Written by Steve Aedy
Starting any new career is difficult. Branching out on your own as a freelance writer is often the most challenging of them all. There are many things you must do before you can even start looking for clients. Building an online portfolio is one of them.
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Earlier this year we published a list of 20 excellent portfolio guides and resources. Since then we’ve found more good resources to help you improve your portfolio and how you use it:
Portfolio Night is an annual event that unites the creative advertising industry in various cities around the world in guiding young talent through the earliest stages of their careers.
Grace Smith has compiled a superb list of resources around the web, from crafting the perfect portfolio to promoting your work better for optimal results.
Attitude Design has written a list of tips on what they would look for from a prospective graphic designer’s portfolio.
PSD Tuts published an article I wrote on preparing and talking about your design portfolio.
Don’t forget to check out our previous article of portfolio resources.
Know of other good portfolio resources? Don’t keep the to yourself – please share them in the comments below!
Editor’s note: Want to sponsor this article? Details are on our Sponsorship page.
Getting your portfolio right is important as a freelancer, as you need to market yourself well. And if you work for creative agencies you will probably need both an online and and offline version.
To help you, I’ve gathered this big list of great resources:
Free tools
Read How to get a free online portfolio – our own definitive article on the free tools available on the web.
Portfolio inspiration
Folio Focus A gallery of portfolio websites
DesignM.ag 50 excellent designer portfolio sites
Folio Stars A gallery of portfolio websites
How to build an online portfolio
Spoon Graphics How to build your own single page portfolio website
Net Tuts How to build a website from scratch
Woo themes Themes for WordPress blogs
Smashing Magazine Guide to using WordPress for a portfolio
Think Dave Recommended PSD to WordPress service
Net Tuts Design and code your first website in easy steps
Portfolio tips
Freelance Switch Build a killer online portfolio in 9 easy steps
Webdesigner Depot Creating the perfect portfolio
Webdesigner Depot 10 characteristics of excellent portfolio sites
Smashing Magazine 10 steps to the perfect portfolio website
Webitect Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Portfolios
Designious Times Top 10 websites to submit your design portfolio
DesignM.ag 9 Ways to Get Your Design Portfolio Seen
PSD Tuts Preparing and talking about your graphic design portfolio
Just Creative Design The Innovative one page resume & portfolio
Flaunt A book about designing effective, compelling and memorable portfolios of creative work.
Do you know of any other good resources or have tips? Please share them in the comments below.
Getting some good advice can be hard when making the career decision to become a freelancer.
If you know some experienced freelancers you may be able to ask them questions, or if you are in touch with a recruitment agent they may give you some advice too. However, it’s hard to find any useful advice anywhere online and what there is can be hard to track down.
One of the reasons I started this website was to make it easier to get information about freelancing, so I’ve put together this little collection of advice articles I’ve found on freelancing or contracting at creative agencies:
(Note: Although these are UK websites most of the advice is relevant wherever you are in the world. However, some specifics like tax set-ups may be different in other countries).
Why freelance? The benefits of freelancing.
Lifestyle Freelancing as a lifestyle choice.
Work Choosing who to work for and what kind of work you want to do.
Financials Determining your tax status.
Freelance jobs Tips to make freelancing work for you.
Becoming a freelancer Comparing freelancing at agencies with freelancing directly for clients.
If you know of any other good advice articles please share them by adding them to the comments below.
As part of a special Graphic Design Week over on the Tuts+ network, I’ve written a series of articles to help beginner designers and those in the early stages of their careers. You might find some of them useful – have a look at these links:
There’s a very big list of useful articles and tutorials being published during the week, for designers at all levels – take a look at the full list.