Feeling like your (online) portfolio needs a face lift but in need of some inspiration?
I’ve compiled a list of 50 awesome portfolio designs and a short blurb on why I’ve chosen them, categorized alphabetically by awesome design element, to spark creativity for designing or redesigning yours. Take a look and let me know which ones are your favorite by leaving a comment on this post!
Great Use of Color
Authentic Style :: The brown and orange work so well to create a rich, warm experience.
Charlotte Tang :: The color in her projects is so tangible and vibrant due to her muted design.
Chris Thurman :: Beautiful color scheme and easy to follow. I think the sections should be reordered so that his portfolio is higher on the page, but the layout is stunning.
Dreamdust :: Love their use of color on their home page without it looking cluttered. (Wish they would continue it rather than the grey with rollover color in their portfolio!)
Hot Meteor :: His use of red just makes my day.
Matt Dempsey :: Warm and inviting color palette that still focuses on the portfolio at hand.
Ryan Scherf :: This rich, dark background really makes the portfolio pieces vibrant and beautiful.
Yaron Schoen :: Really awesome how the colors on the site change based on the project.
Strong Calls to Action
Jay Hafling :: Instantly you know he’s ready and waiting for you.
Kisko Labs :: Great dark portfolio design with a call to action offset in color.
Laureano Endeiza :: Bright “Available for Freelance Work” right up top, and it’s neat that you can change the design (and language) via the settings in the upper right-hand corner.
Project 365 :: Fun typography and copywriting with a bright orange call to action.
Second and Park :: Questions can make great calls to action.
Theater Website Studio :: Multiple ways to contact them on the home page, and a great use of color, too.
Sweet, Sweet Minimalism
Ben Hulse :: A beautiful example of minimalism with color images.
Hannah Dollery :: Beautiful and simple way to display portfolio pieces with multiple images.
Kyee :: Really simple and elegant one-page design.
Luke Larsen :: Just a hint of design that makes it feel nicely polished.
Lundren + Lindqvist :: The rollover half-tone is a really nice touch, and really beautifully (and simply) laid out.
Nine Lion Design :: Minimalism can utilize (lots of) color. Who knew?!
Robbie Manson :: Minimalism that doesn’t feel like minimalism with a huge emphasis on the portfolio pieces.
Smart! Grupo Creativo :: The rage these days is grey with rollover color. This site exemplifies a great way to do this and a beautiful one-page design. Also, really neat studio section (click on the team names).
SmearGraph :: This grid/minimal cross really gives the artwork the spotlight to shine in.
Grid-tastic
Alex Dukal :: The rigid design of this site juxtaposes very well with the softness of his portfolio.
Damian Simpkins :: Grid meets minimalism in a nice and simple to navigate format.
Gerren Lamson :: While I’m not a huge fan of his typography headers, I just couldn’t stop browsing.
Jeroen Homan :: His tagline says it all: “Clean, smart & effective web design.”
Seymourpowell :: Beautiful layout and rollovers in their portfolio, and a really nice case study page to boot.
Signature Creative :: They’ve found a great way to keep the focus on their portfolio no matter what link you click.
Visualbox :: Interesting scrolling effect to highlight exactly where they want you to look.
Zync :: I really love that I don’t have to go back to the main portfolio page to view other works.
Fun with Moving Parts
DJNR :: So different and unique, it’s fun. This one stands out from the crowd.
Dumbwaiter Design :: A pretty website with a few interesting moving parts and a nice color scheme.
Ghost Horses :: A lot of moving parts done tastefully.
M1 Design :: Great use of color and fun movement in this (German? I believe) portfolio.
Marc Anton Dahmen :: Flash-based portfolio where each project is a different business card in the mix.
Morten Claussen :: Very cool effects and transitions in this Flash-based portfolio (not as big a fan on information display, though).
Sid Lee :: Really nice and clean side scrolling portfolio, and an interesting touch with the portfolio reel as well as a ‘normal’ portfolio.
Tanq :: I like the bright red rollovers on the home page portfolio pics.
Whiteboard :: Neat layering effect with different background pictures as you scroll. It creates the illusion of movement without actually moving.
Just Neat-o
13 Creative :: Quite the opposite of minimalism, this site fits nicely with her niche.
Astuteo :: Nice layout and easy to read.
Cast Iron Design Studio :: Neat old-timey site design, but an example of where rollover color works against them (if you click on logos, you have to roll over each one to see them in full color).
Cymetriq Studio :: Neat variation on the rollover color that’s not grey. It really highlights the current project nicely.
I am Rahul :: Nice one-page design with really pretty blues and a good dark color scheme.
Jason Reed :: I really enjoy the horizontal slide bars.
Kendra Schaefer :: Great copy and a neat freebies page for fellow designers.
Shannon Moeller :: This one feels fun – supported by the funky grid on the home page.
Tony Geer :: I like how he incorporates his blog on the home page without it dominating the content.
Yodaa :: Colorful and beautifully illustrated site.
In case you don’t make it through all 50…
…here are some interesting notes on what jumped out at me during my research:
- Everyone is using the grey to color rollover scheme. I’m not saying it doesn’t look good when done right, but it’s a
bigHUGE fad. - Grey is in. Everywhere.
- So is that little tab at the top of a site that looks sewn or like the tail of a ribbon.
- A lot of designers would like clients to hire them, but they never ask them to! Very few portfolios have strong calls to action guiding clients to contact them.
What do you think?
Which one is your favorite? Do any inspire you to try a different technique or improve your portfolio website? Let us know in the comments on this post!
Written by April Greer April creates brilliant graphic and web design through her freelance design business: Greer Genius. She specializes in information presentation and engaging content with a splash of marketing prowess where needed. April is available for speaking engagements and mentorships - visit her website for her contact information. Follow @greergenius
I like your “short blurb,” I hate it when I come across a list post like this and there is no description as to the reasoning behind the choice.
While a lot of these are outside of my ability, I do enjoy looking around for those little sparks of inspiration. In my opinion, I think that a lot of designer portfolios are a bit over the top just to be different, what do you think? I understand that you want to, and especially in this business – need to, stand out from the crowd, but often times I find myself overwhelmed by the design.
Also, good timing! I’ve been working on my portfolio for the last few days, and this has been a great inspiration. I’ve seen some things that I want to incorporate, and some things that I’d like to avoid for my particular purpose.
Ricky,
I completely agree – I hate to go to a list and not have any idea why each item is on the list!
You’re right, some people go for different, some for fancy, cool, modern, etc. This is why I categorized them into different groups. You may, for example, like the minimalist look, so maybe you focus on those, while others are interested in sliding and moving parts so they check out that group. And you’re also absolutely right in that often we visit sites and find out what we DO NOT want on our own!
Ideally, you’ll create a portfolio that fits your style, your audience, and your work.
Good luck, and please do share when you’ve got something to show us!
I would really like everyone to have a look at http://www.pepde.com and comment your opinions about it
Deepak,
First, I really love the sliding yellow bar under the navigation. I also really like how you use yellow so well – the yellow/white combo is very difficult to pull of and you’ve done well.
I feel like you lose a bit of real estate on the home page by having so much white space around your main “You are here…” I also think it would be great to carry your not-quite-circular shape throughout the website rather than having some circles and some unique shape.
It would be cool if in your portfolio you could scroll through the projects in the pop-up box rather than having to click in/out and go through the animation. But I do like the horizontal scroll at the top of the website.
In regards to your logo, the D for me is too abstract. If you hadn’t asked me to go to pepde.com, I would’ve told you your design studio is called Pep E. I don’t dislike the D shape or the bright, bold red, but I don’t get a D out of it, either.
Also, not sure if this was on purpose, but your spelling of Jhon is (in English) incorrect (should be John). If Jhon makes more sense for your location in India, ignore me.
Overall, you’ve got a very nice, clean site. Good luck to you!
Note: pull off, not pull of. Sorry.
April,
Thanks a lot for such a detailed and true review on my design.
I will definitely consider these opinions & fixes and include them when Im revamping the design especially the loss of white space in home page.
Regarding the logo,I do know it is very difficult to figure out pepde from it still I don’t know why I love it so much that Im finding it hard to change but always I do try to come up with some solutions.
I am sorry,can you point out where I had made the mistake jhon for john(it is the right way of spelling it) so that I can correct it.
Once again thanks for taking time reviewing my website
All my wishes for your work.
Deepak,
You’re welcome!
I certainly don’t dislike your logo, but it is hard to read. That’s for you to determine.
It’s yours!
Your “John” error is on the contact page in the contact form – http://pepde.com/contact-us/ – super nit-picky, I know.
Best wishes to you too!
This will be great inspiration, as I am currently working on a new portfolio! I like the description lines, but personally I like these posts to include pictures of the website instead of tabbing every website and then come back here to see why you choose it. But that’s just me, anyways thanks!
Johnny,
I don’t disagree with you, but I will say that would have been quite a bit more work!
Also, I kind of wanted to focus on the name of the designer/business rather than the image of their portfolio. So often I see something neat and can’t remember the name or URL to return, so I thought by putting the focus on the name, perhaps it’ll stick with readers who designed the portfolio.
Designers will always be the star in the shadows, but hopefully this helps get their names out there a bit more!
Thanks for your input! Let us know if you find any particular favorites!
Nice article! I am actually in the process of revamping my site(again) and this really gave me some insight.
Sydrena,
Glad I could help! Do share when you’ve got something to show us!
Great article. I only browsed through a few of the sites listed, but it was very informational. I’m finishing up my website/portfolio and your comment/the section on the Call to Action was the most helpful for me. Thanks for pulling this together!
Rachel,
You’re welcome! Thanks for letting me know. We’d love to see your website when you release it to the world – post a link to it here!
Great inspiration, I am definitely bookmarking this!
Thanks for adding a minimal category, some of these sites are incredibly beautiful. I personally feel that some designers get *just a little* too “artsy fartsy” sometimes; I’ve even had clients comment on that. But to each their own.
For the record, I was all about the grey BEFORE it was trendy
Sheila,
You’re welcome – I tried to include several categories as each designer has their own vision for their site, and sometimes experimenting out of your comfort zone is a good thing.
Duly noted – you’re ahead of the trend. Must be that you created the fad!
Haha, I wish!
Wow! thanks a lot for including me in this list! and also love your comments, thanks again!!
Jenaro,
You’re welcome – you certainly deserve the credit!
Thanks for stopping by!
PS – Your chair looks pretty comfy. Is it, and where did you get it?
Great list of links.
Thanks – hope you find inspiration!
April
Thanks for including Authentic Style in the list. Much appreciated!
Will,
You’re welcome – you deserve the credit!
Thanks for stopping by to comment,
April
Thanks mate. This is Rahul here, owner of iamrahul.com. You got some nice collections. All the best everyone.
Rahul,
You’re welcome – thanks for stopping by!