Professional Orientation: Purpose of a Portfolio

The aims and purpose of a design portfolio is to attract potential clients and employers by showcasing a designer’s best work. The portfolio needs to communicate understanding of design as a process and a methodology, not necessarily just present high-quality visuals. Design, is, at its core a discipline of communication and approaching the portfolio as a design object in and of itself will produce a portfolio with a clearly defined user (or viewer).

An industrial design portfolio should showcase a diverse range of product typologies, materials, processes, and skills. Communicating how a design meets the criteria established in the brief and solves a user’s needs, and the depth and breadth of experimentation and problem-solving skills used to achieve that end is very important. Knowing that sketching is my weakest of the core industrial design skills, I want to present work that is of high quality that showcases other skills and processes.

In developing my portfolio, I want to communicate my interest in producing physical prototypes and working predominantly in physical objects. I would like my portfolio to appeal to potential clients for freelance work, or existing design agencies or manufacturers looking for junior designers.

I’ve taken inspiration from the portfolios of designers and developers I respect, like Nadav Spiegelman and Tom Skeehan.