Matt Sellers - What a top 1% design portfolio looks like
Summary
Reduce your portfolio to just 12-13% of your best work, laser-focus on craft over process, and craft an immersive, interactive experience that conveys your design ethos - these are the secrets to a top 1% design portfolio that lands you at leading startups.
Key Takeaways
- Ruthlessly cut your portfolio down to only your finest 12-13% of work, removing any outdated or irrelevant pieces.
- Prioritize showcasing your craft and attention to detail over lengthy process explanations or performance metrics.
- Treat your portfolio as an immersive, interactive experience that conveys your design ethos, not just a functional showcase.
- Use minimal text and let your visuals do the talking - an introductory paragraph is enough for each case study.
- Carefully curate each image to raise the overall quality bar, rather than including everything you've done.
- Incorporate subtle micro-interactions and animations to elevate the premium feel of your portfolio experience.
Related topics
Transcript Excerpt
What does it take to create a portfolio that gets you hired at one of today's top startups? >> I had this like general quite blurry idea about what I wanted this to look and feel like and then it was just a case of iterate, iterate, iterate, iterate, and then come back and see what feels right. >> How can we challenge the way that we've historically thought about personal websites in order to create an experience that truly stands out? I don't even really show like how to get to the case studies necessarily. It's more just like I want you to explore. I want you to have this experience and I want you to feel the level of like care, you know, even if you don't go to any of these like case studies, right? Like even if you don't click on this thing and go and visit the Docifi case study, like …