7 examples on how to create a unique portfolio design

October 9, 2019 Caitlin Shogren

Disclaimer: We may serve as an affiliate for some of these products or services on this website. As an affiliate partner, we might profit from your purchases from third-party websites, however, we do not charge you extra in the process. Read my Disclaimer Policy here.

I spent a lot of time looking at how to create a portfolio before I was able to design my own.

Countless hours on Pinterest, browsing Barnes and Noble, looking into Deviant Art’s selections, a few seminars, and classes on how to build and critiquing mine and others’ work. When you’re facing the problem of how to create a portfolio, it can be an exhausting task to undertake.

Being a blend of journalism and graphic design, I stuck with a magazine layout for my portfolio. It’s helped me in countless interviews and allows me to have a leave-behind for employers.

While I determined how to create a unique portfolio, I still had to produce it and decide which graphic design projects to include in my graphic design portfolio. I decided to work through Stand Out: Design a personal brand. Build a killer portfolio. Find a great design job. Stand Out helped me narrow down my choices and create a flow to my work that I couldn’t figure out on my own.

Even if you are just starting out as a graphic designer, you should have a few graphic design projects to show as examples of your work. There don’t have to be numerous examples, but they should be good and works you can explain to your employer when going through the hiring process.

Based on my professional experiences, here are some of the best graphic design portfolio examples.

Related Content: 6 tips to build a creative portfolio

Infographic

An infographic is great to show your graphic design projects through time, or even categorically. There are so many ways you can present your work as an infographic, you just need to make your unique portfolio design to be consistently branded throughout the infographic.

As someone who really enjoys creating infographics, I can see many possibilities for this portfolio design example. If you’re stuck thinking of unique ideas to help your graphic design portfolio stand out, look into Information Graphics or Cool Infographics for some graphic design inspiration. Each provides many types and tips to create information graphics.

Infographics can be quite labor intensive for new graphic designers. If you are wanting a bit of practice before commiting to this graphic design portfolio design, try incorporating it into one of Stand Out's graphic design projects to see if you enjoy creating infographics.

First, a graphic design portfolio as an infographic would be perfect for freelancing. Creating a categorical infographic as a unique graphic design portfolio would allow you to parse different aspects of your design capabilities to match companies’ needs and wants, depending on your experience.

This is also a great way to cross-market your graphic design portfolio’s skillset. You would be able to employ different marketing strategies for yourself to different niches across various marketing platforms, like Pinterest, Instagram, and print materials.

Magazine

Magazines are probably my favorite way to showcase as a design portfolio example. I took this route to show my skills as a journalist and a graphic designer.

There are many graphic design portfolio examples as magazines. You can take your portfolio design as a literal magazine, or you can create a portfolio that is more similar to a photo collection.

With both concepts, you will need to create a flow in regard to your selected graphic design projects. Stand Out offers many ways to create a story with your work and help you retain your audience’s attention when they pour over your graphic design portfolio.

Either way, it is vital that you approach this graphic design portfolio design with intense scrutiny in regards to the structure, layout, and grid. I found Making and Breaking the Grid and Design School: Layout to be great graphic design books to help you learn about publication layout. Not only were they great graphic design books, but they also helped reinforce many concepts that are great for publication graphic design.

Depending on the amount of time you have to create a portfolio, magazines can be fairly easy and simple to make, especially if you set-up your magazine similar to a photo collection, compared to your typical magazine. So, if you’re short on time, a magazine presentation will allow you to have a cohesive look and keep all of your projects in one place. Just remember to print the project as a booklet to keep your page order intact.

If you’re new to layout design, you might check out Making and Breaking the Grid and Design School: Layout to understand the basics of magazine and book design.

Fold-out

This version of design portfolio is probably one of the more complex ones to create. I’d probably suggest you have a bit of product design under your belt as well with this presentation technique.

When you’re figuring out how to create your portfolio design, this is another presentation that you can separate different techniques and specialties. Depending on how you want to have your portfolio design to unfold, you can separate those categories accordingly.

I’ve seen this design format rise in popularity throughout the years. I think it’s become more favored since it’s more compact, or can be depending on your design layout, compared to a traditional portfolio design that can seem chunky and outdated.

If you’re new to product design, you might check out this book to understand the basics of product design.

Full-Page Index Cards

I really like this graphic design portfolio example. While the cards follow a brand to showcase them as a unit, each piece is a separate card.

I think this would be a great graphic design portfolio example, especially when graphic design might not be the only strength an interviewer has to play for a position. If you have other marketable talents, such as social media marketing, writing, art, curating, anything other than graphic design, this is a great branding exercise to develop your personal brand while still showing your talents.

Branding is one of Stand Out's biggest contributions as a graphic design book. If you choose to develop your graphic design portfolio as index cards, determine how to market and brand your cards with Stand Out. You will be able to select your graphic design projects and create a personal brand that will transcend your index cards into other mediums of your career.

You can also make your index cards similar to a deck of cards by playing with color, marks, and more if you have more than one talent to showcase in your unique portfolio. Each card suit can be related to a job skill, like photography as clubs and illustration as spades. This keeps everything organized for you and your interviewer.

Designing the outer case around your cards should also be on your to-do list with this graphic design portfolio example. An outer cover is a great way to showcase your personal brand as a collective and clearly depict your set of skills surrounding your projects.

Box of samples

I’ve seen this graphic design portfolio example become popular in the last few years but it could become fairly pricey as well.

Instead of having multiple paper sources for your portfolio, such as a business card, your samples, resume/CV and more, you condense and brand all of your materials to fit inside a box. Your box then becomes your design portfolio. No need to juggle all of your materials, it’s all there in your box.

While Stand Out doesn't focus as much on product design, I would brand every project with your personal brand as much as possible. I don't mean use your own colors, fonts, or style for someone else's product, but make sure you are packaging similar items together. Package selections of a similar nature to create a cohesive collection of items as much as possible.

I would say this as a great graphic design portfolio example for anyone focusing on 3-D or digital products. If you are at all interested in video, animation, or product design, this could be a great way to portray your design portfolio, rather than a print product.

Rather than having only photo representations of your products, you can fill your box with small samples of any product designs you’ve created or provide a disk or flash-drive with any digital products that you might have to show.

If you’re new to product design, you might check out Product Design And Development, 5 Ed to understand the basics of product design.

Marketing Products

I’ve seen this portfolio example employed with a bunch of marketing specific careers. Instead of creating a sheet of paper for your resume, making a product with your skills and marketability for the position is outside the box and a sure way to impress your potential employers.

The main concept with this portfolio design is to market yourself and include many of your capabilities for the applied position. The best portfolio example I’ve seen for this presentation is a candy bar wrapper with the nutrition information replaced with capabilities the employer was searching for. Spoiler: they got the job.

While this unique portfolio design relies heavily on product design, a marketing product would also need to rely on a personal brand. By developing your personal brand with Stand Out first and then incorporating it into a packaging design, you are able to employ similar styles and looks across different marketing products depending on the position you are applying for.

You might have to curtail showing as many projects, but this approach would be great for any graphic designer looking to work in a more versatile role. If you are looking to incorporate more aspects, such as marketing, editing, content planning, photography, this could be a good way to show your versatility.

While having a traditional resume or CV is preferable, this is a great way to present yourself in a new way to interviewers. Putting your skills and abilities on a marketing product is a new way to show your creativity and ideas.

Make a digital impression

Are you more of a digital designer? Rather than produce a print portfolio, you might try uploading your projects to a disc or flash drive that is personalized to you.

As you develop your personal brand and logos with Stand Out, you can create covers for CDs or personalized flash drives for your graphic design portfolio. If bought in bulk, like this pack of ten Enfain flash drives, you can usually save a few dollars compared to buying one at a time.

This would allow you to have products for your projects while you are at the interview, rather than showing up empty-handed and not being able to show your content if your interviewer(s) haven’t already. While they might not be able to view the content right then, giving them the ability to have a quick view of any of your projects leaves them with a positive impression.

A great touch to this graphic design portfolio example would be to brand the products and package them in an appealing way. Hence, why you should develop your personal brand through Stand Out first, then when you present your unique portfolio you will show a cohesive look and tie everything together.

Also, remember that digital includes social media! Providing links, handles, and hashtag followings are great if used correctly and can show your range of skills in your graphic design portfolio.

If you want to make an additional splash for your interviewers, try bringing one of these graphic design portfolio examples to your interview. The extra incentive to prove your abilities to potential employers doesn’t go unnoticed.

Want more advice on how to create a unique graphic design portfolio? Join Creatively Working’s e-newsletter! I’ll be sharing current projects and exclusive content to preview for the blog!