failing to load..
Smashing Editorial
November 24th, 2009 9:55 amAll images are loading properly. Can you please send us your screenshot at editor at smashingmagazine dot com?
Nick
November 24th, 2009 12:04 pmI just refreshed the page and the images were there! Nice collection. Very inspirational! Thanks!
Steve
November 24th, 2009 8:11 amVery nice portfolios! If you need some more “Portfolio-Inspiration” don’t miss (International) Webdesign Portfolios – Be inspired ( from Hungary, Croatia, Netherlands, Columbia, Bolivia, etc… )!
kasakka
November 24th, 2009 8:16 amSeriously, who can take the effort to really do more than skim thru these when there are so many. Even if all are wonderful, going thru that many is just a pain in the ass and you lose interest at about 10-15 and even those before that don’t get the attention they deserve.
I’d rather see Smashing Magazine pick the cream of the crop and present just a handful of outstanding ones than 100 good ones.
Just saying, most people probably read lots of other feeds that also do this kind of thing from time to time. I’d really love to check all of them in detail but never find the time or place for it when there’s so much of it so I just skim a few and then close the page.
Fil
November 24th, 2009 8:56 amtotally agree
Ron
November 24th, 2009 9:14 amSigned!
O'Ryan
November 24th, 2009 9:55 amThat’s the beauty of articles like this. i may hate the stuff you like. i would rather have a ton of sites to skim through until one worth my attention catches my eye, instead of having four, of which i may like zero.
plus it allows us to see in a larger picture what every one else is doing, that way we can continue to be innovative.
then again it’s not like you had to skim through this articale at all much less look at every single one.
Great post! i’m very glad to see a list of fresh sites on smashing…
Chris Morata
November 24th, 2009 8:35 amNice portfolio roundup. Hopefully I’ll make the list someday!
Roc
November 24th, 2009 8:37 amIt’s amazing how many of us are out there.
Lee Smith
November 24th, 2009 8:43 amWhat’s the font on friendly duck?
Scott
November 24th, 2009 2:05 pmThe typeface used at the top is Archer. It’s a Hoefler & Frere Jones typeface. The typeface used for the dynamic titles down below is Rockwell. The body copy is made up of Georgia Bold Italic and Georgia Regular.
Julian James
November 24th, 2009 8:59 amAwesome! Totally made it onto a Smashing Magazine list!
Thanks Julia!
PS. I run NewSugar magazine which you can all enjoy for FREE here: http://newsugar.co.uk
^_^
Ben
November 24th, 2009 9:03 amLooks like a modified version of rockwell
Tosh
November 24th, 2009 9:06 amId have to agree with kasakka – why not choose maybe 10 of the best and elaborate on them a little more, why 69?
Todd
November 24th, 2009 9:10 amWow, this site is losing its credibility, fast.
Smashing Editorial
November 24th, 2009 9:59 amCredibility? Could you please be more specific, Todd? What exactly do you mean?
Todd
November 24th, 2009 10:19 amThe commenter after me explains it well enough. You are a site that takes great efforts to excel ahead other design sites, and does it well. Carpet-bombing readers with screen-captures of other sites with very little explanation and theory about what makes them great (or not so great) offers no insight and encourages others to simply “do what they’re doing”.
I would also expect a level of maturity from this site. The title of this article sounds like something that belongs at collegehumor.com
Chris
November 24th, 2009 10:25 amI agree with Todd, these “___ Sexy Portfolio Designs” articles seem like filler content until someone has something worthwhile to say. It feels like every “Top 20″ article and “50 Awesome Tutorial” list just cheapens the web design community. I love SM for the original content and valuable advice, but I have to roll my eyes at every list you put out.
Obviously, just an opinion. I’m sure there are plenty of people who come here only for the lists.
Smashing Editorial
November 24th, 2009 11:29 amThank you guys, your opinion is very important to us. We weill know better for the next time.
Jesse
November 24th, 2009 9:21 amGosh, these “X number of great sites” posts are getting old. Trim it down, man, and explain why you think certain portfolios are better than others.
Smashing Editorial
November 24th, 2009 10:00 amActually, many screenshots do have a description that explains what makes the designs special. We thought it was a good compromise to offer a large portion of inspiration and at the same time mention some interesting ideas that we’ve found on these sites.
Todd Perlee
November 24th, 2009 5:32 pmGreat post. I don’t understand the criticism here. Let me get this straight: Todd, Chris and Jesse are incapable of thinking for themselves and need Smashing to explain design? It really is a privilege to view the work of competitors in this convenient context. Obviously the boys need to stop looking at other designers’ work and concentrate on coming up with an original thought. Good luck.
Chris
November 25th, 2009 6:51 am“Obviously the boys need to stop looking at other designers’ work and concentrate on coming up with an original thought.”
You just described yourself. Priceless.
Todd
November 25th, 2009 7:01 amI agree with Chris. Coming up with original thought and thinking for ourselves is exactly what this post doesn’t preach. I don’t understand your argument, Todd Perlee.
Todd Perlee
November 30th, 2009 10:44 amHere’s my argument: Professional designers do not need to be spoonfed design theory by critics. You seem to want someone to tell you what’s good and what’s not–even critics prefer you to think for yourself. You should have the capacity to make this judgement having gone to a legitimate design college. When a designer is chronically searching for design samples online and complains that they don’t understand what they are looking at because it’s too much, it tells me that you are researching to plagiarize because you don’t have the design background to analyze for yourself. You should be celebrating these sites and Smashing for pulling them together or adding to the design conversation.
Chris
December 4th, 2009 7:43 am“When a designer is chronically searching for design samples online and complains that they don’t understand what they are looking at because it’s too much…”
We have been saying the opposite. We are coming here to learn new techniques, observe new ideas. NOT search for design samples. We just said we want LESS design samples. Our argument about them not providing design theory and such on the sites they list, is that we think it’s a bit of a cop out to just list sites.
Please actually read what we are writing before insulting us, saying we are amateur designers with inferior backgrounds to yours.
Design Informer
November 24th, 2009 10:05 amI like the post. Thanks for the inspiration! Too bad you didn’t feature my site? jadgraphics dot net – Well, maybe next time.
Daniel Correia
November 24th, 2009 10:05 amSome good, some bad. Didn’t really expect an average quality post from smashingmag.
Jason Kirtley
November 24th, 2009 10:05 amWow – really cool to have my site included in this list of other really great sites. Thanks Julia/Smashing.
Neil Victor Grey
November 24th, 2009 10:06 amI’m so close to not reading @smashing anymore and that’s a shame because I used to love this magazine. How many times have you guys featured the Project 365 home page in your articles over the last month?! I’ve seen over half of the sites from this article in so many other “my favorite portfolio’s” lists (and usually with at least a solid description/critique for each). @smashing has much more potential than this — there are already a pile of great “best portfolio” sites out there like @fwa and BestWebGallery who specifically focus on that niche.
All I’m saying is I come here to read and learn; lately I feel like I’m not the only one concerned about the lack of new & interesting content presented on @smashing.
My2Cents.
-NVG
h1brd
November 24th, 2009 10:22 amCan never get enough inspiration so it’s always good to have some quality fresh roundups and see whats going on :)
Michael Chanter
November 24th, 2009 10:49 amDiverse collection of portfolio sites – great resource and source of inspiration – thanks!
Joshua M
November 24th, 2009 10:58 amI kind of agree with some of the other commenters…
SM is quickly becoming a “## (top|best|awesome) [subject]” sites…
Benny
November 24th, 2009 10:59 amGreat portfolio designs, I like the different styles and the balance between experience and usability.
And thanks for featuring Puppetbrain! :) Keep up the great work Smashing Magazine!
Atmey
November 24th, 2009 11:00 amLove ‘em, especially Nick Hand’s
Andy Feliciotti
November 24th, 2009 11:23 amAwesome list of inspiration, really liked Flourish’s site
Michael
November 24th, 2009 11:27 amYeah, I’m sure there just happened to be 69 “Sexy Portfolios”…
Gary Davison
November 24th, 2009 11:43 amThanks for including my portfolio (Attack of the web).
Steelrocks
November 24th, 2009 11:47 amAmazing collection. Pure inspiration!
Edison A. Leon
November 24th, 2009 12:19 pmVery inspiring indeed, thanks!
Julia May
November 24th, 2009 12:20 pmI’m sorry to hear that many people confuse showcase lists with the best practices analytic articles. These content categories are self-sufficient and can exist simultaneously.
Yes the collection is huge, but there are tons of beautiful designs worth to be mentioned, and people with different tastes can find something that will appeal to them. It took us hours to ramble the web and sift out the designs worth to be shared with the smashing community. And how much time does it take you to scroll this post? Exactly.
Yes, several designs from this collection can be found in previous posts both on Smashing Magazine and other web design related resources. However, such sites as Project 365 or Camellie show really great designs and it would be a sin not to celebrate them in the collection titled “Sexy Portfolio Designs”. Plus, such websites present great work in multiple design elements, they are good examples, so why cannot they be used in various articles covering related topics? We try to keep the repeats minor, including only outstanding cases.
There was time when people went to a photography studio on holidays and memorable events, now we can shoot literally every moment of our lives; there was time when beautiful web design was a great event – now there are many excellent websites appearing constantly, no wonder that design round-ups follow up.
By the way, I agree that 50-cool-tutorials posts don’t bring much value, but I don’t understand what it has to do with design showcases.
It’s obvious that many of you want to see some more case study on SM, and I’m sure the Smashing Team is already preparing something interesting for the readers.
Now that was my opinion. Thanks for sharing yours.
Chris
November 24th, 2009 2:52 pmI don’t think anyone confused this showcase list with “best practices analytic articles.” I think we are expecting more from this site to offer more than what the hundreds of CSS Inspiration galleries are offering. In the vast world of web design, we’d like to hear something else besides “Top 50 Cool Websites.”
If the leaders like SM get into a rut of pushing out predominately “Top ___ Lists,” then the web design community is going to keep going down the road of limiting their creativity to what they find in showcases and round-ups. Keeping alive the circle of just recycling ideas from other websites isn’t going to help the web design community grow. I for one want to see more articles to help guide my talent and process in a way that lets me think for myself, not just trudge through endless lists of people who do things better than me. There are plenty of other sites for “inspiration” and I guess we are just hoping that SM can be more than that.
ChaosAngel
November 24th, 2009 12:44 pmThis it a great post. It is inspiral to me!
jessie
November 24th, 2009 1:02 pmSexy has nothing to do with these portfolios! Some are nice though.
Craig
November 24th, 2009 1:04 pmI think I’m in the camp that believes the informational and inspirational posts can co-exist. I enjoy these roundups; they help keep designers current with the state of design today.
That said, I’m surprised Auxiliary’s new site isn’t on your radar yet. Good list though. I really liked the Atomic Cartoons site.
Orboreale
November 25th, 2009 6:37 pmEuh Auxiliary’s is not beautiful…
Silhouette
November 24th, 2009 1:24 pm69?
Smashing does need to decide on a format of the Top # and stick to it…69 does really suggest it was all about gathering up a number of contributions from a lot of others and throwing it a wall rather than a carefully selected process by SM or the author.
Truth be told there are a lot of good/inspiring designs in this list but then there are a LOT of designs – seems to be more of a case of something for everyone rather than a pick of the crop, which is what SM used to be about.
Jorge
November 24th, 2009 1:29 pm69? Sexy number, sexy designs !! cool
twitter: @j0rch
Benny
November 24th, 2009 1:39 pmWhy not 69? It is a sexy number. I think it is great to see these kind of inspiration posts once in a while, as opposed to ‘best practice analytical’ posts. On a sidenote: I can’t stand all those people being negative with this post, while SM has worked hard to provide us with quality content. We should be thankful. Give SM (and the designers too) some credit people!
Camilo
November 24th, 2009 1:53 pmgreat list!
Juan
November 24th, 2009 1:58 pmawesome
Mel
November 24th, 2009 1:58 pmNice post! Great work by the respective designers. A shame that in a list of 69 websites only one of them is minimal. There all a bit samey
james
November 24th, 2009 3:56 pminterested to see which site you thought was a minimal design?
Blog Header Guy
November 24th, 2009 2:23 pmI agree with several of the commenters about the lack of real content in posts like this. On the whole, I guess I generally trust SM to show me something new and even though several of these sites have been featured before. There were a couple I got ideas from.
I’m gonna be redesigning my website soon and I like to check out as many as I can.
Thanks for the article.
Kevin Brown
November 24th, 2009 2:29 pmGood post! I enjoyed these!
Matt
November 24th, 2009 2:46 pmI’ve run some pretty big blogs before, and I have to say that readers go nuts for a good list.
I agree that once you get used to it, it’s better to have some genuine content and insight, but I can’t blame smashing for all their list posts when they probably get more hits and interest than the posts that they cram with information.
Javier
November 24th, 2009 3:49 pmCongratulations, great list, nice works there, to remark the Esteban Muñoz and Juan David Perafan’s portfolios, colombian talent!!!
james
November 24th, 2009 3:55 pmI don’t know what everyone is complaining about, I think this is a great article and was well selected. Many portfolio sites I have never seen here listed. Lot’s of variety and a typical great post by SM. As a designer myself, I love to see what other designers are doing to display their work. This is not a low quality post people! I don’t see why you are complaining? These feel like a stack of good quality portfolios that got hand picked for a reason and all have a place here as I get a little something different from each one.
Nick Hand
November 24th, 2009 4:56 pmWow I was pretty stoked to see my site up there, it’s an honor! I agree with people saying that you can never get enough inspiration honestly… some SM posts are great content, some are just light reading and inspirational… as long as there’s a balance I see no problem… keep it all coming!
Nick Hand
paul
November 24th, 2009 5:10 pmI don’t mind a “list post” from time to time, I wouldn’t have discovered these beautiful portfolio sites otherwise.
amy
November 24th, 2009 5:15 pmit’s really awesome,i love them~~~
Henry
November 24th, 2009 5:24 pmGood list, I think there have been some stronger portfolio posts though. A few seemed to of been put in for the sake of it.
Thanks for taking the time to give us these resources.
Matt
November 24th, 2009 6:53 pmNice. I really enjoyed them. Especially since I am currently redesigning our site!
Cheers!
Dave
November 24th, 2009 7:34 pmSome of you lot have some pretty high expectations. I don’t expect to find every post useful from any blog. Smashing catures for a wide audience.
I enjoy these posts from time to time
snnaqvi
November 24th, 2009 8:02 pmGreat inspirations
mariadelsol
November 24th, 2009 9:13 pmwow very nices webpages sure i got inspiration!!
Tobias
November 24th, 2009 11:17 pmStep1: Enter random css gallery
Step2: Select from Category: Portfolio
Step3: ???
Marian
November 24th, 2009 11:22 pmWow today Im surpised, great collection
Nako
November 24th, 2009 11:37 pm69 Sexy Portfolio Designs To Inspire Me?
Are you joking?
Only one not bad screenshot here is Flourish, but after i checked their website and found there ugly 5 works at all, i was finally inspired…
Most of those sites are pretty bad. So logically that list can inspire only such bad designer as bad this list is.
Benny
November 25th, 2009 5:14 amUh ok… how ‘great’ is your design work? Can we see? No offence, but you should show more respect to your fellow designers… If you are a designer at all.
Garet
November 25th, 2009 6:04 amOk let me go in some css gallery copy few links from the Portfolio category as Tobias said and post a amazing article in my blog and all world say how cool my blog is!
Ameen Abudbash
November 24th, 2009 11:48 pmgr8
DaZa
November 25th, 2009 12:13 amToo nice to have my site included in this list of other “sexy” portfolios. ^__^ Thanks Smashing.
If you know Italian visit my free weekly blogstrip about graphic design TeknoSauri.aC (teknosauri.blogspot.com) ;P
sgmk
November 25th, 2009 12:58 amgreat post my favorite are
Flourish Web Design, Diego Latorre
Best regards
Johan de Jong
November 25th, 2009 1:10 amGreat looking websites, but how about SEO, cross-browser support, backwards compatibility to older browsers, mobile support, screen reader support, etc…
I bet that if I visit these site with Lynx all I see is some basics and missing 50% of the real content (especially the designer sites).
Never the less, great list.
Andrew
November 25th, 2009 1:13 amHi, thanks for including our website in this awesome list, we are honored.
Kind reagrds, the Johnnydoes crew.
Lee
November 25th, 2009 2:25 amVery Nice!
J Nichols
November 25th, 2009 2:36 am69 Sexy Portfolios — that’s cute. I knew a wordplay like that could only come from a freelance writer.
Miguel
November 25th, 2009 3:07 amHey!
Very nice stuff!!
Great articles @ SM!
A few days i found a very nice portfolio concept!
check this!
http://www.avantgraphik.com!
Tks!
lindaan
November 25th, 2009 3:15 amgr8 post :)
lindaan
November 25th, 2009 3:16 aminspiring indeed, awaiting for the next post avec impatience
Karan
November 25th, 2009 3:22 amI am extremely disappointed after looking at the first design. This design looks cluttered
Josh
November 25th, 2009 3:34 amPeople are complaining now about this? SM has been like this forever.
SCARLETT
November 25th, 2009 3:41 ama great list, thanks!
Vinh
November 25th, 2009 3:51 amVery great post. Thanks so much!
Diego Valobra
November 25th, 2009 4:03 amThank you for adding pirolab.it,
it’s always nice to be on an online magazine like this.
Diego
Ash
November 25th, 2009 4:26 amThanks for adding the 365 site and many thanks for the great feedback we have received.
Ash
Emmanuel
November 25th, 2009 4:46 amAnyone else sick of seeing this intro blurb on websites?
“Hello, my name is ______, I’m from ______ and I design ______, ______ and ______.”
Personally I think anyone who uses this format should be automatically disqualified from lists such as these.
Benny
November 25th, 2009 5:23 amPeople who post these kinds of replies should be banned immediately, as they do not contribute anything to the community. (no offence, just my opinion)
If you have done your Smashing Magazine reading, you would have known these short introductions “Hello, I am Bla bla, I do this and that…” is a great way to introduce yourself and let your visitors – in a split second – know what they can expect from the website and who they are dealing with, especially for designers and other people who work as an individual.
Garet
November 25th, 2009 6:01 amActually Emmanuel is right…
Benny
November 25th, 2009 6:09 amWell, that’s your opinion.
Emmanuel
November 25th, 2009 6:39 amI agree that short snappy introductions are a perfect way to let the visitor know what to expect from the website, however the English language is beautifully versatile and it isn’t hard to come up with something slightly more original.
Also, overreact much? Ban me for voicing my opinion? Please.
Benny
November 25th, 2009 6:47 amThe ‘banning’ part is just sarcasm. In reply to you saying something about disqualification… ;-) No offence meant.
rburch
November 25th, 2009 4:53 amThere are some good examples here. I’ve been looking for ways our firm could update our site.
Mike
November 25th, 2009 5:41 amThis is an interesting collection of sites, and I know from experience that scouring the web for sites that have been designed with skill and passion can be hard work. Unfortunately, this list contains a large number of sites that, whilst often looking cool or flashy, are a long way from being navigationally intuitive, accessible, cross-browser compliant, and which degrade gracefully when Javascript and Flash are not available.
Take for example the Nora Rose Travis site. This is a beautiful clean design, but the rollovers could have been implemented with CSS instead of Javascript. The links still work without Javascript, but the image rollovers don’t appear.
Another example is the Thousand Minds site. It looks great, but try bookmarking one of the ‘pages’. Even copying the link from the menu doesn’t work (http://thousandminds.com/#panel-3 for example).
The Sahar Design site is good, until you try and view the portfolio without having Javascript enabled. The scroll buttons don’t work without it.
I have not had chance to look at all the sites in detail, but I think it’s fair to say that not enough of the websites listed achieve the right balance of visual attractiveness and usability.
Kevin
November 25th, 2009 6:11 am“That’s the beauty of articles like this. i may hate the stuff you like. i would rather have a ton of sites to skim through until one worth my attention catches my eye, instead of having four, of which i may like zero.”
To that author and the author of similar messages, I have to respectfully disagree. Good design is not subjective! Even if two people don’t like the style of a site, they can usually agree if the design works or not. While I don’t mean to imply that you didn’t put hard work into this article, these could have easily been taken out of anyone’s bookmarks, delicious feed, etc.
I, too, would much prefer a very strong critique. “The portfolio of Belgium business communication agency Kashmir Creative looks stylish and contemporary. Much of this is due to the choice of colors and a professional photo filling up the background of the site.” says nothing if you really pick it apart. Does a “professional photo” really make a site contemporary? More important is to answer “why” rather than simply the “what”. Tell me how the specific imagery emphasizes the overall theme, or how certain design elements contrast against the use of type. Be specific and show that you are a credible source when talking about design. I promise you that you will get a better response than simply “great post!” or “excellent examples! thx for the inspiration!”
Benny
November 25th, 2009 6:24 amDude, this is an “inspiration list”, NOT a best practice analytical article. The title is not “69 tips for designing the best portfolio website and examples”.
But I agree it would be better to say “why” rather than “what”, but this is not in the context of this article. The inspiration here can be interpreted differently by different people. We don’t see any explanation of projects in websites like TheFWA too. Another example: At a museum, when you are looking a painting, would you need an explanation text of it? Yes, maybe a title, but the purpose of inspiration is to interprete it yourself. No, an explanation is not always needed. To be short: In my opinion, this article serves as a collection of well designed portfolio websites and is effective as is… But of course, I respect your opinion too.
Naysh
November 25th, 2009 11:55 amI’m sorry, I’m going to have to be a critic, not of the art, but of the grammar. This is a quote from the Qilayout layout, as an example of what I’m talking about. (Sorry to Qilayout, not intending to hone in on you, several of the layouts had similar debaucheries.)
Welcome to Qilayout, I am currently a multimedia student
that indulge in everything design especially in layout
and web-design. I am available for freelance work.
feel free to take a look at my works.
There are so many grammatical errors in that, it makes my head hurt. I mean this in a loving and constructive way, the art work on all the layouts is beautiful, but you must have the brains to present yourself well.
Joel Nielson
February 2nd, 2010 7:16 amI agree. As I studied communication it was interesting to look at the difference of literature writing and grammar and media. I guess depending on which one you are trying to strike is the difference.
Lucy
November 25th, 2009 12:05 pmWas really inspired looking at these sites, thanks SM.
I love skimming quickly through sites like this as I get to work on some really really really boring projects so I welcome an explosion of great design and inspiration once in a while!!
Alex Antuna
November 25th, 2009 2:18 pmThank you for adding Kashmir Creative ^-^
We love Smashing Magazine ^-^
Alex
Danny J
November 25th, 2009 3:07 pmI find the the words “69″ and “sexy” pretty uninspired, especially in the same sentence. Overall nice list, though.
Jason
November 25th, 2009 10:33 pmDesign Inspiration at its best – I think it’s time for me to redo my portfolio.. AGAIN
Ali
November 26th, 2009 5:29 amYou never allow us to say ENOUGH. It’s More then Enough to Say THANK YOU for such a wonderful resources..Every time.
All the Best to your Team.
Benny
November 27th, 2009 12:21 amWow a lot of passion here. That’s one good thing going on here. SM is usually a great spot for resources and I appreciate all the hard work that goes into the postings. But, I have to say I was also disappointed from this posting. I don’t find myself inspired by these designs, as there are only a handful that do anything for me. All of these sites have their great qualities, but I don’t see greatness or magic in any of them. Just my opinion.
Diego Valobra
December 3rd, 2009 4:05 amShow us what is magic for you … please!!
There’s always something more to learn in life.
Ionut Popescu
November 28th, 2009 3:55 amMaybe you can add mine too in next collection http://ionutpopescu.com
Thanks for sharing!
Jill
November 29th, 2009 6:06 amThanks for the article, SM. I’ve definitely been inspired!
Mark
November 29th, 2009 8:25 amWow, nice one, thank you for the mention and the endless inspiration!
Brad
November 30th, 2009 5:09 pmWowzers. Great stuff. Lots of talent and creativity out there!
Lyndsay
December 1st, 2009 6:08 amWhy do people can’t help themselves in talking crap? This is awesome either way! Superb portfolio!
crappy
December 4th, 2009 11:10 amwell… daza site (http://daza.altervista.org/index.htm) is so… 98…. and it is in SM?? WTF??
crappy
December 4th, 2009 12:07 pmIonut = spammer
Kamal
December 7th, 2009 9:35 amDon’t you think http://www.kreative.net.in is also inspiring and cool?
crappy
December 9th, 2009 2:37 amNo, it kreative. net is not inspiring nor cool… IMO is a piece of shit, the same flash interface since years, anyone can do it… and it is even worse… you are FROM kreative… and you are self-promoting… OWNED!
nick
December 11th, 2009 9:40 amthis site is very good and helpful
Carlos Ríos Garabito
January 4th, 2010 8:09 amDiseños arriesgados, creativos, hasta lúdicos pero así es la inspiración…
dh
January 18th, 2010 4:48 amI only looked through a handful and to be honest, not particularly impressed. Some of the designs are quite good but don’t belong on a website. This drives me mad! Attack web and mika makinen for instance, I hate websites that slide around all over the place, plus if your going to put an anchor at sections, why not allow the user to return somewhere! Usability clearly not a thought here and albeit these are portfolio websites, these just look like graphic designers let loose on a web page!
ntho
January 26th, 2010 12:15 pmNice list! Hopefully AnthonyCerreta.com will be able to join the group someday… :)
agentbetty
January 29th, 2010 3:40 pmI was really hoping for some stand out designs in here. A site, or a few, with polish, elegance and great UX. I am disappointed. Many of them have great elements, but fail due to sloppy implementation and lack of overall refinement.
I suppose this is an “Inspiration” list and less of a “Best of” list. Even still, I’m used to better selections from SM.
Ali
February 1st, 2010 3:47 amGreat job, you can also see aramediatech.com