Designer and Portfolio

I feel as though I am stuck. I have explored a multitude of portfolio sites in a number of domains (areas of design practice) and have yet to identify how to best build the portfolio section of this site or whether to include one at all. A major hindrance to updating my portfolio is the fact that a majority of my recent work is bound by strict NDAs(Non Disclosure Agreements) rendering it impossible to show my best work. Working with intellectual property is a delicate and suffocating process (note to self – address this issue, in detail, in an upcoming entry).

When I first began to gather momentum and actually get paid to design, client agreements were made with a firm handshake and a look in the eye which read “I won’t screw you so don’t screw me”. With experience one learns this is not the way to do business and that to be a contractor one must be ever so cautious to protect yourself and the client. When things are in writing there is none of the “I said I would do x not y” or “you said I would have all of the content for the site by x date which is two months past”. And I digress, the point I am making is that with time, my client agreements and work have matured making the stakes higher, agreements thicker and limitations on my portfolio greater.

It seems that my options are to:

  • Reformat the work that has been featured on smallTransport for quite some time, which would be quite uninspiring (isn’t it difficult to look at your old work?)
  • Create a password-protected portfolio requiring viewers to click through legal agreement of sorts
  • Remove the portfolio altogether and be involved in competitions, pro-bono work and the like (maybe CSS Zen Garden).

My thinking about the smallTransport portfolio is not an indication that I am unhappy or dissatisfied with my work at MAYA (that couldn’t be further from the truth) it is simply that I enjoy working on a few contract jobs in parallel with my work at MAYA so not to grow uninspired.So what do you all do? Our friends Jon Oxton and Martin Smith haven’t featured their portfolio on their sites and they are rolling in work and fame (right Jon?).

Do any of you have similar problems with the ability to feature client work on your personal portfolio Web sites? Have any advice? How about links to what you feel are innovative examples of the portfolio format?


Let us hear it

  1. I’m in the exact same position as you Jeremy. I haven’t added a thing to my portfolio in nearly a year. I also considered going down the road of CSS Zen Garden and the like, but it’s extremely hard to find time to work on anything like that. What to do, what to do?

    Jeff Smith

  2. I am rolling in something, that much is for sure.



    ‘tis true though, I get loads of work offers just based on my beautiful… personality.



    Actually, the majority of enquiries are now either via my Zen Garden entry or word of mouth.

    john Oxton

  3. After being featured in the Zen Garden recently, I still think a portfolio is necessary and/or useful in hooking business or introducing yourself to potential clients.



    Although looking at Oxton, maybe it’s not.



    Portfolio design is the one area where I’m beginning to think that flash offers the opportunity for unique and engaging layout. There is something terribly stale and repetitive about the portfolio areas of most standards-based designers, and my own recent attempts to do something different have only reinforced this impression. I swear, I have now completed redesigns of my portfolio site four times in the past six months without launching one of them.

    Pierce

  4. Anyone who signs away the rights to display his/her own work in portfolio form is a fool. Talk about shooting yourself in the foot. Signing work-for-hire agreements is one of the myriad pieces of the corporate intellectual property takeover. The only way to stop it is to say no. And NDAs should only hold you back until the project goes live. After that it’s your right to proudly display what you did.

    steven