Your certification as a home designer is highly valuable for finding clients, but it’s your portfolio that shows what you’re capable of. Putting your design portfolio online is an excellent way to blow away potential clients (and show your creativity!).
Intimidated by huge amount of web templates out there? Don’t be! Use this guide to find the best sites for building your portfolio online. Learn how to use them to impress your every home design client!
So what do you want your brand to look like? Perhaps you have excellent skills when it comes to staging homes – if so, you’ll want to include “before and after” shots that show exactly what you did to improve spaces for potential buyers. Or maybe you completed a professional organizing course and have some great examples of your work. Showing off your skills with high quality photos in your design portfolio is a great way to tell clients what you’re capable of.
Setting your career goals and target market is also important. The beauty of your design portfolio is that you can be as creative as you like! Tailor your showcase to appeal to the type of clients you’re looking for, and market your services as solutions to their home problems.
You’re not limited to just photos, either. Use referrals and short descriptions to give your client an idea of what you can do.
All you need to do is register and you can start uploading your projects directly from your computer into the portfolio! Once each image is uploaded, you can then add accompanying text and links and get creative with colors, typefaces, text, and more. This is a great opportunity to personalize your portfolio and allow your personality and skills to really shine.
Finally, Behance allows you to tag your work and separate it into categories, which is a fantastic feature if you’re trying to appeal to different types of clients. You can then link to your online portfolio on social media.
2. Portfoliobox: While designers are the most common professionals using Portfoliobox, it’s also trusted by models, photographers, architects to showcase their work. Portfoliobox is free, but you can upgrade to a PRO account with more space for images and a Portfoliobox-hosted email address.
One great feature of Portfoliobox is the ability for users to piece together various layouts. You can turn your online portfolio into a colorful website by displaying one gallery of photos in thumbnails and another in a vertical line. The final product will look clean and organized. Plus, you don’t need to be tech-savvy to make it happen!
3. Krop: While there is a monthly fee of $8.25 to host your design portfolio on Krop, this app is a step up from in terms of quality. There’s a whole gallery of professional website templates to choose from. You decide how you want to arrange your photos, which colors to use, and you have the option of splitting your work into categories with direct links.
Krop allows you to embed Google Analytics on your site, which provides you with detailed traffic reports about who is viewing your work. You can get an idea of who your potential clients are. Your portfolio site will also be freestanding, with a personalized URL based on your own brand.
You can also create a talent profile, which companies can search to find qualified designers for full-time or freelance jobs. This platform has it all!
Give it some thought
Before even starting your research into portfolio-building sites , think about how you want to present your brand. Your portfolio is the stage where you perform your best work to clients – you want to present it flawlessly. Take some time to plan out how you can show your skills and services to clients.
So what do you want your brand to look like? Perhaps you have excellent skills when it comes to staging homes – if so, you’ll want to include “before and after” shots that show exactly what you did to improve spaces for potential buyers. Or maybe you completed a professional organizing course and have some great examples of your work. Showing off your skills with high quality photos in your design portfolio is a great way to tell clients what you’re capable of.
Setting your career goals and target market is also important. The beauty of your design portfolio is that you can be as creative as you like! Tailor your showcase to appeal to the type of clients you’re looking for, and market your services as solutions to their home problems.
You’re not limited to just photos, either. Use referrals and short descriptions to give your client an idea of what you can do.
Find the right website
In this digital age, social media is everywhere we turn. Because of this, there are more social networking sites than ever before, which is great news for designers who want to share their portfolios with a large audience! So which websites will help you create the most professional and creative online portfolios? Check out these three to start: 1. Behance: The leading platform for creatives worldwide, Behance is an excellent avenue for showcasing your design work. First of all, it’s free (which is a huge advantage right off the bat), and it allows you to connect with other designers and find job opportunities! Second, Behance is extremely easy to use. If you’re worried about uploading and organizing your photos, this platform is totally user-friendly and accessible to those with no technological background.
All you need to do is register and you can start uploading your projects directly from your computer into the portfolio! Once each image is uploaded, you can then add accompanying text and links and get creative with colors, typefaces, text, and more. This is a great opportunity to personalize your portfolio and allow your personality and skills to really shine.
Finally, Behance allows you to tag your work and separate it into categories, which is a fantastic feature if you’re trying to appeal to different types of clients. You can then link to your online portfolio on social media.
2. Portfoliobox: While designers are the most common professionals using Portfoliobox, it’s also trusted by models, photographers, architects to showcase their work. Portfoliobox is free, but you can upgrade to a PRO account with more space for images and a Portfoliobox-hosted email address.
One great feature of Portfoliobox is the ability for users to piece together various layouts. You can turn your online portfolio into a colorful website by displaying one gallery of photos in thumbnails and another in a vertical line. The final product will look clean and organized. Plus, you don’t need to be tech-savvy to make it happen!
3. Krop: While there is a monthly fee of $8.25 to host your design portfolio on Krop, this app is a step up from in terms of quality. There’s a whole gallery of professional website templates to choose from. You decide how you want to arrange your photos, which colors to use, and you have the option of splitting your work into categories with direct links.
Krop allows you to embed Google Analytics on your site, which provides you with detailed traffic reports about who is viewing your work. You can get an idea of who your potential clients are. Your portfolio site will also be freestanding, with a personalized URL based on your own brand.
You can also create a talent profile, which companies can search to find qualified designers for full-time or freelance jobs. This platform has it all!