How to build a strong portfolio as a freelancer
A strong portfolio is indispensable for a freelancer; if you've got an attractive portfolio you will seal the deal with many potential clients. Here are some tips on creating your freelance portfolio.
Your portfolio is part of your portfolio
As parodoxical as that statement may seem, it's true. The actual design and look of your portfolio is one of the most important examples of your work. When I first started freelancing I spent about a week dedicated to getting my portfolio really presentable. Whenever I took a break and came back to freelancing I always tried to fix up my portfolio with improvements or some new examples of my work.
Take the time to create a nice design, pick attractive and complimenting colors, validate your pages, make your source code a work of art! If you have the ability, create a graphic or logotype to indentify yourself; try creating a 'brand' for your freelancing business. Little things can go a long way in convincing your potential clients that you are a professional.
Once you have a good design ready you need to start building up the examples of your work.
But I don't have any other examples of work!
You're just not looking hard enough! If you learned how to do web design or graphic design or development I'm sure you have some stuff lying around on your hard drive; experiments, unfinished work, rough drafts, etc. Finish and fix them up, add some polish, take a screenshot, write a description, and put it up in your portfolio!
Did you design a webpage for a friend way back when? Did you do a little design work for a community group? Have you helped someone set up a forum or mailing list or blog? Go ahead and put it in. Nothing is too small, it's all in how you present it. Any kind of personal work (your personal site, your blog, etc.) can count as experience.
If you've exhausted your stores of previous work, you may consider creating some small pieces of work just for your portfolio. Do a few page designs (either mockup or full design) of some "fake" companies. Create some logo variations for an imaginary business or corporation. You can use a random business name generator for some inspiration, who would know that "Commercial Building Services" isn't a real company? :)
Contributing to open source projects is also a great way to build experience. Pick an open source project that you are interested in and donate some design or development time. They will be grateful for your work and you will learn some great skills in the process. You may even make some important connections to people who need work done or who can refer people to you. You could also open source your original HTML and CSS design work (see OpenWebDesign or OSWD), get extra traffic and round out your portfolio at the same time!
What to include
What should you include in your portfolio? Here are some things I have in mine:
- Paid web design, development, and graphic design work created from scratch (make sure you ask permission to include a client's work)
- Examples of web development work (PHP, CGI, web apps, etc.)
- Pages that I've modified / contributed to (make sure you correctly describe the work you did though, don't take credit for someone else's work)
- Page mockups (clearly stating that it is a mockup, don't pretend a mockup is a real page)
- Open source work / contributions
- Graphic design, logo design, print work
- Personal projects (work I've done for myself, student groups, friends, etc.)
I also have some personal information about myself or how to contact me:
- My name is featured prominently, in big letters
- One to two sentences describing me and the work I do ("high-quality", "following good standards", etc.)
- For each section (graphic design, web design, ...) a brief description of how I work and the languages (XHTML, Javascript, CSS, PHP, etc.) and tools I use (Photoshop, Inkscape, a good text editor)
- A link to my resume
- Some brief contact info (email / phone)
Building a portfolio is a pretty simple process: design a solid page and load it up with good examples of your work. Of course the devil is in the details, so spend some time to polish and ensure you are making a good impression on potential clients.
Before you send off your portfolio to potential clients you should have some people review it. Ask a friend or family member to proofread and give feedback. There are also plenty of places online (forums, message boards) where you can ask people to review your site and give you feedback. Good luck!