How to Build a Graphic Design Portfolio That Gets You Hired

The saying “what is seen, is what gets sold” cannot be more on point in the world of graphic design.

It perfectly embodies the importance of a portfolio to showcase an artist’s work in this day and age, which allows the designer to get hired to make ends meet.

That is why a designer must have a portfolio as soon as they set foot in the field. But what is the best way to create a graphic design portfolio?

More so, how should a graphic designer portfolio be to get you the jobs you want to succeed in your career?

To find out all the answers, we will discuss all about graphic design portfolio in this blog. More so, we will look at how you can create one with all the dos and don’ts.

So, without any further ado, let’s get right into it.

What is a Graphic Design Portfolio?

A graphic design portfolio is a collection of a designer’s past work. It mainly includes some of their previous project work in the form of PDF files and images.

The portfolio showcases the artists’ level of skills and tells people about the years of experience they have.

A portfolio is a ticket to the industry and landing a big job. The projects are listed in the portfolio with images.

More so, they include a description that gives clients information on the work that the designer did. Furthermore, a portfolio includes a bio of the designer.

This gives future employers information about the designer, such as their educational background and the number of years of experience they have.

Other than that, a graphic design portfolio includes the designer’s contact details. This includes their phone number and links to their social media accounts so people can reach out to them.

Designers can also list the types of services they offer so that people can hire them for the said services.

A portfolio gives designers so much room to showcase their work in a way that does justice to their craft.

More so, it allows them to show what they are capable of and the style they offer that makes their designs one of a kind.

All of this information builds trust with future clients. And above all, it gives them the confidence they need to hire the designer.

Bonus: If you want to look at some of the best graphic designer examples, then we have a blog on the Most Famous Graphic Designers of all time that we’d love you to check out.

An Overview of the Graphic Design Market 

If anything, the jobs in the graphic design market are there for the taking. That is because the graphic design market is one of the most successful design industries out there.

As per the Exploding Topics Report, “The global graphic design market is valued at more than US$60 billion in 2025. More so, the US graphic design market alone is worth over US$16 billion.”

So, that stat alone should tell you all you need to know about the hiring opportunities in the design market. And there are plenty of them.

Things a Graphic Design Portfolio Should Include 

The best graphic design portfolios are the ones that are clear and include everything. These portfolios do not miss a chance to strike an impression on future clients.

Therefore, a designer portfolio must have a few essential things, which are as follows:

For Beginner Portfolio

Graphic design portfolios are just as important for the freshers as it is for the senior professionals.

Beginners tend to think that once they get a few years of experience and a dozen projects under their belt, they can create a graphic design portfolio website.

But this is just a massive mistake in the making. A portfolio graphic design should be created as soon as the beginner completes their very first project.

This means whether they create a Brand Logo Design or just a plain old graphic design for the first time, it should be counted.

More so, they can update their portfolio with each project they complete. So, there are a few essential things that beginners will need to include in their graphic designer portfolios.

These are as follows:

Best Graphic Design Works 

Including your best works so far in your graphic design portfolio is a no-brainer. So, any project you feel like is a worthy contender to showcase should be added to your portfolio.

Professional Bio

You must tell the people who you are and what you do in a professional manner. More so, you must give them some insight about yourself that makes you who you are.

Also, you must add your contact details, such as your phone number and social media accounts, so that clients can reach out to you.

Statistics and Results

As a beginner, it is essential that you provide numbers as to how your work provides value to clients.

You can list some of the results that your graphic designs delivered after the project was completed. This will let future clients know why they should hire you.

For a Professional’s Portfolio

As graphic designers start to master their craft and spend a couple of years in the industry, they begin to take on bigger and better projects.

This means they go from creating designs for smaller clients to creating Billboard Designs for renowned brands. At that point in their career and time, they are considered professionals.

And their graphic design portfolio websites must reflect their experience and expertise. It must look on par with their skills and showcase things that are asked of a professional.

Therefore, these are the things that a professional’s graphic design portfolio must have:

Recent Design Works

When designers get to a professional level, it becomes obvious that they have completed many projects.

And at that point in time, it becomes a matter of recency rather than entirety. This means a designer must showcase their most recent design works in their portfolio.

They can also add some of their best projects from the distant past to their graphic designer portfolio website.

But the main focus must remain on the latest works, whether it is a Business Envelope Design for a brand or whatever it may be.

Client Testimonials and Case Studies

This is where a professional graphic design portfolio differentiates itself from a beginner’s one. Designers will need to add client reviews and testimonials.

This will give future clients ideas on what other clients say about the designer. More so, they will need to create a full-on case study for big projects that require more work than usual.

In the case study, they will need to provide details about the client and what the project was. More so, they must describe what problems the client faced and the solutions the designer delivered.

Finally, they must give the results that the client received after the design project was delivered.

Webshop

Most senior designers have their own webshop in which they sell their own prints and merch. A lot of designers do this to earn some extra income on the side.

So, add a section to your graphic design portfolio. This will let clients know that you also mean business and revenue with your design.

Services

A portfolio is a ticket to the next big project. But if the portfolio doesn’t list the services you provide, then it is of no use.

Therefore, your graphic design portfolio must feature all the design services you provide. More so, you can list the different types of work you provide within the design domain, such as creating Stationery Design for brands.

Blog

Professionals have a certain level of design knowledge that we non-designers do not. And this is where their insights come into play to educate us on certain topics.

More so, pro designers use their platform to help beginners with design matters. They provide information with blogs, videos, guides, tutorials, and whatnot.

That is why your portfolio must include a blog section featuring the pieces you have written so far. This will allow people to learn more about the design world through your eyes.

How to Create a Graphic Design Portfolio

Now that we have talked about what things to include in a graphic design portfolio, let’s learn how to create one. Therefore, the following are the steps to create a graphic design portfolio:

1. Choose a Platform

First things first, you must pick a platform on which you want to create your portfolio. You get a lot of options to choose from. You can choose from paid ones and free ones.

If you want to create a portfolio using websites that give you free portfolios, then you can do so with the likes of Wix, Portfoliobox, Canva, and Adobe Express. Or you can go with a platform that is more of a community of designers in the form of Behance and Dribbble.

There are also some website builders, such as Squarespace, that allow you to build portfolio websites easily using brand and drop features.

However, you will need to pay for their plans after a 14-day trial service.

But if you wish to go all in and create your very own personal website with WordPress installed and everything, then you will need to buy a hosting plan and register a domain name for that.

On top of that, you will need to build your website from scratch. But if you wish to go with the easiest options that require no money whatsoever, then you can create a portfolio profile on Instagram and Dribbble.

2. Pick a Template or Layout

If you go ahead with the likes of Canva and Wix, then you will need to choose a template and layout for your portfolio website.

There are a ton of options available that you can choose from. So, you can pick a template you like and customize it according to your preference.

The amount of edits and customization you do is totally up to you. More so, there is a lot of room to get creative and make your portfolio website stand out.

3. Choose Your Polished Designs

Once your portfolio platform is all set and done, then begins the real work of shaping your portfolio.

The first thing that you will need to do is go through your project collection and pick out all the designs that you deem fit for your portfolio.

Make sure that the designs you pick are polished and of the highest quality. These designs will represent you and your work as a whole, so make sure they are up to the mark.

4. Upload Images to the Platform

After you have picked your best design works, add a couple of photos of each project to your portfolio.

Make sure the photos are uploaded in the right format and size. Also, you must reduce the file size without compromising the image’s quality.

This will allow the image to load on the client’s devices quickly and look just as sharp and clean.

5. Describe Your Work

As you upload images of the different projects you have completed in your career, you will need to describe them one by one.

While the image might give people a visual idea of the project, it might not be able to tell the whole story.

This is why you will need to add details in the description of each project regarding what the project was.

More so, you can tell what the size of the project was and the level of work you provided.

6. Customize your Portfolio Design

After you have added the images to your portfolio, you can then take the design of your portfolio to the next level.

This is where a custom website becomes useful, as it will allow you to customize each and every part of your portfolio.

You can choose icons, buttons, logos, themes, and background images of your liking. The amount of work you put into designing your portfolio will differentiate it from others.

Therefore, the sky is the limit on how creative you can get with your portfolio design.

7. Include Bio and Contact Details

Now you will need to get to the business side of things and add information that really matters. Here, you will need to create four essential pages that will help you land your next big project.

The first page will obviously be the homepage that will feature all your design works, client testimonials, project details, and whatnot.

The next page will be the About Me page, which will give people information about you. This page will include details like your educational background and the number of years of experience you have.

More so, it will include the brands you have worked for, where you are from, and all that sort of thing.

The third page will be the contact page, which will include all your contact information, such as your phone number, email address, and social media accounts.

This will allow people to get in touch with you. The final page, which is perhaps just as important, will be the services page.

This page will list all the types of design services you provide. More so, you can create pages for each service, for instance, creating a Business Card Design.

This way, the clients can click on a service and book a meeting with you to discuss the project and get a quote for the said service.

More so, you must make sure that all the pages are listed in the website’s navigation bar at the top and in the website’s footer at the bottom.

This will allow clients to easily visit the page they want without searching for it.

8. Publish and Share Your Portfolio

Your portfolio is fully done and ready for launch. However, before you do that, you must make a few final touches to your portfolio.

You must go through each page to check for spelling errors, images, and details. If you find any flaws, now is the time to fix them.

Once you make sure everything is okay, you can then publish your portfolio. More so, you will now need to do the promotion work all by yourself.

You will need to share your portfolio on all your social media accounts and places where you can bring people to check out your portfolio.

Remember, the more eyes that see your portfolio, the more chances you will have of landing the next big project.

Platforms for Creating a Graphic Design Portfolio

There are a lot of platforms you can go with for creating your portfolio. Some of these include:

Website

The first and perhaps the best platform for creating your graphic design portfolio is a website. You can either go with free websites like Wix and Canva to create a portfolio with templates.

Or you can use website builders like Squarespace that offer drag-and-drop features to create your portfolio with ease.

But if you want to customize everything the way you want it and design your portfolio to a T, then you can create your own website by buying a hosting domain and registering a domain name.

Social Media

The other places where you can create your portfolio are on social media. You can create social media profiles on platforms like Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter. Social media will give you the best exposure and a global reach.

However, there are so many portfolios on social media, and making yours stand out is a lot difficult due to the absence of customization ability.

The best you can do is share the best images and work on them with catchy descriptions and details.

Art Platforms

If you want to become part of a community where there are nothing but designers all around, then you can create a portfolio on art platforms.

These platforms include Behance, Art Station, Dribbble, and Deviant. Artists share Doodles and all sorts of art on these platforms. People usually come to these places only to hire designers.

More so, surrounding yourself with a community of designers allows you to level up your game. You can improve your art in so many ways.

That is because you can get graphic design examples and inspirations from like-minded people. This way, you can look at how they are doing things differently and use it to hone your craft further.

PDF and Slides

Not all portfolios are in the form of websites, social media profiles, or art platforms. People also create their portfolios in PDF files and slides.

You can also create a PDF portfolio by putting together some of your best design works. More so, you can add their details with images and merge them into one PDF file.

You can use this file by sending it as an email attachment. This is the best way to showcase your portfolio.

However, editing and updating these files on a regular basis is much harder than compared to portfolios on other platforms.

More so, the image quality might downgrade due to compressing the PDF file size so that it is easy to share with people.

Portfolio Book

A portfolio does not have to be digital. Website portfolios are for showcasing Digital Designs.

But if you are a graphic designer who creates non-digital graphic design, then the best way to showcase your work is through a portfolio book.

This book will be your portfolio in a hard copy and will contain all your design works, like actual pieces of art.

While it is not as common as it used to be, portfolio books are still used by many designers today.

Key Areas to Focus on for Making a Graphic Design Portfolio Stand Out 

Like all pieces of design that require a designer to follow design principles like White Space and whatnot, a portfolio also needs a designer to focus on a few things.

By paying attention to these areas and excelling in them, the portfolio can stand out and look spot-on.

Therefore, these are the areas in which you will need to focus when creating your portfolio:

• Vision: The first aspect of your design that should shine outright is its vision. You will need to use your skills of art direction and create a vision that is shared throughout your portfolio. More so, each design should blend in with the portfolio’s theme, fonts, and other design pieces.
• Storytelling: You must make sure that your design evokes emotions. And you can do that through storytelling. This will communicate your vision and convey the mood throughout your design. Storytelling will also be the main focus in your case studies, so use it well.
• Execution: Everything must be done perfectly. All the design pieces that you will add to your portfolio must be done with precision. Your portfolio must look polished, with everything on point from text to images.
• Marketing: You must take charge of marketing your portfolio by spreading the word around town. You will have to share your portfolio on social media to create hype and add its link to your email signature. The more eyes that see your portfolio, the better the chances of getting hired will be.

How Often Should You Update Your Graphic Design Portfolio?

You will need to update your graphic design portfolio on a regular basis. This means whenever you complete a big project, you just add it to your portfolio right away.

However, you must make sure that your portfolio features your best works, not all of your works.

This means you will need to sort out all of your work and remove the ones that you do not consider your best work.

You can do this once or twice a month. But you must make sure you do not skip a month.

Also, when you are applying for a gig, update your portfolio and add projects relevant to that gig. Not including a similar project can lead to missing out on those big projects,

Tips for Creating a Good Graphic Design Portfolio

Here are a few tips and pointers that you must follow and keep in mind to make your graphic design portfolio eye-catching, noticeable, and memorable:

Include Projects Relevant to the Work You Want

A portfolio is almost like a CV minus the chit-chat and straight to business. So, when you think of it that way, you treat it like a CV, which you adjust and update according to the job you are applying for.

Likewise, you will need to add projects that are similar and relevant to the work you want to do. You can do this when you are applying for a gig or wanting to work on specific projects down the line.

Pay Attention to Formats

Not everyone is a fan of website portfolios or social media accounts, for that matter. Some might just go with the good old days of plugging in a USB drive and copying the PDF portfolio.

And in places where there is bad internet or no Wi-Fi, this will truly make a difference. Also, some might be interested in a hard copy in the form of a portfolio book, for that matter.

So, whatever job you apply for, make sure you bring your portfolio in the right format.

Check Your Spelling

Pay attention to the tiniest of details and double-check spellings. That is because nothing can be worse than a typo in a portfolio. Your portfolio is meant to showcase how you excel in your field.

And if the portfolio contains a spelling mistake and cannot do its job properly, then how will the people take the message seriously that the portfolio is trying to deliver? So, make sure each and every word is correct and your sentences are grammatically sound.

Remove Work of Lesser Importance

Your portfolio must be a collection of your best work, not your entire projects to date. Therefore, you must cut the fluff and feature only the work that you deem fit.

More so, you must avoid adding projects that are not relevant to the type of work you want.

Common Graphic Design Portfolio Mistakes to Avoid 

When creating a graphic design portfolio, you must avoid a few common mistakes. These are as follows:

Lack of Focus

Getting carried away in a portfolio is far too easy. It means you will want to include each and every project you have completed so far. However, doing so will remove the focus of your portfolio.

Therefore, you must keep the focus of your portfolio intact by featuring projects that are related to your future projects and are recent work. More so, you must add projects that showcase your skills in areas relevant to future projects.

Looks Dull Visually 

You will need to avoid any images, templates, or layouts that look unprofessional. Otherwise, they will affect your portfolio’s visual look.

You must make sure that the images you add to your portfolio only enhance its look and do not make it look dull or boring.

This is where the quality of images will come into play. Also, avoid using blurry images that are not legible.

Make sure the layout, theme, and images all make the portfolio design look minimal and visually appealing.

Vague Explanations

While your images must evoke emotions, they need context and content to tell the whole story. So, building content in your images can lead to vague or no explanations at all.

And nothing is worse than a portfolio that doesn’t explain what it is. Therefore, you must make sure that you do not show images without content or explanation. Also, make sure there are no typos in your content.

Outdated Portfolio

A portfolio is a showcase of your best and latest works. But if you keep it sitting like a showpiece on a shelf without updating it, then it will become outdated.

And an outdated portfolio will do no justice to you or your work. So, you must avoid making the mistake of not updating your portfolio.

You will need to update your portfolio every now and then, and especially when you complete a big and important project.

5 Stunning Graphic Design Portfolio Examples for Inspiration

As we come towards the end of this blog, let’s look at some graphic design portfolio ideas with 5 examples. These graphic design portfolio examples are as follows:

June Digan

June Digan’s graphic design portfolio is one of the best design portfolio examples. That is because she shows her design work and drawings in a very minimal and clean manner. Also,

June’s full-size header image and moving thumbnails let viewers get lost in her work. More so, her portfolio features projects that viewers can explore in detail.

Wendy Ju

Wendy Ju’s portfolio is one of the best graphic design portfolio websites. More so, it is a perfect graphic design example of a portfolio that is done right for mobile view.

Wendy Ju uses the hamburger menu on the upper right corner of the portfolio to save screen real estate. All of this makes the portfolio look super clean.

Erik Marinkovich

Erik Marinkovich’s portfolio is among the most creative portfolio examples. That is because Erik uses the art of lettering and has a classic grid view layout.

It allows Erik to feature many of their works without overcrowding the portfolio. More so, Erik features an example of graphic design with the content and client details to provide an explanation.

Tanamachi Studio

Dana Tanamachi is a graphic designer whose art deco works are a thing of beauty. Her works are the best examples of graphic design.

She showcases them in her portfolio in the same artistic way as the works themselves. More so, her portfolio features her Tanamachi Studio logo in the middle.

It has become the centerpiece of the entire portfolio. And it is safe to say her portfolio is one of the best graphic design website examples out there.

Alex Trochut

Last but not least is Alex Trochut’s portfolio. It is a graphic design portfolio example that you can take notes from for your portfolio. This is one of those portfolio examples graphic design that balances chaos and order.

A great thing about this portfolio, out of all the graphic designer portfolio examples, is that there is too much going on in this portfolio.

But everything is managed well. It is almost like UFC’s Justin Gaethje himself; it offers controlled chaos.

More so, every design has a title and label to provide you with the context you need. It is safe to say it is right up there with the good graphic design examples.

Why Choose Webnhubs to Create Your Graphic Design Portfolio

Having the right graphic design portfolio is a golden ticket to success for every designer. And there is no denying that website portfolios are the best of all portfolios out there.

However, creating a website portfolio can be too much of an ask for designers who don’t know how to develop a website.

No matter, Webnhubs has got you covered on that. We are a portfolio designer agency that understands the artistic vision of a designer.

We use that to develop websites as per your liking. More so, we offer Portfolio Website Development Services to creators and designers.

We have created portfolio websites for a lot of artists, content creators, and brands. The websites showcase their works and provide information about what they do.

After all, having a portfolio website with WordPress, on which you can work your design magic, truly matters.

That is why you can partner with Webnhubs if you need a website portfolio. We will create a portfolio that does justice to your work and your craft.

Wrapping It Up

So, there you have it, folks, that is it for this blog on graphic design portfolio. We hope that the graphic designer portfolio website examples, as well as the tips and pointers we shared in this blog, can help you out. More so, you can follow the steps we mentioned to create a graphic design portfolio that skyrockets your career.

However, the best portfolio for you will be a website portfolio, as it will allow you to customize each and every aspect of it according to your liking. And if you need help from experts on that, then you can choose Webnhubs to create your portfolio website. Moreover, you can provide us with your project images, and we will create your entire portfolio on a custom WordPress website for you.