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Easy Online Portfolios
December 5, 2017
Does this sound familiar: you know you need an online portfolio but have no idea how to put one together? You don’t know what parallax scrolling, Java, or HTML is, and you have no interest in finding out? Good news! You can have an online presence and don’t have to learn programming to do it. Here are some ideas on how to get your creative work out there for people to see:
Behance
https://www.behance.net/
Do you like Facebook? Behance, a free online portfolio sharing site from Adobe, has a similar concept where you can follow and “like” projects of fellow creatives. Not only can you see current work from people you admire, but you can email them directly!
Behance has sections, called Creative Fields, for many different interests, so if you’re a designer who likes photography, you can “tag” your work to be included in multiple searches.
Some of the Creative Fields they have are:
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Architecture
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Illustration
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Photography
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Art Direction
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Industrial Design
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UI/UX
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Branding
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Interior Design
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Web Design
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Fashion
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Interaction Design
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3D
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Graphic Design
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Motion Graphics
Other benefits of Behance include curated galleries and employment links. Sounds perfect, right? The other good news is it’s as simple as clicking the Create a Project button to get started. Sign up for a free an Adobe account and connect yourself to Ai Pittsburgh- Online Division’s Behance group today: http://portfolios.artinstitutes.edu/
SquareSpace and Wordpress
https://www.squarespace.com
https://wordpress.com/
Are you looking for something a little more customizable? Maybe you want a unique web address, a blog, or even a shop to sell your work? Two good places to start are SquareSpace and WordPress. These are similar sites that offer online website portfolios. Both have lots of pre-designed templates to choose from — all you need to do is choose one and upload your work.
How much do these cost? SquareSpace is free for a few weeks, and from there you can choose different payment plans. If you want to add more personalized features such as a custom URL and a shop, each site has different payment levels with detailed instructions on how to achieve a professional looking website.
Wordpress gives you a free blog and portfolio page, however you will have a web address with Wordpress in the name and ads will appear on the page. For a webpage that looks 100% custom, you will pay a small monthly free that will strip the ads and give you a personalized website name.
If you choose to use either, you’re in good company! Companies such as Pixar, Nike, lyft, Variety, New York Post and many others rely on these websites to share their work with the world.
What else is out there?
There are a lot of free portfolio sites out there; these are just a few. Check out the following portfolio sites to see how they are set up and what they offer:
Luckily we live in an age where there are many options to show your work. Don’t limit yourself to one site. Get your work out there on multiple sites so that many different employers and
clients can see what you’re up to. Have a LinkedIn page? An Instagram account? Add some work samples. On Facebook? Make a business page (Pages>Create Page) and add your work! It’s easy, free and a terrific way to get a kick start online.
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