Make the perfect portfolio

This article first appeared in issue 231 of .net magazine – the world's best-selling magazine for web designers and developers.

If, like us, you tend to read the newspapers from behind terrified fingers, you’ll know that it’s a tough world out there. The creative industries may have weathered the financial storms better than many older sectors, but they haven’t been unaffected: competition is fiercer than ever, and it’s harder and harder to stand out from the crowd.

If you don’t have a portfolio, it’s even more difficult. At its simplest, a portfolio is an online advert. Here I am, it says. Look at the stuff I can do! But there’s more to it than that. Your portfolio is your calling card and your art gallery, the place where you showcase your skills and the stories behind your most impressive projects, where you show not just what you’ve done, but what you want to do next. In many cases, it’s also the only thing somebody will see before deciding whether to contact you with a job offer or a project proposal.

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The Creative Bloq team is made up of a group of design fans, and has changed and evolved since Creative Bloq began back in 2012. The current website team consists of eight full-time members of staff: Editor Georgia Coggan, Deputy Editor Rosie Hilder, Ecommerce Editor Beren Neale, Senior News Editor Daniel Piper, Editor, Digital Art and 3D Ian Dean, Tech Reviews Editor Erlingur Einarsson, Ecommerce Writer Beth Nicholls and Staff Writer Natalie Fear, as well as a roster of freelancers from around the world. The ImagineFX magazine team also pitch in, ensuring that content from leading digital art publication ImagineFX is represented on Creative Bloq.