29 Examples of Inspiring Portfolio Websites

Type: Marketing agency portfolio website

RyuCreative is a boutique-style marketing agency in Los Angeles. The female-run company has successfully assisted several different companies in PR, Social Branding, and Creative Design.

How they have gone about their homepage is unique, but it will not alienate the potential clients. Firstly, people will know it’s a creative agency from its name. Besides, even if the randomly spread images on the homepage create a mystery about their business, users will find what exactly they do as soon as they scroll.

If we discuss their portfolio page specifically, Ryu has structured it differently than most agencies. First, the visitor has to select the portfolio category from four options (their primary services): Social Elevation, Content Creation, PR + Events, and Graphic Design.

Each portfolio category page/landing page uses a different but beautiful design template and has excellent images + concise descriptions of all the items in the portfolio. For example, this is the Social Elevation portfolio page—the negative space and unconventional layout pop up the work blocks:

Type: Creative director & designer portfolio

Currently located in Los Angeles, visual artist and designer Mindy Nguyen helps brands with identity, art direction, web design, etc. She freelances and also works with ilovecreatives Studio.

Her website homepage is her About + Portfolio page. Above the fold, she describes what she does with a good font, concise copy, and cool animations.

As soon as the short bio ends, you’ll find her works, i.e., her online portfolio. Each portfolio item includes four things: an image, the company’s name, what she did for the company, and a link to either see the live project or learn more about the project.

She presents everything neatly with negative space, proper visual hierarchy, and emojis.

Type: Designer & Photographer portfolio site

Meiwen is a professional photographer who features travel, people, editorial, and interior photography. He is also a designer, combining his many artistic talents to help his clients with branding, art direction, and more.

His portfolio website is minimalistic. On the homepage, he has gone with two main things: a short bio and a portfolio with a few featured items from both his design and photography works. The minimal navigation bar helps visitors find more of his portfolio items, the contact form, or the primary social media profiles (Behance, Instagram, and Pinterest).

He also has separate portfolio pages for design and photography. For example, potential clients interested in his photography can click on “photographer” in the navigation bar to see his photography portfolio, where Meiwen has organized his photos in a gorgeous four-column layout:

Type: Photography portfolio site

Mike Kelley is a photographer located in California. You can view his excellent work that is focused on architecture, as well as his love for airplanes. He loves the world of art and design and merging these into his projects.

The website is clean, with the homepage divided into two columns: The main section showcases Mike’s works (i.e., it’s his featured portfolio). The left column helps visitors navigate different parts of the website - his work portfolio in a particular sector, the ecommerce store where he sells portraits, the About page, the contact page, etc.

The portfolio page layout is your typical four-column grid where he has uploaded his photographs:

Type: Wedding photography portfolio

Rob Jinks offers wedding, engagement, and family photography that captures meaningful moments. This website feels both classy and adventurous. It also showcases his work and clearly defines his services.

The website is sort of a small business website-cum-portfolio website. It has service pages, a portfolio, an about page, a blog, lovely testimonials, and a CTA to “Request Pricing + Availability.” Also, of course, the hero of the website ⁠— the photography ⁠— is well highlighted all over landing pages.

I really like Rob’s portfolio arrangement. He has stacked each photo one below the other. This way, the potential client sees not only the photography quality but also the photo quality without having to open each photo for zooming.

Type: Art portfolio

Samantha is an artist currently working in Brooklyn, New York. Her paintings of people and the world around her have a unique way of connecting with viewers psychologically.

The personal portfolio looks a bit dated but does what a portfolio website should: present her best work categorically and structurally. The first portfolio page has her latest works (2015-2022), which you can scroll through or leave to see her older works or works in a particular category (Portraits or Ariel).

Type: Photography portfolio

Israel has a passion for photography, documentaries, and editorial images. He works alongside his wife, who provides makeup and beauty services to clients, while Israel captures the day being played out. They have three children and live in Mexico currently.

The website looks sleek, with (surprise, surprise!) professional-grade photography and minimal typography. There’s one small problem, though: Because most of the photos on the homepage are white-ish, the white text menu items are barely visible at first, which is something you’d want to avoid to create a good first impression. However, as you scroll, the header background transforms into black, which solves the visibility problem.

You can see his portfolio in two views: The default is a four-column masonry layout where you scroll through his works using the typical vertical scroll. However, when you click on any of the images to enlarge, the view changes to a horizontal scroll portfolio; in this view, you can see photos in a larger size and scroll horizontally to see more.

Type: Interior design agency portfolio

Studio Anton is a top interior design firm located in Cambridge. They bring a unique combination of refined aesthetics and thoughtful planning to create interiors that not only look stunning but also resonate deeply with their clientele.

The StudioAnton website brilliantly mirrors their design ethos. It employs a clean, minimalist layout that lets their work be the focal point, using high-quality images that offer a vivid showcase of their expertise. The muted color palette and intuitive navigation make the user experience seamless. Strategically placed testimonials add credibility, and the concise “about” section provides a glimpse into their philosophy and commitment to design.

You can see their work portfolio right from the start — the landing page is the Portfolio page! You just have to hover over any of the project names on the homepage to see a full-screen thumbnail of the finished interiors:

Clicking on any portfolio item will take you to a separate page where you can see more images and descriptions of their work for the client:

Type: Interior designer portfolio site

Avery Cox is located in Texas, where she adds a unique style that is colorful and bold to the spaces she designs. She gained experience working in New York with some big-name designers, allowing her to take what she learned and apply that to her own business.

The colorful image of a well-designed sitting room as the hero immediately captures visitors’ attention. If you don’t directly scroll, next in the visual hierarchy is the Projects link at the top-left—click it, and you’ll be on the dedicated portfolio page. But..

If you scroll down, she has added many images of her interior design work. There, too, she has placed a ‘View Projects’ CTA to drive you to see her work in detail.

The Projects page, aka her design portfolio, lists her projects in a two-column layout with big thumbnails. Clicking on any project opens an individual project page with all the details regarding the project, including images, design descriptions, quotes, related press, details of the builder, architect, photographer, etc., and more.

Type: Photography portfolio

Dylan is from France and moved to LA to follow his dreams of using his artistry. His work is now published in well-known magazines, featuring fashion, portraits, and editorial work.

His portfolio site uses a popular template of the photography portfolio-first website builder, Format. So everything’s pretty perfect as far as website elements go. There’s whitespace, proper framing, great typography, ideal website structure, social media icons in a visible and right place, etc.

Also, he has categorized his works well, which is crucial for an extensive portfolio. Plus, he is a great artist, so all the portfolio items shine.

Type: UX Portfolio

Moritz teaches UX design as a tutor at CareerFoundry and also has web design, branding, and UX projects under his cap.

His portfolio website, as he proudly puts it, was reviewed and approved by the grand Ran Segall, the founder of Flux Academy. That’s proof enough that this UX portfolio is on point. Let me just highlight the elements I like:

• Easy navigation & visual hierarchy: Visitors would want to know about Moritz, see his work, and contact him if they like it. This portfolio gives all three front and center.

• Formatting: Moritz’s case studies are comprehensive, with in-depth descriptions of all the steps he went through for the project (from identifying challenges and making user personas to conclusions). Yet, they are easy to follow, thanks to the formatting. Some examples:

  

Type: Art director & interaction designer portfolio

Lu Yu does interaction design & art direction. She was Head Of Brand at Pitch and is a Jury member of Awwwards & Digital Design award.

The fact that she is a jury member of a top professional web design and development competition body would assumably make it a given that her portfolio website will be on point. Is it? Well, let me try to evaluate it using Awwwards’ evaluation system criteria (Side Note: I don’t think I am eligible to be an Awwwards jury).

Awwwards ranks based on the following 4 criteria:

• Design: 40% points
• Usability: 30% points
• Creativity: 20% points
• Content: 10% points

Design-wise, Lu Yu’s website is awesome:

• It has great, consistent colors.
• Transitions, microinteractions, and animations are fantastic.
• Typography is distinctive and legible.
• Negative space is used well.
• Screenshots and other images are high quality.

None of the aesthetic elements interfere with usability.

• The website is mobile responsive and loads pretty fast.
• Contact details and links to her Dribbble and Behance profiles are at the top.
• Since the portfolio items and ‘about’ section come soon enough in the visual hierarchy of the homepage, there’s no need for links to them in the navigation bar—so it’s sorted.
• Portfolio items are presented neatly, and it’s clear that clicking on them opens a separate case study page (thanks to the on-hover animation).
• The content organization is also pretty standard, which is good.

On the scale of not-creative-at-all to outlandishly creative, this portfolio website has the right balance. It definitely has its own character, but the creativity never harms the usability like many super-creative sites do (many of which you can find on Awwwards itself).

I think this UX portfolio can do better with content.

• First off, the hero text, “A COLLECTION OF ARTIFACTS Made with love & purpose.” fails to communicate that it is a UX designer’s portfolio site — it doesn’t matter much as her potential clients will likely have the proper context, but clear communication is always better.
• Second, the project/case study pages have a lot of screenshots of her work, which is good (as they say: show, don’t tell), but there’s pretty much no text at all, which makes the page look cramped. Plus, case study pages on other UX portfolio sites are better because they describe problems, design processes they used, etc.

Overall, Lu Yu’s site is superbly designed and made keeping usability/user experience in mind.

Type: UI designer portfolio

Okay. So. There are a few things I REALLY like about this portfolio site. And others are just FRUSTRATING. If I were judging Myriem’s skills purely based on analyzing her site, I’d say she knows how to design a great UI but fails at giving a great experience.

The Good:

Talk about putting work front and center, and Myriem’s UX/UI design portfolio nails it. Her work is presented in a neat two-column layout on the homepage. Plus, not only can you see all portfolio items, but each also has a slider of images that give an overview of her work’s results.

Moreover, she categorizes her projects to let visitors filter through: You can choose from three options — website, mobile app, and ecommerce — to see relevant works.

The top navigation is also clean - on the right is her name and designation; on the left is a noticeable CTA, links to her social media, and links to her About page and Blog page.

The Bad:

Let’s start from the top.

1. You’d think clicking on her name/photo/logo will take you to the homepage. Wrong. It doesn’t do anything.
2. You’d think clicking on “See all projects” would do something, like probably take you to a separate portfolio page. Wrong. It’s just a jump link to the projects section below it, so it does nothing.
3. You’d think that clicking on all the category icons (website, mobile app, ecommerce) will show you related projects. Kind of true. It does, but there are no ‘Mobile App’ projects, so clicking it does nothing.
4. You’d think clicking on any of the projects would take you to a separate case study page or something that’ll tell more about the project than a few screenshots and a vague title. Wrong. They are not clickable.

On top of it all, I found the loading time of this site on the higher side.

Type: Web design portfolio

Gautham Mukesh is a full-stack designer with experience in branding, development, illustration, web design, visual design, and UI/UX.

I love the landing page of this site. It has a fantastic scrolling animation that makes learning about Gautam, his projects, his processes, and contact information fun. However, I don’t like the fact that some elements that seem obviously clickable aren’t.

The case studies are also nicely written and designed. He shows the end result at the top and proceeds to describe the process of reaching there throughout the case study, which typically starts from objectives and challenges and ends with impact. One thing I’d have loved to see but isn’t on his case study pages: A link/button to see the next or previous case study at the end of each case study.

Type: UX designer portfolio

Isa Pinheiro is a UX designer with experience in product design, website design, in-store design, and more. She has worked with Procter & Gamble, Young & Rubicam, Huge Singapore, etc., and is now a senior visual designer at R/GA.

Her UX portfolio looks clean and premium, defined by big images. You can see a list of her projects (with thumbnails) on the homepage and ‘Work’ page, whole case studies of her work (with large screenshots of each step), and a gallery filled with screenshots of the finished works.

She also has a store where she sells a Framer template and GameBoy Advance SP wallpapers.

Type: Architect portfolio

Douglas Cardinal studied at The University of British Columbia before moving to Texas and becoming an architecture student. His love for nature flows through his work and creates a unique flow of design.

Right as you enter his website, the tagline “Without any preconceptions, I evolve a design from the inside out, open to all possibilities.” mesmerizes you. His philosophy page is equally impressive, with mentions of his “signature style of harmonious curvilinear forms,” “understanding of architecture as a tool to better the world,” and more.

The central part: His portfolio items are placed a bit deep into the website under Work > Categories (Spiritual, Educational, Health, Museums, Masterplans, Housing, Lodging, Civic, Commercial) > Pages, but each portfolio piece is well presented with great pictures. We’d recommend keeping the portfolio items as easily accessible as possible.

Type: Architect portfolios

Sasaki has been in the works for over 65 years and only continues to grow. Their design style blends many different outlooks to create a forward-moving design concept with sustainability at the top.

Their website has a modern feel to it. It has fantastic fonts, amazing animations, high-quality photos, and concise copy.

On their Projects page, they have a search bar to find if you are looking for any specific architecture design project and filters if you want to look at their projects in a particular sector, region, service, or type of architecture. In addition, each project’s details include multiple well-shot photos from across the project’s premises, and each photo has a precise, well-describing caption.

Just like with the Projects section, Sasaki nails all the website’s pages. In short, if you have a big architecture firm, Sasaki’s online portfolio and website design are worth looking into.

Type: Copywriter portfolio

Kelsey is a copy and brand messaging consultant who also provides done-for-you copywriting services. She started as a newspaper journalist and has borrowed the interview-inspired writing style from there in her copywriting career.

Her website is the perfect blend of everything a professional copywriter’s website should have.

The homepage has all the necessary elements:

• A navigation bar with links to important pages.
• Professionally shot photographs of Kelsey.
• Well-written heading and subheading copy (highest priority for a copywriter!).
• A short services section that has CTAs to service pages.
• Testimonials that are on brand with her style of work.
• Call to action buttons (CTAs) spread throughout the page.
• Nice font choice and color palette.

The copywriter’s portfolio page is equally good.

• The color palette and all other style elements are consistent with other pages, including the homepage.
• At the top, she briefly & persuasively describes her job profile and the successes her clients have had with her work, implying you’ll have similar results too.

Then, she goes into portfolio items.

• There’s one featured project, and the others are arranged neatly in a three-column layout.
• Each portfolio item has a screenshot of the web page where her work is published, the client’s name, the role she played in the job, a testimonial, and a CTA to the client’s website.
• All testimonials describe Kelsey as the expert she claims she is. Examples: “Kelsey put words to my brand, services, and personality that I’ve never been able to articulate before…”, “Kelsey asks concise questions that really make you think about your service or product in a whole new way during an in-depth interview, and she pulls out slivers of gold from your responses.”

Type: Copywriter portfolio

Sally is a freelance copywriter and brand identity writer. She has worked with massive companies like Dove and SendInBlue.

Her copywriting portfolio is excellent. She has neatly displayed her work in a one-below-the-other, single-column manner. Each portfolio piece has a screenshot, the job she did for the client, and a short quote from the client.

I am pretty sure her clients must have given big testimonials, and she cut it down to the core so the website page doesn’t look cramped. That’s something to learn.

Type: Illustrator portfolio

Lisa is an illustrator and artist who has created some truly unique stuff. She loves to be bold and comical in her work and has worked for several companies bringing different projects and ideas to life.

Her portfolio projects are simply yet brilliantly showcased. For example, her illustrative design projects include only three things: 1) Client, 2) Project brief, and 3) Her output (in the form of pictures).

Type: Web designer portfolio

Náyade is a web designer and front-end developer who works out of an island called Lanzarote. Her Squarespace portfolio features screenshots of projects which she has done design, development, and, occasionally, logo design for. She also includes links to her social media.

The portfolio is no-nonsense. Each item just has a screenshot, the client’s name, and what role she played for the client. Since all her work outputs are live websites or a part of it, potential clients can see her work live by clicking on a portfolio item and visiting the client’s website.

Type: Graphic designer portfolio

Hom Sweet Hom (nice name!) is the website for showcasing Lauren Hom’s work as a designer and lettering artist specializing in marketing, lettering, murals, and food art.

The website offers a portfolio of her creative work, online courses on topics like mural painting and marketing, and a blog sharing professional advice and personal stories.

The website design has intricate micro-animations, stunning typefaces, and a well-organized layout. The color palette is beautiful too, and so are the professionally shot pictures of the designer.

On the “Work” page, the audience is treated to a visual feast of artworks presented in a mosaic of lively tiles. Hover over any piece, and you get a glimpse of the project details – like “Feed Your Soul, Illustration” – giving insight into the diverse ventures the artist has embarked upon.

Type: Wedding photography portfolio

Juno Photo & Film captures weddings and elopements. And their official website has portfolio pages for both.

The photos are showcased in a sort of pyramid structure (first, a few of the best ones to give a glimpse, then more to explore further.)

Upon landing, the homepage hero section captivates with a selection of stunning wedding photos. These visuals are complemented by a muted color palette and refined typography, contributing to an elegant aura.

As you explore, you’ll find a straightforward navigation bar guiding you to their galleries (weddings, elopements, and latest works):

Then, you can click to view the particular photography portfolio, like this of their wedding photography:

Type: Wedding photography portfolio

Andrew Heeley Photography caters to unconventional and alternative weddings. Yet, and smartly so, Andrew has kept the portfolio’s (and website’s as a whole) look and feel conventional:

• There’s a big, beautiful hero image.
• The navigation bar is conventionally located, with conventional options (About Me, Portfolio, Pricing, Blog, Contact).
• There are galleries and photos everywhere.
• Testimonials and “Featured On” sections are suitably placed for social proof.
• Etc.

Andrew does couples photos, wedding photos, and family photos. So, the portfolio page first asks visitors to choose the category of photos:

Once chosen, the corresponding portfolio gallery opens:

Type: Squarespace designer portfolio

Justin Mabee is a Squarespace expert who, as he puts it, designs with “a forward-thinking, elegant, and functional design focus.” And from what I can see on his portfolio site and portfolio items, that description seems accurate.

In the hero section, he uses an elegant typeface and simple copy to describe his work. He also has a CTA, “Hire Justin Today,” for those on the site to find his contact info.

For those who want to see his work, he has a nicely designed list of Selected Projects next in the visual hierarchy and a separate Portfolio page accessible from the navigation bar. Visitors can view finished work by clicking on a portfolio item, or they can click the “See more examples” button to access the portfolio page where he has even more projects listed.

Here’s how the portfolio page looks:

Type: Creative director portfolio

Amy Osburn is a seasoned creative director based in Los Angeles. With expertise across various industries, she is currently at Old Navy. Amy excels in crafting unified concepts, managing diverse teams, and mentoring young creatives while driving business results.

Type: Creative director portfolio

Rachel Guest is a seasoned creative professional with a decade-long experience in advertising. Starting at McCann Sydney, she worked with MasterCard and Coca-Cola. Later, she joined The Many in Los Angeles, collaborating with clients like VH1, Google, and Los Angeles Tourism.

Type: Student portfolio

Kayla is studying Finance and Management at the University of Pennsylvania. Her interests are in tech, sports, and music, and her projects and resume clearly display it.