Thousands of design portfolios exist on the internet, each with a talented designer behind them looking to attract clients. To stand out, your portfolio must be unique, compelling, and skills-driven. You need to demonstrate what sets you apart and what it’s like working with you to ensure the client-designer match works well. 

Read on to discover six techniques for crafting a client-winning portfolio, plus get inspired with our list of impressive design portfolio examples. 

6 proven design portfolio tips

While design portfolios vary wildly depending on who creates them, some fundamental principles appear consistently in the strongest ones. Here are six best practices great design portfolios tend to follow.

1. Curate diverse work

Select design projects from different mediums, like websites, apps, and advertisements. Even if potential clients are only interested in hiring you for one medium, sharing various examples demonstrates versatility and experience — both highly sought-after characteristics.

2. Prioritize quality over quantity

Everything in your portfolio should represent your best work. Don’t use examples you aren’t proud of just to pad the site. You have limited control over what potential clients see first, so every addition should make an excellent impression.

3. Provide context and insights

While the work should speak for itself, it can benefit from added context. Use subtle text blocks to describe how you went about a design or the challenges you encountered while making it. 

If you have experience with typical design obstacles like translation issues and complex design requirements, mention those to let potential clients know you can handle challenging projects.

4. Update regularly

Update your portfolio to include new projects as you complete them. While you’re at it, ensure you’re tagging every project with a date to indicate how recent samples are. Viewers will naturally construct a timeline to understand how your designs have evolved over the years.

5. Demonstrate results and impact

Include text or infographics that show how your designs impacted key metrics like viewership, sales, and click-through rates. This quantifiable proof encourages potential clients wanting to see the same improvements to get in touch.

6. Express your personality

While project quality might be priority #1, clients also want a cohesive working relationship — as do you. Express yourself in your portfolio so clients get an idea of your communication style, design preferences, and general attitude. This increases the chance it’s a good match for all involved.

25 design portfolio examples worth checking out

Each of the following examples stands out for the way creators execute design trends, showcase their work, and express their unique personality. Let these examples inspire your team’s next web design project.

1. Jessica Hernandez

‍Jessica Hernandez is a UX researcher based in San Francisco, CA. If you’re looking for an example of a portfolio that gives an excellent first impression, this is it.

Jessica’s portfolio starts with a fun pre-loading animation, leading to a website full of color, personality, and charm. As you scroll, you discover where Jessica is from and that her expertise is in education. Post-scrolling, an “Enter” animation invites you to continue exploring the site.

Equipped with a digital resume, a projects page, contact information, and an About page, this website is an excellent example of a multi-page portfolio website done right.

2. Christina Kosik

Christina Kosik is a UX designer and web developer based in Vancouver, Canada. Her page-loading-time animation lets you know the site is almost loaded so you don’t bounce. 

In the works section, selecting projects gives you a peek at the assets she made for each one. Every case study also includes a link to the finished website, so users can fully explore what she’s made. That way, visitors skimming the site can get a quick idea of what Christina offers, while those needing more information can also find it.

3. James Williams

‍James is a Webflow designer and developer, and their portfolio site succinctly portrays their experience in the field. The animated homepage guides visitors through their most recent work, with links to pages dedicated to each case study. A “Get in touch” button subtly exists in the header, and they close the homepage with a more prominent call-out, encouraging visitors to reach out without overwhelming the site with CTA buttons. 

4. Timothy Maurer

This site is an excellent example of a clean, uncomplicated, and project-focused portfolio. Timothy’s portfolio acts as a streamlined index for all his best work. The homepage presents an impressive feed of his projects, with projects speaking for themselves among a distraction-free UX design.

5. Esmeralda Studios

Enkhmaa is an interaction designer with a comprehensive online portfolio that features three case studies and illustration and motion graphics galleries. They balance simplicity and personality expression, surrounding designs with whitespace to highlight their work while adding fun graphics, fonts, and hover animations to express themselves.

6. Dan Machado

Dan Machado is a multidisciplinary designer who uses large, striking imagery to invite you to explore his case studies. Each one balances copy with imagery so those with the time can thoroughly understand the work, and speedy scrollers can quickly discover what Dan is capable of. 

Dan's site is an excellent point of reference if you’re considering using a lot of imagery to complement your portfolio’s copy.

7. Greg Christian 

Greg Christian’s portfolio is a modern (and much more interesting) take on a traditional resume. As soon as you land on the homepage, you discover the companies he’s worked for, current projects, and location. This one-page portfolio presents work in an uncluttered way to keep the reader’s attention throughout.

8. Kerem Suer

Kerem Suer is an interdisciplinary designer based in San Francisco. To effectively showcase all the arenas he excels in, Karem added brief tags to each design showcase on the homepage, like “Product, UI design” and “Brand.” He also gives a small peek into his design process by breaking elements of his work into various sizes and layouts. 

9. Alex Beige

Alex Beige is an NYC-based web developer and designer whose portfolio site takes you on a journey that showcases Alex’s fun personality and stellar work. This one-page website walks you through previous client work, the design and development process, a (hilarious) team page, and a CTA to get in touch. Playful imagery and subtle animations engage readers throughout.

10. Moritz Petersen

‍Moritz Petersen is a freelance web designer and developer who fully tailors sites to client needs. His online design portfolio features a beautiful scrolling interaction through the Webflow Designer while showcasing the clients he’s worked with.

Toward the end of scrolling through Moritz’ homepage, he showcases his workflow so future clients know what to expect when working with him. He also promotes Webflow as a web development platform to inspire clients to use him for Webflow-based services.

11. Aaron Grieve

Aaron Grieve is a self-proclaimed Webflow nerd who has contributed to the Webflow community for years. He’s the author of in-depth, informative blogs and the creator of dazzling websites like Your Retreats. 

While this one-page portfolio is quite busy, he uses white text against a black background to improve navigation and highlight key sections like “Client projects” and “Webflow templates.” And by directly linking to the sites he produced, Aaron lets the work speak for itself.

12. Colin Moy

Colin Moy’s homepage is particularly eye-catching, with animated eyes representing the O’s in his name. He keeps the theme throughout the site, making the Os in “About,” “Portfolio,” and “Contact” clickable elements that open a larger circle with more information. Clicking “Portfolio” triggers an accordion of vertical ovals, each with preview images or video and a project name. 

It’s a playful design that encourages readers to explore the whole site to look for all the O’s, keeping them engaged. Clone this project to see whether this playful style suits your work.

13. Matthew P Munger 

Matthew P Munger is a senior product expert at Webflow. His unique design portfolio is a throwback to the classic Mac OS. Matthew has created a unique UX, letting us browse a system that’s since been overtaken by a more modern design. The retro style of this portfolio sets Matthew apart and delights the audience.

14. Robert Floyd

Robert Floyd is a YouTuber and product designer with a minimalist portfolio website that features snippets of work across various industries. He offers helpful information about each project, like the year, his role, the product name, and the prototype link. And he encourages professional networking by highlighting his LinkedIn, YouTube, and GitHub profiles in the top-right menu.

15. Brett Land

Brett Land is the portfolio of Brett Shea, a copywriter, designer, and creative director based in San Francisco. He sets himself apart with confident, quirky writing, such as, “Now entering Brett Land” and “...why don't you just click below to peep the type of work I've been known to make?”

The catalog page features high-profile projects for companies like Lyft and Airbnb to flex his expertise. Meanwhile, his “Stupidfest” page showcases his humor, with mock products like beer-flavored yogurt and hummus-flavored Gatorade. 

Overall, Brett’s portfolio is unique, fun to explore, and memorable — all required to stand out.

16. Michael Ji

Michael Ji’s portfolio uses fun animations to showcase his work in a tightly curated way. From the moment you land on the site, various moving elements encourage you to view certain items, like core characteristics that make Michael who he is (including “Passionate and curious,” and “A perfectionist”). As you scroll, projects move in and out of view to offer a more comprehensive look at his work. You can stop to explore each project, or continue scrolling to get a quick glimpse.

17. Yuki Asakura

Yuki Asakura’s site is the perfect example of letting your work speak for itself. It features a short introduction followed by three project examples that lead to complete case studies.

The case studies demonstrate Yuki’s passion (improving transportation), and the ease of site navigation reflects his UX/UI design expertise. Scrolling triggers every animation, and each one fits seamlessly into the UX. Plus, he presents project work on a simple background precisely as it appears on various devices.

18. Adam Ho

Adam Ho’s portfolio uses a busy design style that might be overwhelming at first but becomes fun to play with as you scroll and move your cursor around. The statement at the top of the site prepares you for a truly unique experience: “Upon refresh, the showcase as you see it in this current iteration will disappear, as there are trillions of combinations of information.”

While simplicity is often best to showcase project work, this site stands out for breaking all the rules.

19. Matt Jablonski 

Matt Jablonski’s design portfolio generously uses whitespace to highlight his work. Every card on the homepage has a pale-colored overlay that stands out against the white — each notably different but adhering to a complementary color scheme. The pastel color palette brings all the elements together into a cohesive experience.

20. David McGillivray

A seasoned creative director and designer, David McGillivray creates holistic design solutions, which this unique portfolio reflects. It’s evident that David is an experienced UX designer: he balances copy with imagery excellently, pulling focus to project work with large images while also including enough information to satisfy visitor curiosity. Each image-heavy project page immerses us in David’s work, showcasing animations, micro-interactions, and product design.

21. Tony Gines

Tony Gines' one-page and mostly static portfolio embodies the “less is more” principle. The text on the left presents Tony’s key skills (user interface, brand strategy, logo design, illustration, animation, user experience) and the page closes with five social network links, like X (Twitter), Instagram, and Gmail. For some, these two elements are all that’s needed to decide whether to get in touch.

22. Maria la Portuguesa 

Maria la Portuguesa is a Berlin-based graphic designer who uses her site to show off her quirky graphic design skills, branding, and logo designs. This site perfectly balances showcasing one’s personality without distracting from project work. The homepage highlights 10 project work snippets that, once clicked on, open a web page that discusses each more thoroughly.

23. DesignPilot's portfolio website template

If you want to build a comprehensive one-page portfolio, this cloneable template by Chethan KVS at DesignPilot is a great start. The top menu gives the illusion of a multi-page site, but clicking on the options simply jumps the page to the selected section.

This outline uses motion throughout, with text and images sliding into place as you scroll. It also includes placeholders for client testimonials, a contact form, and a footer section with social media icons and additional links.

24. Farzin Zaman

Farzin Zaman Khan is a web designer and Webflow developer who uses whitespace to draw attention to his work while creating a fun navigation experience (circles along a timeline unite as you scroll and hit the next project) to keep visitors scrolling. 

Farzin opens the site with a bold “Email me” CTA button for those who want to get in touch right away. And at the end, he places his contact information in a striking, user-friendly heading with clever animations that make the experience more exciting.

25. Pierrick Calvez 

Pierrick Calvez is a painter and graphic designer whose portfolio focuses equally on both disciplines. This site is one of the most minimalist in this list, laying out artwork against an off-white background that, once clicked, opens larger versions. The only items at the top are his name and buttons for selected works, Pierrick's resume, and contact.

His artwork is so striking, it’s a treat that he hasn't distracted from it with extraneous details.

Make a client-collecting design portfolio with Webflow

With inspiration and tips in hand, you’re ready to craft a portfolio site that’s engaging and effectively sells your unique offering. Start with Webflow, a visual development environment you can use no matter your coding expertise.

Explore the Made in Webflow marketplace for the perfect portfolio template, and check out Webflow University for courses, interactive lessons, and quick-start guides to help you get up to speed.