A good portfolio

A professional portfolio …

  • Includes these elements:
    • your original stories, photos & video
    • your resume  / cv,
    • professional statement of purpose
    • A photo of you at work.
    • Describes your social media competencies
    • Describes your technical skills (Adobe suite, drone video, livestreaming, etc)
    • Describes your languages, cultural competencies
    • Has an “ask”  — Contact me at …  / Available for  freelance  assignments …  / download my pdf resume
  • Uses basic principles of good graphic and interactive design, such as
    • balance, proportion, sequence, unity, emphasis …
    • Keeps similar things together, avoids trapped white space
    • invites reader  to explore, uses clear menus, it transparent
  • Shows your design choices such as:
    • Many points of entry, like a newspaper, or
    • Emphasis on photography, or
    • Project , long-form writing emphasis, windowed, or
    • Minimalist, a single impression with menu options
    • Non-linear, mapped
  • Is built around your professional capabilities and experience
  • Is itself a statement of your familiarity with technology

A professional portfolio … 

  • Does not indulge in overly long personal anecdotes or manifestos   (blogs excepted)
  • Does not have left over in-class college assignments or  course numbers
  • Does not have extra or  trapped white space or other graphic  design bloopers
  • Does not fall back on stock photos or clip art
  • Don’t tell everyone you are hard-working.  You have to show it.

Editor’s guide to a professional portfolio (Poynter) 


Here are some recommended prompts from journalists to get you thinking:

  • What are your skills that are unique to your experiences?
  • If you were a consultant, what services would you provide
  • What is your thinking when you are directing and coaching someone through a story?
  • How did this project span platforms, and what did those conversations look like?
  • What is exciting about your job?
  • What problems do you like solving?
  • What are you obsessed with?
  • What is your unique value?

Examples of professional portfolios 

Examples of portfolio site builders & ideas