As a creative, your portfolio is probably your biggest selling point.

You might be the most talented designer in your field, but if you don’t have a portfolio to showcase your previous projects, it’s unlikely you’ll catch the eye of many paying-clients.

Of course, the importance of your portfolio is one of the first things you learned at design school. But there may be ways to improve your portfolio that you’d simply never considered before. After all, it’s the little things you overlook that sometimes make all the difference.

So here’s a look at some of the key content and format considerations when developing your creative portfolio.

1. Profile photos

This may seem unnecessary, but given that much of your work will be carried out remotely, it’s likely you’ll never meet many of the people you work with directly. Including a profile picture in your portfolio puts a face to a name and gives your virtual efforts more personality.

A picture may not be worth a thousand words in this instance, but it’s certainly worth a few and, if nothing else, it won’t count against you.

2. Say who you are

Whilst your previous work is perhaps the most important aspect of your portfolio, it’s worth giving a little information about yourself too. This could be a full CV, or a short biographical box-out at the beginning – it will ultimately help sell yourself to a prospective client.

3. Update your portfolio

Once you’ve created your portfolio it can be easy to neglect it thereafter. But your portfolio should evolve with you, the more experience you get the more this should be reflected in your portfolio.

This doesn’t mean you should endlessly expand your portfolio. You should include perhaps your top ten samples, and you can replace earlier examples with more sophisticated pieces as your experience grows.

If you include too many pieces in your portfolio, there’s a danger it can begin to look a little cumbersome.

Keep it simple, keep it streamlined.

4. Mind your language

Words might not be your forte, but your portfolio should ooze professionalism throughout. Don’t think that because you’re a logo-design specialist that a prospective client will overlook glaring typos and poor grammar.

Check, double-check and even consider getting a wordsmith to look over your portfolio to see if it can be fine-tuned.

And one final point on language…if you are multilingual and are willing to work with clients in a number of different vernaculars, always create different versions of your portfolio for each language.

This sounds obvious, but creatives do sometimes submit portfolios in one language for a project brief written in another language.

5. Tailor your portfolio

If you are creating a general portfolio to showcase your work, and you’re not applying for any specific project, this won’t matter quite so much. If your portfolio is part of a pitch to win the contract for a creative project, then this is very relevant.

Indeed, this is a common mistake in many portfolios. It may be beautifully constructed and laid-out, but if it doesn’t address the requirements of a client’s brief then your efforts may be futile.

For example, if a gaming company is looking for fresh web copy, a new website or a new logo, then it will be very helpful if you demonstrate prior experience in this industry. Your previous work for an insurance company might not be the kind of experience they’re looking for.

Similarly, if you are a multi-skilled creative proficient in Flash, HTML, graphic design, desktop publishing and copywriting, there’s little point showcasing all these skills in your portfolio if your pitch is for a simple logo-design project. Structure your portfolio for the specific project in question…it may take more time, but it will put you in a far stronger position to win the project.

6. What format?

As a freelancer, it’s likely you’ll have your own website. And this is the place to showcase your full body of work. But this final point ties in with number 5 above.

If you’re pitching for a specific project, it’s fine to include a link to your extensive portfolio on your website, but we can’t overstate the importance of tailoring your portfolio for each project pitch. It shows you care, you’re passionate and you’re professional – by not tailoring your portfolio it will look like you’re cutting corners.

Your actual deliverable should be a commonly used, un-editable format. So PDF is perfect, and Word isn’t.

You can, of course, get properly creative if the scope of the project permits it. If the brief is for an extensive Flash project, you could construct a tailored Flash portfolio on your website. It could have its own dedicated hosting page for the client to show that you have tailored it, and include relevant examples from the client’s industry.

These are just a few pointers and are by no means an exhaustive list. You are ultimately responsible for selling yourself and your portfolio is one of the most important tools in this process.

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