Your design portfolio

Putting together your design portfolio for the first time is a big deal.

Last month, we had the pleasure of speaking to second year design students at Bournemouth University.

As part of a lively panel discussion with other agencies, we shared some constructive advice and guidance on how to structure your design portfolio and showcase your growing body of work in the best possible way.

When crafting your portfolio, your job is to shine a light on your distinctive contributions and how they’ve enriched the projects you’ve been part of.

Ask yourself where your efforts have injected the most value into the process, and use that insight to trim away your portfolio from here. 

As budding designers, the worry of leaving out important details often leads us to pack our presentations with too much information. The problem is, this can overwhelm our audience instead of engaging them.

The key is to keep it simple and focus on what truly matters. This way, you can capture your audience’s attention without drowning them in information.

A final product with showy renders does only one part of the job. Your portfolio needs to demonstrate how you arrived at these outcomes, highlighting the evolution of your ideas and the rationale behind key decisions.

This narrative not only enriches the story behind each project, but also provides insight into your problem-solving and creative skills. 

Diversity in how you present your work keeps your audience engaged and demonstrates your adaptability.

Mix things up by highlighting different facets for each one. You could concentrate on various phases like research or the journey from ideation to refinement. Or, switch the focus to how each project helped you hone a specific skill, be it sketching, CAD, or model making. 

There’s no harm in embracing various platforms for sharing your work — from websites to social media. Just remember to pair this with a simple PDF document to ensure your portfolio is comprehensive and accessible quickly.

Thanks to everyone who made it to our panel discussion. It was great to see so much talent and enthusiasm from students starting out in design.

Remember, finding your unique style and standing out takes time. Don’t stress about being perfect right off the bat. What really matters is your potential.

A special shoutout to Abigail Batley and David O’Neill at Bournemouth University for organising the event. We’re looking forward to coming back and sharing more about navigating the early stages of your design career.