It’s an extension of your personality and gives you the chance to craft a design that reflects who you are as a creative.

Having profiles on sites like LinkedIn, Behance, and Dribbble are important, but having a personal portfolio website will specifically give you the opportunity to express yourself and your personal branding in a more individualized way. 

For any creative, having an online presence not only creates exposure for your work and views via search engine optimization (SEO), it helps define who you are to potential clients and customers and  helps you land more gigs doing what you love to do.  The best part is, there’s no set way to create a personal website — just as there are many types of creatives, there are many ways to put together a personal website.

Here are some examples to help inspire you and get you started. 

1. Jey Austen

Designer and illustrator Jey Austen uses a color scheme of white text on a black background for their professional website. Though it may sound simple, they’ve created a bold and eye-catching design.

Fun touches like using the gothic font Pirata for the headers, and unique imagery like crystals and swords add to the mystique of this design. We’re huge fans of how Jey is able to maintain creativity and originality while still maintaining clarity and a great user experience.

2. Arlen McCluskey

With clouds of dreamy colors and a tidy layout, Arlen McCluskey’s product design portfolio website feels minimalist when you first land on it. However, this personal site has more than meets the eye. With its spacious layout, Arlen stylishly features his projects for clients like Airbnb, Dropbox, and JUMP, as well as deep dives into his thought process. 

The best personal portfolio websites not only show off someone’s creative output, but put it all together in a way that’s imaginative. Arlen McCluskey shows off his creative talents in this colorful and captivating design.

3. Mack and Pouya

Many photography portfolios focus solely on being an image gallery. While there’s nothing wrong with this approach, it’s nice to see a photography business that also prioritizes effort into the look and branding of their webpage. 

US-based wedding photography firm Mack and Pouya has a website with a joyful UX and design that reflects their line of work. We love seeing colorful website examples that aren’t afraid to push things forward with more daring color combinations and creative design.

4. Aileen

Aileen is a digital product designer who has done work for Amazon, Tumblr, and General Assembly, among other clients. We’re fans of clean modern website examples like Aileen’s that have ample negative space and a meticulous focus on keeping its different elements organized.

Aileen’s portfolio in particular features a tasteful use of white space with a curated selection of muted background colors behind each product image. This web design melds artistry with thoughtful and intentional design. 

5. Ojieame

With skills in product development, UI design, and graphic design with a focus on software development, Ojieame Onimiya lays out his work and talents in a sleek single-page portfolio with clever touches. For example, Ojieame opens by saying he designs smooth user interfaces that promote user interaction — which is followed by the call to action to “scroll for more.” 

Every headline, piece of copy, image, and element of this design have a place in this layout — giving this web design a thoughtful feel.  Additionally, the site shows  a sense of content organization. Each section communicates specific points about his skills or work, with a clear throughline. 

Ojieame’s personal website is proof that it’s possible to  distill a large breadth of work into a one-page design, in a creative and cohesive way.

6. I Am Tamara

Tamara Sredojevic is a UX designer who is passionate about ethical design, accessibility, and inclusion. She starts her simple two-page site with information on the type of  work she does  along with pleasing combination of colors and laid back feel.

Tamara’s website is a celebration of simplicity. The design is based on large shapes, thin lines, and a muted color palette that demonstrates Tamara’s refined aesthetic. Every piece of this design comes together in harmony for a light and easy user experience.

7. Gal Rabaniam

Gal Rabaniam flexes her skills as a graphic designer throughout her colorful and well organized design. Along with different artistic visuals, she explains her work with informative case studies. One of our favorite touches is the yellow call to action button anchored to the top right of the screen, giving a bold call out to download her CV at any point. 

8. Colin Moy

With cleverly animated eyes to represent the “O’s” in “Colin Moy”and a golden yellow background, this website instantly draws you in.  

We love that Colin makes the letter “O” in About, Portfolio, and Contact clickable elements that open up additional information. It’s a nice touch that keeps the playfulness of the opening text going throughout the design. We also like that Colin includes links to his  Instagram and LinkedIn — giving potential customers another touch point to connect with him and his work 

The best part of Colin’s design is that he’s made it available as a cloneable, giving you the opportunity to experiment with this layout and design and customize it to your liking. 

9. Thomas Bosc

Content manager Thomas Bosc has put together a compelling and informative portfolio design that captures his content creation skills. 

When you scroll down his homepage, an animation brings up chat bubbles with comments and questions related to the content manager title. As you continue to scroll, Thomas highlights his talents as a content manager as well as  high-quality examples of his work.

It’s easy to just include a  few things in our portfolios, but so many of us have skills that don’t have a narrow scope. Thomas shows it’s possible to use a personal website to show off a diverse range of talents without it being too complicated.

10. Editorial

If you need a stylized and well-organized personal website template, start with this free cloneable, Editorial, from Em Design.

With a classy aesthetic and plenty of space for big images, Editorial is ideal for photographers, product designers, web designers, or anyone else who wants to create an image-driven portfolio. And like any template, you can fully customize it to fit your personal brand. If you’ve been looking for elegant website examples, there’s plenty of inspiration in this free template.

11. Bobby Rowe

Bobby Rowe’s online portfolio starts with the declaration, “I believe that superstars are both born and forged.” His personal website is full of captivating colors and wit, showing that Bobby is a superstar in his own right.

After this introduction, scrolling through the design brings up page after page of eye-pleasing combinations of colors and attention-grabbing text. There’s a sense of confidence that’s projected throughout this portfolio with Bobby’s design chops backing up his words.

12. Alice Lee

We’ve written about Alice Lee’s portfolio before, but she’s always updating her websites with new content such as interactive illustrations, new merch in her ecommerce store, and recent episodes of her live drawing show Doodle Therapy. Alice specializes in character illustrations filled with vivid colors and a sense of organic textures, and her illustrations have a style all her own. 

This could have been a simple resume website, with a few featured projects from her  high-profile clients. But every pixel of this personal portfolio is touched by her flair for creativity, and is  expansive in demonstrating her talents as an illustrator. If you want an example of one of the best personal websites, Alice’s is right up there.

Be sure to check out her in-depth case study about crafting Slack’s visual identity. It’s a valuable read no matter what type of creative work you pursue.

13. Emre Devseren

Emre Devseren is a web designer interested in startups and small businesses. This portfolio communicates his UI and UX skills, as well as his knowledge as a marketing strategist.

Emre opens with a clear message: “I can help your business to get online and grow fast,” and follows the statement with previous clients’ logos. This immediately gives site visitors an idea of what Emre does as well as his work experience. 

Scrolling down reveals a visually pleasing design full of color, with light pastels making up much of the backgrounds. It’s an uncomplicated single-page website, but the web design does so much in a limited amount of space. 

14. Matthew P Munger

Landing on Matthew P Munger’s portfolio transports you back in time, answering the question — what would a Webflow designer’s portfolio look like if it were made in 1996? We love personal website examples like this one that aren’t afraid to get experimental, and Matthew’s purposely low-tech design grabs your attention right away.

This retro graphic user interface feels like a time machine, bringing you straight into the early days of Mac OS. The nostalgia will bring a smile to anyone who’s ever clicked and clacked on the weighty keyboards of those beige machines. 

Replicating the UI, aesthetic, and functionality of these antiquated computers is quite the accomplishment. Yes, there’s the novelty factor, but this is still a very usable design. Along with creating a testament to his design superpowers, he effectively uses this retro website to showcase his modern work.

And for those of you who want to create a project based on this fun throwback design aesthetic, you can clone it for free on Webflow.

15. Portfolio Website - Free Template

If you want to go from inspiration directly into designing and publishing your site, check out the Portfolio Website - Free Template by DesignPilot. This cloneable project has everything you need to launch a personal website. 

The top menu bar makes this one-page website look like a multi-page design. However, the menu is actually jump links, directing you to each particular section on the single page. This straightforward layout makes it easy to showcase your work, share a bit about you and your experience, and highlight whatever you’re passionate about. Plus, the built in contact form and social media icons give site visitors plenty of ways to connect and get in touch. 

16. Dan Machado

Product designer Dan Machado opens his homepage with a simple intro header and a split-screen design. Hovering over the client names under “my work” brings up a preview image and clicking the name opens a project-specific landing page. 

While the layout of Dan’s personal website isn’t traditional, the helpful highlights over the hamburger menu items and clickable elements create a pleasant user experience. Plus, Dan includes case studies that offer deeper insights into his work and process. Much of his product design work has been done with tech startups, and he does an excellent job in conveying who these projects were for, as well as their purpose.

Dan’s unconventional yet effective design is a solid example of a personal website that grabs site visitors’ attention and keeps them engaged with specific details. 

17. Sabanna

With this stylized website, Anna Sabatini shows off her talents merging digital design with a sketchbook style.

From the opening page displaying a pencil-lined self-portrait to the hand-drawn lettering and other doodle-like drawings, Anna includes dashes of organic textures throughout. This merging of traditional graphic design with digital is further emphasized with her use of typewriter-styled typography. These elements are a nice juxtaposition to the slick scroll-triggered animation on the right sidebar.

Along with featured projects, tutorials, there’s a diary section that functions as a personal blog where Anna shares her thoughts and observations. The writings have a stream of consciousness feel, showing a more personal side of who she is.

Anna does a great job of incorporating her personality into a design that combines the best of digital and graphic design for an online portfolio with character. 

18. Cheech Minniear

As soon as you arrive at Cheech Minnear’s UI/UX design portfolio, you’re greeted with a pleasing burst of action. An hourglass zooms in, followed by a social media block that bounces into place on the left-hand side of the screen. Animations don’t end here, with a myriad of scroll-triggered interactions that slide content and images into place.

Cheech shows off her multidisciplinary skills with great design and solid writing. Every headline tells us more about who she is as a designer. Her case studies are well-written and clearly explain her design process. 

Cheech also caters to potential customers by including a testimonial quote block, which fades in and out to reveal new quotes from past clients. With a layout full of slick animations and effective copywriting, Cheech’s online portfolio communicates what she does with a great level of depth.

19. Vance Banks

When it comes to personal websites, showing off your unique personality works to your advantage. As soon as you land on Vance Banks’s site, you see a smiling photo with a colorful background and a waving emoji. His quick bio on the homepage tells you that he is an experienced UI/UX designer, as well as a proud dog dad. 

This is another example of an effective one-page portfolio website. With a well-ordered layout, plenty of negative space, and good use of colors, the design presents a very smooth user experience.

Even though the homepage — which includes home, work, about, and contact information — follows a one-page design, Vance links out separate landing pages for detailed case studies. He provides plenty of insights about the work he put into each featured project, with user flows, personas, and wireframes to go along with this. The accompanying images show what goes into his design process.

A one-page design doesn’t mean skimping on the details. Vance gives anyone landing on his portfolio a wealth of content showing his design work.

20. Kyle Craven

With a light gray background and tasteful yet stylized typography, Kyle Craven’s portfolio has a clean and simple design. 

Kyle uses a one-page layout for his digital design and web development portfolio. All you have to do is scroll to learn more about Kyle, preview selected works, and find his social media profiles and contact information in the website footer. This is a great example of a stripped-down portfolio that still captures all of someone’s talents.

Grow your personal brand with a website made in Webflow

If you’re a creator, you need an online portfolio to show off what you’ve been working on, to connect with like-minded people, and to help you land new work. A personal website gives you a forum to present the best that you do, as well as to communicate who you are both — professionally and personally.