The top 10 DESK portfolio articles of all time

We talk a lot about portfolio building on DESK. We’ve always been interested in helping creative people do their best work and share it in the most compelling way possible – so they can get more work that makes them proud. 

Good work feeds your portfolio, and a great portfolio leads to more good work. The two fuel each other, and that’s what we’ve always found exciting.

In our effort to motivate and inspire the creative community, we share everything we know about creating a portfolio. Between Semplice, our more advanced portfolio tool, and Carbonmade, for anyone who wants a beautiful online portfolio, we’ve learned a lot and see fresh, new portfolios every day.

We review analytics every month to see what our readers find most useful, so we thought it may be helpful to share those insights with you now and then. These are the most-read portfolio articles on DESK of all time, in order.

1. How to write project case studies for your portfolio

Writing case studies might be the most dreaded part of building a design portfolio. You already did all the work – now you have to sit down and EXPLAIN it all? But case studies are the heart and soul of your portfolio. They’re your chance to put your work in its best light and tell the story the way you intended it to be told.

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2. The most important page on your portfolio

And if there is one thing we’ve learned, it's that a single page on your portfolio always gets the most views. And funnily enough, it's not your most popular project.

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3. How to make a portfolio when your work can’t be shared

An online portfolio is critical to a designer's success. But what do we do when we work on a confidential project where we’ve signed a non-disclosure agreement? Or what if we worked on something that hasn’t launched yet, but we really love the project and want it on our portfolio now? Or what if the nature of our design work doesn’t really make sense for a visual portfolio?

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4. What leading companies never want to see in your portfolio

Through our How to Get a Job at X series, we've talked with creative directors and recruiters from companies like Nike, Spotify, Pentagram, Disney, Shopify and BBDO. These people see dozens of design portfolios a day and might make their decision about a candidate within seconds of landing on their page. So we asked them for the secret to a successful portfolio – one that gets us a job at their company.

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5. How to make a portfolio as a UX designer

No matter what type of design you do, an online portfolio is a must. In most cases, companies and clients simply won’t consider you for a job without one. While a UX designer may believe their work doesn’t translate well to a visual platform, a portfolio is even more important for UX work.

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6. Avoid these 5 things when building your portfolio

For some reason, when creating our design portfolio, everything we praise about good design seems to be forgotten as we work in perfect isolation.

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7. How to build a design portfolio as a student

Building a portfolio as a student or young designer is a catch-22: A portfolio is all about showing your design experience, but to have experience you first need a job. Here we share how to build a portfolio when you’re just starting out.

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8. 15 ways to quickly refresh your portfolio

The only thing worse than not having a design portfolio is having one that’s poorly made or out of date. Here are some quick tips to refresh your portfolio and start getting more of the work you want to do.

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9. How to create a one-page portfolio with Semplice

A tutorial for designers or studios that want to create an elegant and interactive one-page portfolio or landing page using Semplice.

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10. Wild idea: work on your portfolio while you have a job

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We’ve written a lot more than this. Visit our Portfolio Project series to learn how to write your portfolio bio, how to photograph your work for your portfolio and other tips for presenting your work online.