Last updated on November 11th, 2021
When starting your career as a graphic designer, think of building an excellent profile that showcases your skills and experience. But many designers assemble their works randomly in a profile and end up losing potential clients. If created professionally, designer profiles have the potential to make the desired impression on the clients.
Designer profiles are the windows through which your potential clients will peep into your professional world. If the profile is impressively created, they will think of hiring your services.
When putting your design profile on the web, it can be assumed that you are well-versed in the basics of creating an impressive design. At times, most designers tend to forget those rules while working on a client’s project.
This is because sometimes our own appreciation for our abilities and work blinds us. It is when someone points out the faults that we are awakened to them and make the necessary improvements.
Similarly, when creating the profile to showcase your design skills, it may be that you just forgot to follow some basics.
If the profile is built in an unprofessional way, it will fail to win you clients and projects. Remember that the profile is essential to get clients and the stream of work flowing constantly.
The first thing to note about a designer profile is that it is not about you. It is not about how your profile looks like a design. Instead, it is all about your work. Some designers make the mistake of laying more emphasis on designing the profiles and focus less on what should go in it.
Therefore, pay attention to find out the best way of sharing your design works with your clients. If you have fulfilled that one requirement, rest of the things will fall in place ultimately when creating the profile.
Here Are Some Basics Of Creating Designer Profiles And What You Should Do And Avoid Doing
01. Make A Quick Impression
Do: When introducing yourself to the clients, make it sure that the very first line and paragraph leaves a lasting impression. You must quickly make a concrete statement saying who you are and where you come from.
Tell what type of design style and work you love to create and like. Overall, just make your personality and design preferences known to the potential clients in a straightforward way.
Don’t: Do not write a meaningless and clichéd intro. Avoid using some abstract phrases that have been used many times as it creates a false impression. For example, ‘purposeful experiences’ holds no meaning as it fails to convey something worth noting about your skills, etc.
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02. Include Only Your Best Work
Do: Designer profiles should display only the best works. Remember that the profile is about giving some hint about what you are capable of. So, a professional graphic designer should put only the works that showcase design skills.
The intention here is to let the clients know what you can do for their projects regarding design skills and provide the right design solutions.
Don’t: Avoid including design works that you created just for pleasure or self-satisfaction. You will send the message that you work in isolation, which is not a good impression to make.
Do not show your mediocre works. Instead, show the project that you did for small companies as that will mean that your work made the difference to their business.
03. Make It Look Clean And Easily Navigable
Do: While designer profiles should include the best works, make those works and other information easily navigable. A client views dozens of profiles a day in search of the right designer.
So, any hurdles or confusion in navigating through your profile’s pages will be irritating. Therefore, use simple navigational tools instead of fancy and irritating ones. Also, create a clean profile that looks nice and less crowded.
Don’t: You should never overcomplicate the profile with lots of design elements. Avoid making it too playful. It should never be a thing of art in itself.
Do not use the elements like a fancy horizontal scrolling just for the sake of showcasing your work uniquely. That will make the users work too much for scanning your works. Avoid trying a unique navigational style.
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04. Have An “About” Page
Do: Before or after seeing some of your works, a potential client would like to know who you are. So, your “About” page must be easily visible on the top of the profile. In fact, it is the page most of the visitors or users will look for.
It is also the page that gets maximum hits than other pages. Give your email address on the page. Put your picture also so that clients can see you and who you are. The picture also helps in giving a personal touch to the profile.
Don’t: Do not overpraise yourself and your design abilities. Also, do not forget to mention your name and contact information. Many designers put a fake name that sounds strange. That should be avoided.
05. Share The Results
Do: You should also share the results produced by your work. This is an excellent way to create the value of your graphic design ideas for business owners who are looking for the designers.
Tell how the client reacted to your work and how it changed the businesses of the owners. Such a step makes the clients think that you can solve problems through your designs. This also conveys the message that you have the ability to measure the success of your work.
Don’t: But do not overstate your achievements when talking about the results. This is because those outcomes may not be the same for other businesses. Avoid claiming that the results will be the same for every client. Instead, just neutrally give the results.
06. Add Links
Do: Some of your works may be live online. These are the design works that your clients are using. For example, if you created a logo design and the business owner actively uses it, you should give the link to the business. Potential clients can then go to the site to see the logo. That gives credibility to design profiles.
Don’t: However, avoid giving links of the works that your ex-clients have removed or have redesigned. If the logo has been redesigned later on by the company, providing its link will show the recreated logo. That does not make a good impression of a designer’s ability.
07. Know Your Objectives
Do: Another thing that a designer should keep in mind while creating the profile is to set the objectives right. Set your objectives right for building reputation and authority.
Your profile is the place where a business owner would like to know all about your online graphic design services. So, define your area of expertise and operation, the number of services you can deliver, and the type of services you provide.
Don’t: But do not open out too much when it comes defining your objectives. Let the potential clients do some guesswork about your goals.
Just give them a hint and leave the rest to their imagination. If you specify your goals in details, they may limit your services only to a few clients who fit into those objectives.
08. Keep The Profile Simple
Do: Make sure that your design profile is simple. Simplicity is the much sought-after value in creating a wide range of designs. This is because simple designs are the way of making a relationship with the viewers or users.
When you eliminate all the fancy elements such as loud colors and typefaces or images from your profile design, it becomes a lot easier for the users to understand its objective.
Moreover, in this way, the focus will be on the works you showcased. A simple look of the profile will highlight your online graphic design services, which matter for the clients more than any fancy elements in your profile.
Don’t: However, while simplicity is a value, gimmicks should be avoided. Many designers use videos, scroll-jacking tricks, and animation, etc. to make an impression. But such gimmicks actually put the viewers off and leave the profile early.
09. Create A Memorable Profile
Do: When creating simple designer profiles, ensure that it is a remarkable design as well. As the users take a look at the designer profile, they will get a feel of its design.
Subconsciously, the design will make an impact on the visitors, and if impressed they may think of calling you for an interview.
Don’t: But do not overdo the design. Never use design templates that are available in plenty on the web, or you will end up creating a clichéd profile design. Make sure that there is no use of stock photography.
Avoid incorporating any routine or run-of-the-mill content like photos and phrases as it will create the impression that you are not a creative designer.
10. Use Multiple Platforms To Present Your Work
Do: Your main profile website is essential to grab the attention of your potential clients. But spread your work across all platforms on the web for maximum exposure.
Ensure that there is an excellent online presence of the profile. Also, a graphic designer should make sure that you update the profile whenever you create a quality design.
Don’t: Do not ignore social media. Social media is a powerful medium to showcase your design skills. Do not just limit designer profiles only to your website.
Instead, set up your profiles also on Google+, LinkedIn, and Behance besides Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. Use these media to drive clients to your main profile website.
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11. Give Context
Do: Just putting your design work on the profile is not enough to attract the clients. You should also explain the process of accomplishing the work. What resources you had at your disposal and what was the timeframe in which you finished the project?
Such details help clients know about your way of creating a design. If you can add a case study with a design, that will be even better.
Don’t: Do not limit your profile just to thumbnails. A balanced profile is all about the use of images and text.
12. It Should Be Mobile Responsive
Do: In the today’s world, people search for information using their smartphones and other mobile devices.
Therefore, design profiles also should be visible clearly on the small screens of mobile phones. This should prompt you to create your profile that adapts to the tiny screens of most handsets.
A responsive website for the profile is critical as business owners will search profiles from their mobile devices. Your chances of getting more graphic design jobs go higher with responsive design profiles.
Don’t: Do not think that your desktop website will perfectly work on the mobile as well. So, make sure that right from the thumbnail pictures to formatting the text and navigation, everything is perfectly created for clear visibility of your profile on the mobile phones.
13. Expect Users To Stay
Do: If you have created designer profiles with care, you should expect the clients to visit it. You can also expect them to stay at the site and scroll the profile to see your works.
Don’t: However, do not think that they will stay at your site for a long time. Most visitors continue navigating a profile only for a few minutes. This means that you should avoid including too many design works as not all of them will be seen for lack of time.
14. Include Testimonials
Do: When clients visit your profile, they would also like to see what your satisfied customers have to say about your work.
This is the reason that the profile must have a separate ‘testimonial’ page. So, create this page with care. Request your clients to send their opinion about your work and include it in your testimonial page.
Don’t: But the testimonials should be genuine and not self-written. The visitors can identify genuine praise from the real clients. Also, a fake testimony tends to be loud and lengthy. So, be authentic.
These are the key points when creating designer profiles. If you want to add more great works to your profile, a surefire way is to look for design jobs at freelance graphic design platform — Designhill.
You can mention the tasks that you do for various clients on this platform. You have many chances of winning a design contest at this site. Business owners can get their design works completed at an affordable price with this leading platform.
Conclusion
Designer profiles are essential to showcase your best graphic design works. If the profile is attractive and created professionally, chances that you find the clients and work, go higher. Keep the profile design simple and put only your best design works. Do not try to impress visitors with something fancy.