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The quality of your work is important when you're in the market. But how you present it is absolutely crucial. Here's how you can build a fool-proof portfolio that's guaranteed to open doors.

Regardless of how great of an interior designer you are, there's only one thing that will matter when recommending your services to others: your portfolio.

A good portfolio will showcase the quality of your work while employing a crucial rule of every visual art - show, don't tell. Whether you send it to an employer, client, university, or anyone else, your portfolio will demonstrate your sense of fashion, style, creative processes, planning abilities, and, finally, your personality.

When you provide a potential employer or partner with a great visual representation of your current and past works, you'll give them all of the reasons why they should choose your services over the competition.

However, to make that happen, your portfolio should be created to the highest standards. You'll need to demonstrate your concepts and skills in execution, but also the passion that drives your work in the industry. In other words, your resume should testify as much to your proficiency as an interior designer as to your unique personality.

After all, the quality of your portfolio might make all of the difference between a client hiring and not hiring you.

In this article, we'll explain how you can create an effective portfolio that will capture the attention of everyone who sees it.

The Tips

1. Choose Between a Digital and Physical Portfolio

The first decision you'll need to make will be about the platform you choose for presenting your portfolio. When thinking about a professional portfolio, many people still have an image of a bulky binder loaded with photos, concept images, and material samples.

However, those days are long gone. More and more designers are turning towards the digital space for their presentations and, with digital technology being available to everyone in the industry, physical portfolios seem to be on their way out.

Finding and getting hold of an actual, physical portfolio isn't the most attractive idea for many clients. And it shouldn't be very compelling to you as an interior designer. If you print out all of your material, you're left with a showcase that might as well be written in stone. It's presented as-is, not to be changed at a moment's notice, and free of interactive elements.

On top of that, potential clients can only get your portfolio if you hand it to them and can't share it with anyone else without meeting them in person.

Although the question of physical versus digital portfolios is presented as a dilemma, there's really no competition between these. The digital variant will always be better.

Most professionals have a website where anyone can see their work and get contact information. In today's world, this could be considered a standard. Alternatively, if managing a website is too much, blog pages can serve the same purpose.

Having an online presentation is by far the best option because it's a convenient and versatile tool for getting your clients familiar with your work. You can easily send the address to anyone interested or bring a tablet to present your portfolio at a meeting.

If you have a website filled with suitable, presentable content, you'll benefit from a more organised presentation, as well as ease of contact with potential clients. Websites open a plethora of additional options, such as including testimonials or wish lists for projects.

Finally, if you encounter a customer who prefers a physical portfolio, it will be infinitely easier to compile one from your digital presentation. The opposite, however, isn't true.

2. Curate and Showcase Your Best Work

If there's one principle that should guide you through creating your portfolio, it should be to prioritize quality over quantity.

Many designers can't resist the temptation of stuffing their resumes with every project they've ever done. The idea behind this approach is that people will be impressed by the sheer volume of work and compelled to hire the designer.

Even if you have many excellent projects to show, remember that too much of a good thing can have an opposite result. You don't want a portfolio that will make your clients feel exhausted and grateful they've finally gone through it. Even worse, most people will likely give up halfway through, skipping out on some of your proudest pieces.

An ideal portfolio should show only the very best of your work and concentrate on the strongest projects. Rather than putting additional work in there, you might want to include some 'before' and 'after' photos or images of various stages of representative projects.

3. Have a Unique Theme

Showing variety in your work is always a good thing. Yet, the way you design your portfolio is different - here, you should stick with a consistent, unique theme.

The uniformity of your resume layout should be a rule regardless of whether you're presenting your portfolio on a website, digital document, or in physical form. This presentation includes the basic elements of page design, such as font types and page borders.

If you'd like to have a more artistic portfolio, there's nothing stopping you from including different visual elements, colors, or unique typography. However, these elements should never overpower the main content - your work.

This might seem like a secondary consideration or an altogether unimportant aspect of your presentation. After all, the projects you're showcasing should be the main focus, not the portfolio design.

While this is true, remember that your portfolio is a representation of not only what you do but who you are. If you want to come off as a professional, your resume should give out that impression. That's why it's best to find a unique layout that makes your work stand out and apply it to your portfolio consistently.

4. Use Storytelling to Share Your Process

If you want your clients to engage with your presentation, you can combine two powerful factors to ensure that: explaining your process and creating a story around it.

Most people love to hear the details of how a professional achieves specific results. When creating your portfolio, you'll be able to use both textual and visual representations to illustrate your process. However, it shouldn't be a dry, matter-of-fact presentation.

Instead, reinforce your description with storytelling. Besides the images of a completed project, include other documents and photos that will take the client on a journey from a concept to final result. Additionally, you can flesh out the narrative with one or two brief paragraphs that describe a particular situation or the relationship you developed with the client.

You should view every project as a story you want to tell and think about how you could present it to anyone viewing your portfolio in the most engaging way. Finally, your entire resume could be built around an overarching narrative that will provide more insight into your personality.

5. Leverage Photorealistic Renderings

The visuals you present will undoubtedly be a crucial element of your portfolio. Even if your quality of work is unmatched, a poor rendering will ruin the impression and fail to translate the most outstanding features.

With today's technology, you can create 3D images of incredible quality for unfinished projects or those in the conceptual phase. These visual representations can bring your ideas to life and showcase everything you've got to offer in the most favorable light.

Understandably, producing high-quality renderings isn't an easy task, especially if you aren't familiar with the specialized software. However, you can find professional studios that deal with computer graphics and delegate the job to them.

A great rendering will showcase your concepts in detail, including everything from floor plans to materials, furniture, and lighting, with visuals that will leave a strong impression on your clients.

6. Include Testimonials

As a form of social proof, testimonials can speak volumes about your competence and client satisfaction. This is an aspect of your portfolio that you should have in mind before you start designing the resume. It’d be a good idea to have a review from every customer upon project completion so that you can use it to reinforce your expertise.

Making Your Portfolio Irresistible

When you go into the market, your presentation will be the key element of your success. If you build a portfolio that impresses with its design, content, and narrative, you'll greatly increase the chances of a client hiring you.

Invest enough time and attention to creating an irresistible portfolio and it might become the most important tool in your arsenal.

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