Article
Building your own portfolio, from sketch to code
Building your own site gives total freedom and a lot more to maintain. When it is worth it, how to plan it, and how to keep it from becoming a never-finished project.
Some designers sketch their portfolio on paper, design it in a tool and then code it themselves. It is a rewarding way to show craft, and it is also the easiest way to spend three months on a site that has no case studies in it.
When it is worth it
If you can code and your goal is a role where that craft matters, building it yourself is a statement. If your goal is simply to get seen quickly, a template-based platform gets you there sooner, and maintenance is far easier.
Finish the content first
Prepare the projects, the images and the writing offline before you build anything. Perfecting code for content that does not exist yet is how these projects stall.
Plan the structure on paper
Write down the sections: selected work, project pages with role, process, tools and results, an About page, and a way to get in touch. Decide how visitors should move through them.
Make the home page do the work
Most visitors give a portfolio only a few seconds. Specialty and relevance should be obvious before they scroll.
Build for the long run
Save your fonts, colours and layout presets. You will update this site for years, and you do not want to start again every time your work changes.
- UX Design
- Product Design