Sep 23, 2009
cosmos 
category :
One of the most important things a designer can do for his or her business is to create an attractive portfolio site that communicates effectively with visitors and draws in potential clients. In this post we will look at various resources and articles that can help you to create the right portfolio site for you. We will look at several sources of portfolio design inspiration, tutorials that will lead you through the process of designing a portfolio, scripts that can be used, helpful articles and tips for portfolio design, and WordPress themes and HTML/CSS templates.
1. Inspiration for Portfolio Design:
Checking out examples of creative, effective portfolio sites from other designers can help to give you some ideas that you may be able to use in the design of your own portfolio. While many web design/CSS galleries include a lot of portfolio sites, there are some galleries that are focused exclusively on showcasing well-designed portfolios.
Blog posts that provide inspirational roundups of portfolios:
- 101 Awesome Portfolio Sites – DesignM.ag
- 50 Excellent Designer Portfolio Sites – DesignM.ag
- 30 More Portfolio Sites for Your Design Inspiration – DesignM.ag
- 50 Beautiful and Creative Portfolio Designs - Smashing Magazine
- Single Page Portfolio Sites – Web Designer Wall
2. Tutorials for Designing a Portfolio Site:
There are a number of excellent tutorials that can help you by walking through the design of an example portfolio site. Many f these tutorials cover the design and layout work in Photoshop. Others involve coding or development.
How to Build Your Own Single Page Portfolio Website
Awesome Tutorial Portfolio Design
Create a Clean Modern Website Design in Photoshop
Create a Dark and Sleek Web Layout Using Photoshop
Design a Beautiful Website from Scratch
Building a Sleek Portfolio Site from Scratch (Part 2)
Create a Nice Web Portfolio Design with a Watercolored Background in Photoshop
How to Create a Great Web Design CV and Resume
Creating a Filterable Portfolio with jQuery
Create a Webdesign Layout in Photoshop
Create a Grid Based Resume/CV Layout in InDesign
Design a Portfolio Site with a Textured Background
Creating a Flash Portfolio Website
Create a Professional Portfolio Design in 17 Easy Steps
How to Create a Grunge Web Design Using Photoshop
Create an Image Rotator with Description (CSS/jQuery)
Fancy Thumbnail Hover Effect with jQuery
3. Sliders and Galleries to Use in Your Portfolio:
Sliders and image galleries are very common for use with portfolios. Adding one to your site can be very easy because there are many scripts available that you can implement very quickly into your own website.
For more see 25 jQuery Image Gallery/Slider Tutorials
Rather than listing all of the various sliders and galleries here, we recently published a post that featured 25 of them. Please refer to this post if you are looking for more options.
4. Helpful Articles on Portfolio Design:
The articles listed below will provide tips, advice and information that can be very useful while you are working on creating a portfolio that will attract clients. For any designer who is looking to get more out of their portfolio, the articles on this list are must-reads.
10 Steps to the Perfect Portfolio Website – Smashing Magazine
Creating the “Perfect” Portfolio – Webdesigner Depot
The One Page Graphic Design Portfolio Guide – You the Designer
Seven Ways to Build Trust on a Portfolio Site – You the Designer
10 Characteristics of Excellent Portfolio Sites – Webdesigner Depot
Ultimate Guide to Using WordPress for a Portfolio Site – Smashing Magazine
Creating a Successful Online Portfolio – Smashing Magazine
50 Excellent Image Galleries You Can Use Today – NETTUTS
Build a Killer Online Portfolio in 9 Easy Steps – Freelance Switch
Alternative Ideas for Designing a Web Portfolio – Fuel Your Creativity
18 jQuery Scripts and Tutorials to Improve Your Portfolio – Designer Daily
5. WordPress Portfolio Themes:
Many designers have chosen to use WordPress as a content management system to power their portfolio site. WordPress is a great option for a portfolio because it’s easy to work with and design for, it can power a blog as part of the portfolio site, there are tons of great plugins available for portfolio sites, and there are also a lot of themes that can be purchased that were created specifically with portfolios in mind.
6. HTML Templates for Portfolios:
For those who do not want to use WordPress for their portfolio, there are also a number of HTML/CSS templates available.
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