8 Unique Web Design Portfolio Inspirations

Web Design Portfolio
Created by CakeResume

As a web designer, a website design portfolio is crucial in landing your next projects and clients. A web designer portfolio website showcases your personality and style through your best works, which are difficult things to show through only your name card or resume. 

However, creating your own web design portfolio site is not as easy as it sounds. There are thousands of other web designer profiles on the Internet, so making your personal branding authentically your style and at the same time, stand out among others, is key to being seen by clients that match with your style. 

This article will provide all the information you need, whether you are making a web designer's personal website, a web design company portfolio, or just searching for inspiration as web designers. We will list the basic know-hows on how to display web design in a portfolio, with 8 outstanding web design portfolio examples and bonus tips on how to make yours better.

Why You Need a Web Design Portfolio

You might be wondering if a web design portfolio is absolutely necessary in landing projects. This is actually true, as you are establishing your own colors and thinking in a more tangible way, increasing the likelihood of getting your hands on the finest projects.

1. Your web designer portfolio demonstrates your niche and professional skills.

Each web designer has their own styles that can be seen through their works. Showcasing your previous web design portfolio projects in your website allows a recruiter to get a better grasp at what you are good at, and whether your expertise is a good fit for their needs. 

2. Online web design portfolio helps you reach clients more easily.

In the web design industry, almost all clients will be searching for potential web designers online, via search engines like Google. Having a web designer portfolio website is especially important if you are a freelance web designer, as you are more difficult to contact than, for example, companies with contact information open to the public. 

You can also utilize search engine optimization (SEO) to make your web designer portfolio website more easily found by clients who are looking for the particular style or expertise that you possess.

3. Clients can understand your personality better.

Your web design portfolio website can not only show your colors as a professional web designer, but also your personality as a person. This might seem trivial, but for a successful product to be born, the communication between you and your client is too important to be overlooked, as a good design is produced from countless discussions and inputs from both parties. 

The details in your portfolio website design often exhibit your personal character. These include whether you tend to use pastel or bold colors in your web design, quirky or formal fonts in the headings, straight to the point or metaphoric self-introduction. As your web design portfolio site is an introduction to potential clients, having one can help them understand you better and increase their willingness to work with you.

4. You can showcase your works more specifically and interestingly.

The number of web designers is increasing day by day, and it is getting more challenging to stand out in this industry. Everyone has their own specialties and it is becoming harder to land bigger gigs. When you feel like your previous web design portfolio projects are not that inviting anymore, the way you showcase your portfolios might be a different way of gaining those plus points.

For instance, if you have extra skills like 3D animation, you can show your works in a more 3D and interactive layout than other web designer portfolio websites. If you are more confident in colors, building your portfolio website in a color palette unique to you will make clients remember you better.

5. It shows that you are professional and serious in this field of work.

As mentioned above, building a good web design portfolio site is not easy. In addition, it is becoming more and more difficult for recruiters to filter out web designers that are not fully committed to their projects. Creating one that shows the effort you put in might be another point that you can win on, further increasing your professionalism and showing your passion in your own field. 

8 Web Design Portfolio Examples

There is no such thing as the one best web design portfolio, as each designer has their own colors and ways of showcasing their works. Here we have 8 portfolio website inspirations that stand out, which hopefully can give you some inspiration for your own portfolio website design. 

ROONISM

Web Design Portfolio by ROONISM
Web design portfolio by ROONISM

ROONISM is a UI/UX designer and freelance illustrator from Taiwan. She showcased her 2021 portfolio on CakeResume, linking directly to her resume, allowing recruiters to have a broader idea of who she is and her specialty. 

International brands from countries like Hong Kong and Japan have also worked with her, mainly for beauty and fashion products that are great matches for her stylish, dreamy and graceful visual style shown through her web design portfolio website.

Kuo Hsun

Web Design Portfolio by Kuo Hsun
Web design portfolio by Kuo Hsun

Kuo Hsun displays her portfolio on CakeResume. She showcases her vast experience in app UI/UX design. She uses consistent flat styles throughout her works, which clearly defines her simple yet clean, 2D preference.

Komini Media

Web Design Portfolio by Komini Media
Web Design Portfolio by Komini Media

Komini Media does a great job with the use of color emphasis, with black as the main background color, white fonts and bright pink as emphasis for important parts in their web design portfolio website. There is no overemphasis, as the animation inserted is shown through the half-transparent pink parts instead of other places in the website, further showing their creativity.

Bethany Heck

Web Design Portfolio by Bethany Heck
Web Design Portfolio by Bethany Heck

Bethany Heck is a freelance designer and writer. The screenshot above is her creative way of using gradient colors in showcasing all her works. If you click into one of them, the work for that project is showcased directly, making navigating her web design portfolio website much easier. 

Martin Ehrlick 

Web Design Portfolio by Martin Ehrlick
Web Design Portfolio by Martin Ehrlick

Only viewing the still image of Martin’s portfolio does not do him justice, because that white text above is actually “scraped” by the viewer. It was only a black screen with gray text at first, but Martin made the viewing experience highly interactive and engaging.

Robby Leonardi

Web Design Portfolio by Robby Leonardi
Web Design Portfolio by Robby Leonardi

Robby actually mixes his resume and video game that viewers can actually play. He showcased his past projects when he illustrated his skills on the website. The design and colors of this page reminds viewers of playing video games, all while Robby introduces his experience and portfolios!

Creative Nights

Web Design Portfolio by Creative Nights
Web Design Portfolio by Creative Nights

Creative Nights is a creative company that builds highly interactive websites. Not only does the picture move according to the position of your mouse, the colors used are dark gray, with retro dimmed neon green and purple, exhibiting its capability in interactive website design and their brand personality. 

Yanice Wu 

Web Design Portfolio by Yanice Wu
Web design portfolio by Yanice Wu

Yanice’s portfolio in CakeResume shows her experience in designing app interfaces, and her personality pops as she mainly used soft colors and gradients in most of her works. This outlines her style in designing interfaces, as well as her interest in desktop and mobile application’s graphic design.

What to Include in a Web Designer Portfolio

A web design portfolio is never restricted to one format, but there are things that should not be left out. The following 5 elements can help prospective clients learn more about you and your works. The most common way of doing so is to dedicate one page or menu for each of the below sections. 

• Homepage or Cover 

This is usually the landing page for your web design portfolio site. Therefore it serves the main purpose of self-introduction, but through your art style instead of plainly introducing only your name and where you’re from. The key is to retain the potential client’s interest in knowing more about your past experience and clicking the “About me”. You can use interactive media, eye catching highlights, or even a short video to keep the viewers engaged.

• “About me” Section

The “About me” section in your web design portfolio website should share about your past experience and your expertise.

• Your Works

It is best to include works that are tailored for your target clients,, but the works you put on your web design portfolio should also show your overall style and things you are interested in. This is beneficial not only for the clients, but also for you, as you can avoid taking on projects that don't align with your way of working or art style.

• Your Services

Make sure to specify the services that you offer. This is especially important if you are working as a freelancer and want to attract clients with your freelance web design portfolio. You could specify the types of website design that you offer (i.e. e-commerce website, company website, etc.). 

• Contact Information

Having your name, location, email, telephone number will be essential if you are open to gigs. Not having contact information listed on your web design portfolio site would leave an unprofessional impression and will likely cost you a potential gig.

Tips for Creating a Web Design Portfolio

Now that you know some web designer website examples, and the basic elements of a good web design portfolio site, let’s take a look at some tips on how to make your own website stand out:

✨ Choose a website builder or portfolio builder suitable for your needs.

There are various website builders containing web site portfolio templates that you can use, but you can think about each builder’s pros and cons, before choosing one that best suits your needs. 

For example, CakeResume portfolio builder is one of the easiest portfolio builders to use, especially if you want to emphasize the strong connection between your leisure products portfolio and professional experience at the same time. Wix, on the other hand, allows you to be more creative while GoDaddy allows you to create a portfolio within a shorter time.

Having an online portfolio website is highly crucial in paving your career path as a web designer. With CakeResume’s online portfolio maker, you can create your very own online portfolio that showcases your true skills and creativity. Create your free online portfolio now!

✨ Think about what your audience expects to see in your portfolio. 

In order to successfully land a gig, think about the type of client or project that you want to attract, and imagine what you would like to see in a portfolio if you are that client. For example, if you wish to engage in a more dynamic and colorful website design project, you might want to opt for brighter colors and a casual way of describing things in your own freelance web designer portfolio first. 

✨ Be consistent with your style. 

When creating your web design portfolio website, make sure to pay attention to the overall image that you are trying to convey. Elements like color scheme (e.g. warm or cold tones), fonts (e.g. formal or playful) and expression style (e.g. poetic or realistic) could say much about your personality, if it is consistent throughout your whole portfolio website. This could all influence potential clients’ impression of you and might negatively affect the possibility of working together with you.

✨ Make your contact information available on every page of your website or portfolio file with linked icons.

Making your contact information highly accessible is a very important thing to take note of in your portfolio website as it makes conversion from potential client to client one step shorter. Because you have your contact information everywhere in your web design portfolio, the potential client can reach you whenever any part of your website or portfolio intrigues him or her, increasing your chance of getting the gig.

✨ Avoid overusing emphasis that could confuse viewers.

It is nice to use contrasting colors, animation and different font sizes or styles to put emphasis on certain headings or important sentences in your website. But do keep in mind that clarity between sections and overall viewing experience should never be sacrificed in order to create a good web design portfolio. 

For example, you emphasized your relevant certifications using big fonts and different colors, but highlighted the web design competition product that you’re most proud of in animated 3D when the rest of your site uses flat, 2D style. 

How to Create a Web Design Portfolio with No Job Experience?

Web designers who haven’t worked on real cases might face problems when trying to create portfolios. Here’s 5 suggestions on how to create a web design portfolio with no job experience.

💡 Create website designs for imaginary clients.​​

If you are struck with a sudden solution or idea for a website layout, imagine that a real client requested it and create however you want as there are no “real” limitations. You can take inspiration from existing web designer portfolio examples and utilize web designer portfolio templates on the internet to help you build your own.

💡 Build websites for your own projects or your family or friends.

Solving small problems in daily life could sound trivial, but it demonstrates your passion for web design, and your customer-driven mindset. This will be a bonus point from a client’s point of view.

💡 Redesign website graphics and layout for websites that already exist.

Redesigning existing websites shows that you have your own vision of a good website, good imagining skills and thrive for better results. It’s also a big plus point if you are able to point out inconveniences or imperfections in the current design of a big website.

💡 Offer to help small businesses to create their own websites.

Research about a company that intrigues you, and help them build a website that suits their needs and the brand image that they are trying to convey. This will be the closest you can get to a project and will be an important part of your web design portfolio, as you are solving a real client’s request.

💡 Join an online course and use the assignments as your portfolio.

No matter if it’s a website created through a class or not, it is still your creation. Choose the works that you are proud of, ask people around you for advice and let it become part of your web design portfolio when you feel that it’s ready.

--- Originally written by Evelyn Peng ---

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