by By: Moses Peet
Creating a public website for all of my work has changed how I am able to apply for jobs, internships, get informational interviews, and simply just have a place for anyone to see what I am about. I also view it as telling my story, the work I put on my website is who I am. I always want it to showcase my personality and my passions. As a video/photo creative, your portfolio is more important than your resume. A resume will tell companies about your past work and skills, but a portfolio is proof of what you can do. Especially as a college student when it is hard to get professional level work experience, a portfolio will show people you can create on your own and that you are motivated to make things.
Home Page
The first step to a successful portfolio website is to have a home page. It is your first impression and acts as a hook to bring the viewer in. Your name and title should be visible, and maybe even a photo of yourself. I would also add a short bio, that quickly explains the goals and feel of your work. My bio includes “Videographer/Photographer based out of Oregon. My work aims to capture the feeling of adventure and adolescence.” As well as my contact information and links to my socials. Here is what the home page of my website looks like, I also have my most recently made video automatically playing without sound:
The look and feel of your website is completely up to you, as it should showcase your creativity. I decided to go for a clean look, I want my videos and photos to speak for themselves. If you scroll down on my home page, I have a couple more videos that I consider some of my favorite works.
Navigation
Setting up navigation in your website is also a personal style choice, but it should be easy to see what is what. You could have one portfolio/work page or you could organize them into individual pages. I have my pages organized by video work, photography, concerts and events, resume, and then a page for a cross country road trip I went on where I took my favorite photos of my life.
I have my photos organized in a way that tells a story, it follows us on our road trip and has short descriptions of what we were up to and where we were at. I get inspiration from various photography album books, that was the feel I wanted to have. Mike Brodie is a photographer that I get a lot of inspiration from, I love his portfolio. I looked at tons of portfolios before making mine, deciding what I liked and what I didn’t.
Video work is what I consider my biggest skill as I have spent the most time doing it, and it is generally what I have gotten hired to do. I have it organized in a drop down menu, sorted by Oregon sports, Poler (outdoor company I used to make content for), and passion projects. The work I’ve done for Oregon sports is what I expect to help me get hired in the future, even though it isn’t necessarily my favorite work I’ve done.
Resume
Having access to your resume is also a smart thing to include on your portfolio. This is where I could improve most on my website, as my current resume doesn’t match the rest of my site. It’s something I plan on re-doing because it would make that part of my site look a lot more professional. Although I am proud of my resume, and it’s still valuable to have up to show people the variety of jobs I’ve worked growing up.
Lastly, your portfolio should actively be changing and growing as you keep producing work. Updating it regularly is super important. And as your creative style evolves and changes over the years, so should your website. I have so many visions for what I want to do with my website once I am better at making websites.
Check out my website at mosespeet.com, and comment the link to yours below if you have one. I am always trying to improve mine.
Connect with me on LinkedIn.
Hi Mosses, this post is AWESOME! I love this topic and it is so relatable to classes I am in right now. Our professor told us we need to look into website creation and now I can use this post as a “How-to Guide”. I really enjoyed this piece! Great job.
Hi Mosses!
Wow great job! The way you draw inspiration from other photographers and intentionally structure your pages shows how much strategy goes into a portfolio that feels effortless. This post is a great reminder that a portfolio isn’t just a showcase, it’s a living reflection of who you are as an artist.
Hi Mosses, this post is great!! I feel like sometimes making a portfolio website can feel really intimidating, and you laid out the basics on how to create an effective one really well. I’m sure I’m not alone in saying that this feels really relevant to me, and I appreciate how you dove into not only the importance of having a portfolio website in creative fields but also how to create one that represents you and your work effectively.
As someone who does not have a portfolio yet, this blog post was so helpful! A question I have though is what platform you used to create your portfolio, and what platforms you would reccomend based on quality and how easy they are to learn and use. Something else that could be helpful in this blog is what layouts are best for presenting a visually-focused portfolio compared to layouts for presenting a written-focused portfolio. Other than that great job, and I thoroughly enjoyed reading this!
Loved reading this, Moses. The way you treat your portfolio as a living story of who you are is super inspiring. Your breakdown of each page really shows how intentional you are with it.
Such a great breakdown, Moses. I love how you frame a portfolio as storytelling, not just a work archive. Being in the J school, I really value your advise. Your tips on navigation, showcasing personality, and keeping things updated are super helpful especially for students building their first site. Thanks for sharing your process!
Great job Moses! This is a super helpful post with a clear guide to crafting a creative portfolio! Since making my own I’ve really struggled with tying personal touches into my professional space but your tips have inspired me!
Hi Moses! I loved this post as a senior I have been talking about portfolios nonstop this term and this post gave me a really good guide on how to design it as well as the navigation is super helpful!