New interior design graduates or small businesses should create and build an interior design portfolio to succeed. Portfolios are significant for interior designers who have just started to work independently. In the interior design business, usually, there are large, established local firms employing several designers. Your portfolio as an individual designer is your trump card, and the design and interior design portfolio layout will also convey the aesthetic sense you have. In other words, it foreshadows the kind of work clients can expect from you. Another best practice for independent designers is to register themselves as businesses. Trust us, that will boost your credibility to an immense degree.
What is an Interior Design Portfolio?
In previous eras, portfolios of interior designers were in the traditional physical format. Designers presented them to prospective clients during consultations or home visits. These laminated loose-leaf portfolios together with a binder consisted of:
- Sketches
- Print-outs of AutoCAD layouts
- Images of past interior design work
While such physical portfolios are still around today, they serve to complement online portfolios rather than serve as the primary introduction to your great work. Irrespective of the online or physical format, the most popular presentation format for interior design persistently remains those with before and after images.
How to Create an Interior Design Portfolio?
Image taken from CaptureByLucy
Before you create an interior design portfolio, you need to determine the following:
1. Select various images that highlight your past interior design work. Try to pick pictures that tell the story of the whole design process from start to finish while you build an interior design portfolio. Ensure that the interior design portfolio consists of:
- Mood boards
- Color swatching
- Sketches
2. Make sure you include credential details like certification, CV or resume, and testimonials things like contact info or business cards.
3. Your online portfolio should demonstrate that you have formal training in the field, you are aware of how the process works, and finally that you are professional with great attention to detail and proper organization skills. If you do not have any prior experience that you can demonstrate, showcase your design school projects in your online portfolio.
How Important is it to Have an Online Design Portfolio?
Interior design students need to be aware of how necessary it is to document the actual interior design work they do. Ensure that you take images before the design process and once it is completed.
When you visit a client, ensure you have your camera and capture the whole interior design process. Once your work is finished to the client’s satisfaction, don't hesitate to ask for testimonials from them.
Image taken from Strikingly website
At the end of the day, you want pleasing interior design work images and happy, satisfied words from the people you have provided your interior design services to. You must convey to potential clients that working with you is worth it. Your online portfolio needs to share this message.
Interior Design Portfolio Examples
The following three portfolio sites are hosted on different platforms but have the same attribute of design and function excellence with regard to meeting your site objectives:
Image is taken from Strikingly user’s website
Using an attractive portfolio design can also help professionals position themselves to be experts. The Pretty Olive Interiors blog hosted on the Strikingly platform is an example of how you can use a template’s sections and fashion it as a blogging site. Pretty Olive Interiors is one of the interior design portfolio examples that achieves the rare feat exceptionally smoothly. The Simple Blog that the site features integrate seamlessly with the portfolio site.
The card-like interior design portfolio layout provides users with all the essential information users need to assess how relevant the respective posts are. The blog highlights only three recent posts as featured which ensures that visitors can browse the latest blog content easily.
Carlos Mota is a renowned interior designer. He held extremely important positions in the interior design world, formerly the Architectural Digest’s International Style Editor and Editor at Elle Decor. Mota is well known for his exceptional ability to fill up spaces with an amazing combination of flowers and accents. Mota has created stories for internationally famous magazines with special design emphases like Vanity Fair, House and Garden, and even Vogue. His clients include top names in the design world and brands like Isaac Mizrahi, Saks, Neiman Marcus, and Clinique, amongst others.
This interior designer has eight years of experience. She boasts luxury residential projects to complete the remodeling of homes. Roberts is known for her ability to manage multiple projects concerning interior design like drawings, research, construction, selections, art installation, and even furniture.
Build an Online Portfolio for Your Interior Design Services
Building an online interior design portfolio is hardly the heavy-duty design and development work it used to be. Thanks to a large number of free and paid platforms that let you build an interior design portfolio and host it with great ease. Strikingly deserves a special mention of how easy it makes the whole process.
Image taken from Strikingly website
The templates that come with Strikingly are ridiculously easy to use, and with proper customization, you can create stunning websites. While creating your site ensure that the contact section is prominent and if you are creating a multi-page site, dedicate a whole page to it. Include all the primary mediums of communicating with you on the page.
Let's proceed to build your website:
- Come Up With a Concept
You should consider your online portfolio as your online business card. Accordingly, an online portfolio should reflect the kind of branding you want besides your own unique individual personality. You need to be clear on the objectives you are trying to achieve as you build an interior design portfolio and choose a Strikingly template in line with that. You can take inspiration from the online portfolios of other interior designers, work on them and customize them to something that is uniquely you.
- Choose a Suitable and Catchy Website Name According to Your Brand
Having a catchy name for your online portfolio is more important than you imagine and will help you attract the attention of your target audience. There are two basic ways to go about this. You can use your brand name or something close and relevant to your domain or website name. The other option is to choose a name that describes the website’s purpose more elaborately.
A word of caution, don't choose too lengthy domain names or netizens will get tired of typing your URL. With Strikingly, you can use a Strikingly subdomain as your website address. If you want more professionalism, you can register a domain and link it to your Strikingly website. Strikingly makes the linking process between the two exceptionally easy.
- Choose an Appropriate Template
In this step, you need to choose a website template that you can customize to endow it with a unique, albeit attractive, look and feel. Templates let you avoid the hassles of technical intricacies, and you can easily use them to suit the website objectives you determined earlier. Consider templates as a base on which you can create a great superstructure of your online portfolio. Remember that not all templates work in the same manner, and you should let your content determine the detailed structure of your portfolio.
- Ensure that You Include Your Best Work in the Portfolio
Image is taken from Strikingly user’s website
Experienced interior designers need not include every project that they have created. Typically, most clients won't go through your exhaustive work history and consider only the first few design samples you provide. You would better choose the most exciting projects to feature on your website. These projects must reflect your personality and the design attributes you want to be known for. If you decide to feature several projects, divide them into categories based on themes as a best practice. Gallery sections help a lot in keeping things more organized and eminently browsable.
- Create Interesting and Compelling Copy and Content
The typical visitor of your portfolio website knows little about you. You need to tell them your brand story. Here, you need to develop exciting and compelling copy and content that attracts the audience's attention. Make sure they know your interests, your services, and your specialties. When clients can strike a chord with you as an individual and interior designer, they are far more likely to consider using your services. A behind-the-scenes look at your work will help a great deal in connecting with your visitors personally.
Strikingly is an excellent option for you to consider as your website platform for the one-click website solution service. You get world-class looks and features for your portfolio in a few clicks. Best of all, you need not necessarily pay for it, as the platform boasts many free but quality templates and their free version is great for your starter portfolio. Of course, if you want more features, you can upgrade to any of their premium plans.
Here’s to designs that delight the eye and interest the intellect!
