This deliberate example of "the worst graphic design ever" is by Craig Keeling.
The only thing worse than bad graphic design is a bad graphic design portfolio. You have two main goals when producing your online portfolio: Impress the potential client with your skill, and help them reach their goal of contacting you. Obviously, your landing pages need to be pristine. The images should be of the best quality you have to offer. Offering too many options on one page, not including contact information, or having features that annoy the viewer are all deal-killers. If your site irritates the visitor, they will click the tab closed and move on. Avoid the Cardinal Sins of portfolio design.
The coolest design means nothing without contact info. Image by Fazli.
When presenting your work to a potential client, you’ve got to show that it’s creative, innovative, different from anything else out there and that it meets their needs. In short, you’ve got to present your work in the best possible light every time a client sees it.
Your portfolio is your first (and sometimes only) chance to present your work to your client. The internet has created a marketplace in which you can reach clients from all over the world with a single website. The windows opened to designers with site-building are still expanding with new technology and advances in software and code.
Your online portfolio is a chance to create something really spectacular to impress your clients, or to toss up a few images and call it “minimalistic”. No matter what approach you take to online portfolio construction, if your site is clunky, difficult to navigate, confusing or it’s hard to find basic contact information, clients will click away to the competition.
Image by James Whatley
Be sure you’re offering your clients the best possible portfolio design. Don’t let bad design obscure your skill. The basics? Clean, uncluttered pages. User-friendly navigation. Don’t forget that more and more people are accessing the ‘web via mobile technology, so it’s imperative to be mobile-friendly or offer a mobile version of your site. Finally, contact information should be clear, easy to find and readily clickable. Move your visitors from viewers to clients!
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Tom Chu works for PsPrint and PsPrint Blog. When he’s not sitting behind a computer, Tom likes watching sci-fi movies and Japanese cartoons, hitting the golf course and playing with his four dogs. You can connect with Tom via Google+ or Twitter. |
