Updating your portfolio regularly, I suggest 3 times a year, will bring you the best results!

Not only you will include your new work, but also for the past months that you have been creating, you will see a big difference between your thinking of what layout works.

So improving your Portfolio definitely needs to be more than just adding your recent job title. I will give you some tips on how I created mine:

1.I used Indesign

Very useful for layout and much more organised than Illustrator.

I created A master with my favourite colour and logo which will be shown on every single page / learn how to do A- master in Indesign /That creates a consistency within the portfolio. Even picking up a single element such as a column that stays on the left on every page will make it very clear.

2. I try to pick up images of similar colours on one page, even if they are different projects.

Sometimes that is more of a sense to what goes right together. However if you have a very light/ warm colour visual you wouldn’t want it combined with something totally dark on this same page.

My projects are so various so sometimes it is hard to choose which images to combine. Ideally you will put 2 images of the same project on one page, if not:

3. I use the whole page for a single visual.

That makes it clear that I want to show my skills not on how the project was created, but on the end result. You don’t need to engage your viewer with ordinary details. You want to focus on what you can do best.

4. I also include work in progress.

Yes some images will be the end visual, but I have just a few examples of a start of a project / sketches, research, inspiration./ That needs to be like a 10% of your portfolio just to show your way of how you carry on a project.

5. Experiment with front and end page.

You don’t need to have your whole portfolio On a single page. Make it look like a book. It is not a newspaper, right.

Having 10-12 pages will be enough to show the best. The front page is so important. Imagine it is a book’s cover. It needs to sell. It needs to make the viewer want to go through your works. Also it needs to reflect your style. It is very clean, you can’t use a busy illustration. It is not what matches.

6. Be different

I guess that is my advice for almost everything until now, but it definitely helps. Don’t be afraid to follow your sense of what works. Don’t ever copy and paste someone’a ideas. Your portfolio needs to be unique. What will make people stop and really give you a chance is if you are different in some ways.

I also once created a wooden book box for my university project. It has a hand illustration on top / like a print. It made it so different to what a standard portfolio is. Focusing on presentation is a win-win.