Comments on: Elements of a Successful Online Portfolio

By: Designing Your Portfolio – Helpful Hints « RIT Graphic Design Resource Guide

Tue, 03 Jan 2012 20:53:45 +0000

[...] Elements of a Successful Online Portfolio from Jacob Cass [...]

By: Jacob Cass Podcast Interview

Jacob Cass Podcast Interview — Thu, 16 Jun 2011 16:17:40 +0000

[...] would you structure content within a [...]

By: Guest Starring ... PsPrint Blog

Guest Starring ... PsPrint Blog — Wed, 01 Jun 2011 19:12:40 +0000

[...] Elements of a Successful Online Portfoilo Just Creative Design May 13, 2010 By Jennifer Moline An online portfolio is a fast and far-reaching way to market oneself as a designer. It’s also cheaper, more versatile and more environmentally friendly than a print portfolio. But that doesn’t mean you can just whip out a website and call it a day – a designer will be judged not just for the pieces in the portfolio but also the site itself. [...]

By: Optimist

Optimist — Sun, 20 Feb 2011 17:42:26 +0000

Yeah, nice post, I have learned a lot. Thanks for sharing.

By: Wout

Wout — Thu, 11 Nov 2010 17:33:22 +0000

Check out http://paspartout.com. It’s quite new and absolutely free. There is a porfolio, blog and even an online shop in the Pro license.

By: Nick Jones

Nick Jones — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 10:45:30 +0000

I am working hard on my online portfolio. Wish me success

Cheers,
Nick Jones

By: Darren

Darren — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 21:34:00 +0000

Great article and one that really would help budding designers out there. Just some additional points:

1. Flash is NOT SEO friendly. No matter what they say about Google now accepting flash content, the fact remains that you cannot control Flash as easily as you can control text.

2. Too much graphics on your home page does not only equate to crassness and chaos, but also to slower loading times. Potential customers will NOT take you seriously and will leave your site if it takes more than 30 seconds to load. Goodbye clients!

3. I still think that a good corporate blog should have a personal voice. You could hawk all your products for all you want, but nobody would read you if you don’t have something interesting to say. So the trick is to find the perfect mix between the content of the blog and the sales of your products.

By: The Ultimate Guide for An Online Portfolio Using WordPress | crazyegg.net

The Ultimate Guide for An Online Portfolio Using WordPress | crazyegg.net — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 18:21:37 +0000

[...] Elements of a Successful Online Portfolio An online portfolio is a fast and far-reaching way to market oneself as a designer. It’s also cheaper, more versatile and more environmentally friendly than a print portfolio. But that doesn’t mean you can just whip out a website and call it a day – a designer will be judged not just for the pieces in the portfolio but also the site itself. Therefore, in order to market yourself to potential clients, be sure to consider these four elements. Tags: Brushes, Business Card, Design, guidelines, illustrator, Image, Inspiration, Interviews, Miscellaneous, online portfolios, Photo, Photoshop, print, PSD, Themse, vector, Web Design, websites, wordpress google_ad_width = 468; google_ad_height = 60; google_ad_format = "468x60_as"; google_color_border = "454444"; google_color_bg = "454444"; google_color_link = "93a734"; google_color_text = "292929"; google_color_url = "de6e99"; No comments currently exist for this post. Add a commentGet a Gravatar Click here to cancel reply. [...]

By: Smashy Design

Smashy Design — Sat, 22 May 2010 07:57:42 +0000

Hi Jacob,

Good to hear you all doing fine. :)

Yes i will be using WordPress. Working on the theme these days. Simple and unique one.

Yeah, wordpress is more easier to use isn’t it. The admin panel and all. Looking forward to Blog as soon as possible :)

Cheers!

By: Igor ivankovic

Igor ivankovic — Thu, 20 May 2010 22:51:02 +0000

@Jacob
“welling trends” is something that is actual.fresh,hip and wanted. Like some style trend. I never said that you should design for the sake of trends, but to know what they are so you can keep up with the competition. My website is opposite of that, cause I create what I feel, but to be a freelancer with success some need to adopt to trends more often lol. Thanks for the reply btw.

By: Stuart

Stuart — Thu, 20 May 2010 21:42:34 +0000

Jacob,

I have looked into WordPress and my plan is to use that to set up my site and blog. As I am still planning this I wanted to have a place were my portfolio was visible online. iweb has it’s limits but it allowed me to set something up as I learn more. I am looking forward to taking my online portfolio to the next step.

Thanks for the reply.

By: Jacob Cass

Jacob Cass — Thu, 20 May 2010 20:20:49 +0000

Thank you for your comments & patience in waiting for my replies.

Stuart,
Have you looked into WordPress to showcase your portfolio?

Smashy,
Yeah all is well in the Carrot burrow, thanks for asking. As for the blog, which platform are you going to use? I personally use WordPress which comes highly recommended.

Igor,
I’m not so sure about your comment about “selling trends”, one shouldn’t design for trends sake. Either way, good luck for your new portfolio.

Tin,
Personally I am not a fan of these however I guess it could be useful though not entirely necessary.

Andrew,
There are always going to be different ways to showcase your work, each having their advantages and disadvantages, whether it be Flash or HTML… one should consider all their options first and then choose wisely.

As for blogging, obviously it’s not for everyone but it does help with backlinks and giving you and your site a voice.

Alrik,
Thanks for your comments and advice, some good tips there!

I checked out your website, noticed you offer portfolio creation… may be quite handy for others reading this article so for those reading, be sure to check out http://viewbook.com.

By: patti - e

patti - e — Tue, 18 May 2010 16:25:49 +0000

Thanks for the article. Sometimes those in the creative business need to follow our own advice we provide to clients: k.i.s.s. (keep it simple stupid) well, maybe not the stupid part. Thanks.

By: rupam

rupam — Tue, 18 May 2010 14:07:09 +0000

Jacob it’s your another useful article. I am very happy if you write about Print Advertisement .
Thanks
Love & Regards
Rupam

By: Alrik // Viewbook.com

Alrik // Viewbook.com — Mon, 17 May 2010 11:00:38 +0000

Hi Jennifer, good read, thank you! I agree with the aspects that you mention. It’s indeed important to have a creative, but particulary a functional approach to a portfolio site. It has to function and look well on the iPhone, iPad and Androids with so many people checking out portfolio’s on the move . These mobile devices ask for very different things from a site with the touch screen.

I like to add one element; the importance to have a good cms that enables you to easily manage and update your portfolio’s. If you don’t have this, keeping it fresh will become very time consuming over time. I believe a good portfolio workflow is essential to present and promote yourself actively, via your site, blog, special project presentations, newsletters, Facebook, Twitter, etc… Best integrate all this smartly, to save time and keep the focus on the creation of work.

By: Andrew

Andrew — Mon, 17 May 2010 00:02:01 +0000

Simple but great guest post from Jennifer

I agree that flash is no longer the way to go but how would you do a site like this (also one of my fav portfolio sites) http://checklandkindleysides.com/ without it? Would HTML5 really be able to do this?

I also kind of agree with having a blog, except that it’s not for everyone. I’m actually working on a redesign of my site and have decided against a blog. Instead I just have links to my twitter and facebook pages, which I’ve found is easier to maintain.

And of course I agree that the most important part is your work and you should design the site around displaying it. :D

By: Mohit

Mohit — Sun, 16 May 2010 06:18:36 +0000

great post..very useful…thanks…

By: Rox

Rox — Sat, 15 May 2010 05:07:38 +0000

I am a freelancer and as long as possible I am really working on my online portfolio. The tips you have above are very helpful especially to those beginners.

By: Tin Duong

Tin Duong — Thu, 13 May 2010 23:32:29 +0000

Thanks Jacob for an “easy reader” post. I have seen a few websites fixed their navigations on the page so when we scroll down, it ‘s always visible or the whole vertical menu will run along. Do you think it ‘s a good idea, it sometime distract me to focus on other parts of the page

By: Seoshneg

Seoshneg — Thu, 13 May 2010 22:03:48 +0000

Thank you very much post. Subscribed to your delivery.

By: Kiren

Kiren — Thu, 13 May 2010 15:14:45 +0000

Although I’ve read plenty of articles like this one, it’s always good to be reminded. I agree with not using flash, especially if you have a slow connection and it takes forever to load. But alas, people are going to do what they want in terms of design.

By: Tumelo

Tumelo — Thu, 13 May 2010 14:14:39 +0000

Great post! I am glad I have followed most of the tips in this article as my portfolio is looking good and improving everyday..

ThanQ J…

By: Andrea Pelizzardi

Andrea Pelizzardi — Thu, 13 May 2010 12:44:35 +0000

This article may appear trivial but there are really useful tips.
Great post! :)

By: Igor Ivankovic

Igor Ivankovic — Thu, 13 May 2010 08:43:14 +0000

Some true points You’ve mentioned here. I agree that Flash isn’t a smart way to go, but if You check out my website, You’ll see that I couldn’t express myself in a cleen looking professional portfolio, cause I’m just not like that. But It doesn’t mean I can’t create semantical and great looking clean professional layout design, non the less whole working page. But with time we adopt new technologies and try to integrate our designs in something new and trendy! But I do know that being a freelancer is all about positioning yourself to the needs of the market, and selling trends. I personally love my Flash style, but soon I will produce a new portfolio wich will be without Flash :).

By: Smashy Design

Smashy Design — Thu, 13 May 2010 04:12:30 +0000

Hi Jacob,

Hope you are doing pretty good in carrot creative.

Thanks for another good post.

I got most of the points right in my portfolio. The only thing missing is my blog which is coming soon live. I was bit hurried to put portfolio that’s why the blog is delayed a bit. Looking forward to finish it asap.

Thanks again,
cheers!!!

By: Stuart

Stuart — Wed, 12 May 2010 20:45:48 +0000

Useful article as ever.

I am a print designer it can feel overwhelming to design a website. However that’s no excuse, these days it is a must, even for print designers. There are so many tools allowing you to use your skills to create a great site. I am learning more design for web, but in the meantime I used iweb to create a site to show my work.