Over the last 2+ years I looked at over 500 junior designer portfolios and gave them free feedback. Because many of these people kept in touch, I also knew which ones of them got the job they wanted and how long it took them.
I started to notice some patterns for success.
That helped me to start seeing some patterns in their portfolios and I decided to share those patterns as a simple, step by step guide.
As usual, the article is also available as a video and you can watch me explain everything here:
Your portfolio is the most important thing when you’re looking for a job. Sure, the Resume is also important, but many companies only read your resume AFTER they evaluated your work.
Portfolio is often their first point of contact with you. Make it count!
Let’s combine the good patterns from successful portfolios into a starting template.
Avoid serifs, decorative fonts and anything funky. Your portfolio is about your work, so everything around it should be easy to process and functional.
I always recommend a small set of fonts to all juniors to ONLY use those until you feel comfortable with typography. These are Satoshi, Plus Jakarta sans, Poppins and Inter.
And yes, you can use Roboto if you REALLY like it.
Your portfolio is about your work, so everything around it should be easy to process and functional.
The Background should be simple. I’ve seen countless portfolios with background photos, textures or even videos.
All that takes the attention away from what’s really important — your work.
I think the best choice to go for is white, unless you’re doing your portfolio in Dark Mode. You can try subtle shades of color, but always keep them at 90% lightness. As with fonts, picking colors that don’t clash is not always a strong skill with junior designers.
White or black for the background is the best choice.
