Whether you’re an artist, visual designer, photographer or another creative professional, if you’re taking yourself and your clients/audience seriously you absolutely need to have a place to show some of your work online.
It helps inform the people who care about you and your work, and with a good online portfolio you can share your work with a large audience, including those who can’t physically come to your expositions due to time constraints (or travel distance). Here are some tips on how to arrive at an effective portfolio:
know what you want to achieve
Ask yourself this question: ‘if my online portfolio was an enormous success, what would I get from it?’ For some people the main goal will be to drive sales of their art work, for others the best thing that can happen is that they get in touch with people who are now unreachable, and for still others the whole point of having a portfolio may be described in terms of building reputation and getting recognition as an artist.
A great portfolio gets the message across. Another question: if you could just say one sentence to your visitors, what would it be? It’s easy to get lost in trying to say too much, to too many people, so be as specific as you can.
who are you talking to?
Who’s your target audience? Who are you trying to reach? Are there different groups of people, with different goals and needs? If you already have an existing portfolio, start with your current visitors: who are they, what is their background, do you know them? If you are starting from scratch, try working from your intended audience, or from your imaginary ideal customer.
Some techniques to get into the head of your audience (but I’m getting a bit technical here… if you need help, just let me know): build personas, write stories, do user research, create empathy maps. The best thing you can do is talk to real people, in the wild (not online) and observe what they are doing.
learn from others
There are so many good and bad examples… simply google for the product/service you will be offering, ask your friends and spend a few hours on just browsing to other people’s websites. It will help you discover what is technically possible, and what you want for your own presentation. Make a list of websites you like, and a list of websites you really don’t like (take notes about what you like/dislike).
In an earlier post I described a prototypical portfolio website from a few years ago. That one was based on mainly web design portfolios, but many of the principles apply to other disciplines too. You really need to provide an opportunity to get in touch with you, you might want to list your clients or the people you’ve worked with, and you might want to tell a little background story on each project you have done.
thoughts, emotion, behavior, tone and style
Time to make some decisions. A portfolio website should not exist in isolation, but be part of your larger business strategy and certainly fit within your marketing plan. What is the desired tone/style for the design? Jot down some keywords (think for example informal/formal, cold/warm, female/male, subtle/bold, informative/inspiring).
What kind of emotions should your visitors feel? What should they be thinking when they first arrive on your site? And, most importantly, what do you want them to do? Even if you’re not directly selling, think of what else you can offer to build a relationship and help them a bit closer to their goals. Do you want them to get in touch with you? They’ll need your contact information, or could use a contact form. Do you want them to subscribe to a newsletter? Tell them about it.
You’re a creative professional, so use your creativity. You really don’t need technical skills, or knowledge of html/css/flash/etc to get started, just pen&paper will do. Draw at least 6 sketches exploring different design directions quickly (shouldn’t take longer than 15 minutes, then you’re getting into too much detail). Take a step back and decide what works on what not. (If you decide to go to a professional web designer and developer later, you can start the conversation from here and get better and more accurate information).
start small, try, test and iterate
If you’re just starting, you probably have a small budget for your website. That’s okay. One of the greatest advantages of the web is that you don’t need to get it perfect the first time. You can start small, with little or no budget, and that will help you find out what works and what doesn’t work for you. When your business grows, your website can grow with you.
(Oh, and don’t forget to have fun and enjoy yourself!)
No Comments