7 Elements of an Effective Portfolio Website
Over the span of 7 days, I recently explored the most important elements that make up a successful online portfolio website, and how to use them to the best effect starting with a post about your site design. To read all the parts of the series, simply click on the links in the list below to direct you to the corresponding topics.
What does it mean to have a successful portfolio website?
This means that when an Art Director or other type of potential client visits your site, they get a clear sense of who you are, what you do, and why you are the right person for their project. Ideally, a winning portfolio will lead to more contracts, more referrals, and more work doing the types of projects you really want to do.
Click on the links below to read about the 7 major points to focus on when creating or refining your portfolio website:
As I mentioned, I’ll be exploring these elements over the next 7 days. In fact, I’ve already started here. If you follow the steps in this series, you can apply these ideas to your own online portfolio, which will maximize the potential effectiveness of your promotional efforts in a growing sea of Illustrators.
You can now listen to the entire series in Audiobook format! Download it here.
Related Posts:
This was a really good series… I’m really inspired to add a blog section to my site but worried about how busy I am, and whether I’ll be able to update it regularly enough. Determinded to give it a go though!
Thanks
It is amazing how much useful material you’re presenting to your visitors. Your site is (and is increasingly more and more) a resource that is likely to become invaluable to many illustrators. Keep up the great work!
–Duncan
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See my book cover porfolio at:
http://duncanlong.com/portfolio/index.html
Thanks Duncan! I’m working hard to make EFII one of the best Illustration resources around. Thanks for your feedback, and for participating in the community. Cheers!
Thomas
Hey guys!
Great posts!
I have been saving good portfolio resources for a while now and thought I’d share them here for you.
Five Types of Effective Headers in Web Design: http://sixrevisions.com/web_design/five-types-of-effective-headers-in-web-design/
My Last Portfolio Sucked, Yours Might Too: http://astheria.com/design/my-last-portfolio-sucked-yours-might-too
10 Characteristics of Excellent Portfolio Sites: http://www.webdesignerdepot.com/2008/12/10-characteristics-of-excellent-portfolio-sites/
10 Steps To The Perfect Portfolio Website: http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2009/02/26/10-steps-to-the-perfect-portfolio-website/
Enjoy!
Great resources, Matt. Thanks for sharing. I’ll be checking these out.
I based my portfolio on the Cargo platform (http://cargocollective.com/). Its nice and functional but there starting charging for it.
I’m also looking in to Sqarespace as a possible platform for my portfolio. Its a bit expensive but super cool. Check it out at http://www.squarespace.com/
I’m not an illustrator but I even still I find so many of your blogs so very applicable. At the end of the day it’s freelancers doing creative work and trying to get paid well to do what we love.
Thanks again Thomas
(Hi Duncan :)
I am an aspiring illustrator, and I just wanted to post a message to let you know how delighted I am to have stumbled upon this website! So many great resources for learning and connecting with others who share similar interests. Illustration is something people tend to work on in isolation, so it’s nice to find an online meeting-place. Keep up the great work!
I really enjoyed reading this. I’m a lecturer in art and design and in the process of creating an illustration portfolio and building a website.
I’m being taught web design alongside some of my students and am glad to say that many of the points you discuss, we cover also and refer to accessibility issues….sometimes all singing and dancing sites just aren’t appropriate!!
Thanks again
Sarah
thanks for those helpfull tips!!!
Hi! I just wanted to say that while i was recently re-doing my website(amymariestad.com), I found this article SERIOUSLY helpful! It was like my sherpa, haha, as i climbed the mountain of website portfolio design….or something like that. Thank you so much for all these valuable resources and for the podcast! (which i also looove)
thanks! –amy
very useful, thanks
FolioFox,a portfolio website which provides gateway to artists to explore there creativity to audience around the globe.It encourages new talented artists to create there portfolio and let people know that how talented your.It provides 500 images upload,so lots of space to explore your imagination and share it through Foliofox.It also offer you to share your album with art directors directly from your gallery.
http://www.foliofox.com
I just thought I’d share a great form building service with you all – http://wufoo.com/ is the best site I’ve come accross and believe me I’ve been trying a few lately. It’s really easy to use, and even the free version (which I’m using until I start getting enough commissions to pay for fancy stuff!) can be integrated pretty well into your site. I’m sure there’s more I could do to make it look better, but what I’ve got now took me about 10 minutes to get up and running. I have to say when I found that their name comes from Wu tang Clan and the Foo Fighters I was won over already, but the rest of the experience didn’t disappoint – in fact I might even go so far as to say it was fun building forms!