I’ve done a fair number of freelance gigs over the years, and have always thought it imperative to make a quick “summary page” once the job is done. Nip it in the bud, then and there. More importantly, build your profile furthermore to improve the chances of landing yet another gig. With how community building is so rampant in today’s day and age of tech, an online portfolio becomes an essential tool for any artist or designer looking to showcase their work to a global audience.
Behance, among many, is one such platform that allows creatives to create and share their work with other artists and potential clients. A well-designed Behance portfolio can help you stand out from the crowd and attract new opportunities. With the umpteen gigs I’ve done in the past, I thought it’d be useful to summarize some strategies I use to make effective portfolio pages for a project.
It’s not just the work but also how you present it.
Importance of a Good Behance Portfolio
Most of it seems obvious; despite that, listing down the value of a good portfolio is always a powerful way to reinforce the purpose, and to drive us towards a better end output. Some of these include:
Showcases skills: Behance allows you to display your work in a visually stunning and organized way. This means that you can showcase your skills and creativity to potential clients, employers, and collaborators.
Provides credibility: A well-designed and curated portfolio can help you build a strong online presence and establish yourself as an expert in your field, which is very critical for credibility and networking. This can potentially help you attract new job opportunities, commissions, collaborations, and clients.
Attracts opportunities: A good Behance portfolio can get discovered by anyone from anywhere in the world, allowing you to get valuable insights like views, likes and comments. This can help you gain a better understanding of your audience and their preferences, allowing you to track the performance of your projects, adjust your approach, and optimize your portfolio for maximum impact.
The Approach to Designing a Project Page
There's always a consistent approach to each of my project pages in my portfolio; here's a step-by-step framework of the structure I follow, using the "Design Crescendo" product page on my Behance portfolio as an example:
1. Strong cover frame
The opener needs to show the project's essentials like the company logo and its defining elements. This provides an immediate impression of the brand and sets the tone for the main aspects of the project. By incorporating key design elements, such as color schemes and imagery, the cover frame can create a cohesive and impactful visual identity for the rest of the page.
2. Brief and evolution
Before delving into the main piece, it is good to write a project brief or a company brief, and showcase some early concepts and explorations made for the project. This serves several purposes, including setting expectations for the project's scope, objectives, and constraints. Additionally, showcasing past concepts provides valuable context for the final piece and demonstrates the evolution of the design process. This can help clients or collaborators understand the reasoning behind certain design choices and appreciate the creative effort that went into the final product.
3. Design showcase
With all that context set, now is a good time to present the final piece again before further deconstructing its creation process. This could be the final logo design for the company, a website's homepage, a crucial animation snippet of an explainer video, or the main elements of your product offering.
4. Concept explanation
Once the viewer has formed an initial impression, it becomes easier to deconstruct the concept and provide insights into the specific elements and techniques used. This can help viewers understand the design's nuances and appreciate the skill and rationale behind the final work.
5. Color and typeface attributes
Showcasing the color palette and fonts used in a particular design project is, often, an essential aspect of a design portfolio page. These elements play a significant role in creating the overall look and feel of the design and can greatly impact how the design is perceived.
By highlighting the specific color palette and fonts used in a design, it becomes easy to demonstrate your understanding of color theory, typography and design. Showcasing these aspects used can help the viewer understand the design's intention and how these elements have been used to create a cohesive and visually appealing design.
6. Extension of showcase
With all that context set, it's finally time to offload the rest of the frames, design elements and other aspects associated with the project. This could include mocks that extend the branding across elements like websites, business cards, the look-and-feel of social media platforms, stationery, other products, or whatever else relevant to that particular project. This helps show a cohesive and consistent visual identity across all touch points, which is crucial for building a strong and recognizable brand.
The above steps should broadly help you construct most project pages in your portfolio. This is what the final page for the above project looks like on my Behance profile - Design Crescendo Project Page
The Periphery around a Good Page
Having seen a very simple structure you can follow to construct your own project pages, what are some other things you should keep in mind after making the page?
Use keywords: Use relevant keywords in your project description to help your project appear in search results on Behance and other search engines.
Customize your page: Customize your Behance portfolio page to match your brand and style once you have multiple projects. Use recurring fonts, color styles, and layouts to bring that sense of consistency.
Add links and contact information: Make sure to include links to your website, social media profiles, and contact information to make it easier for potential clients to get in touch with you.
Promote your page: I’m definitely the worst at this, and that’s where I may have missed the bus in the past on multiple occasions, despite all the hard work leading up to this point. Promoting your projects on social media platforms and your website is an absolute must if you want the eyeballs you’re looking for.
Muster the courage and let the world know you’ve done something you’re proud of!
To End Things
Behance is a powerful platform for artists and designers to showcase their work and attract new opportunities. A well-designed and curated Behance portfolio can help you establish your brand, showcase your skills, and attract new clients and collaborators. By following this simple sequence to structure your projects, you can create an effective and engaging Behance portfolio page for your project. Here's a video of the entire breakdown that you can run through in no time to understand the same really quickly -
Keep checking out the works of other creators in your domain regularly, to draw inspiration from, and to be in sync with trending styles and pitches for your project pages. Hope this helps kill it out there!