Creating an industrial design portfolio can be challenging when you’re showcasing three-dimension designs on a flat-screen. But in this time and age, your idea needs a portfolio website to get noticed. Here, we give you some ideas you can start looking at and the essential tips on creating the best portfolio website.
A challenge is only a challenge; it’s not a complete hindrance in creating an awe-inspiring industrial design portfolio. Today, we’re going to talk about famous industrial designers and their website portfolios to gather tips in creating your design portfolios, so you can showcase your bid-winning industrial designs. This is not an all-encompassing list but the important basics you can start with. You can develop it along the way, but these key pointers will be like your foundation. Let’s start with these seven tips you can keep in mind while compiling your website portfolio examples.
Image taken from Strikingly - Interior template
7 Tips to Build Best-in-Class Industrial Design Portfolios
.1. Show Your Industrial Designing Process
2. Tell Your Industrial Design Story
3. Point Your Premise
4. Present Industrial Designs By Projects
5. Focus On Being An Industrial Designer
6. Keep It Simple
7. Take Time To Choose Your “Hero Shot”
1. Show Your Industrial Designing Process
More than just pitching your designs, your design portfolios should pitch -- you. Why? Showcasing your final product alone can limit your chances of getting a deal. It limits the reader’s understanding of what you can do, of your skills. On the other hand, if you show your process allows potential clients to see your thought process. This way, they get a glimpse of your artistic approach. You can include hand sketches to start with, Photoshop rendering along the way down to prototypes.
Although they might not end up liking your finished piece, they might like your process and give you the chance to adapt to their preferences, ultimately landing the deal. It’s also helpful for clients to see what part of the actual design yours is. Showing the process specifies which part you can take credit in and give them a clear picture of your strengths. Being straightforward about what you can personally do will help you gain the trust of your potential clients. After all, trust is what will keep a sustainable relationship between you and your client.
Image taken from RePurposeful UK website
Talking about strengths earlier, you can list down your skills and make sure it’s observable in your design portfolio examples to emphasize this more. What you can do is take the time to look at your design and analyze what skill you have is highlighted best. You can then include it in the details of that industrial design.
Moreover, we’ve also covered important pointers for creating your own portfolio website for more ideas on starting with your industrial portfolio website. This guide can also help a great deal.
2. Tell Your Industrial Design Story
Telling the story of your product in your design portfolios can be a game-changer.
Narrating how you came up with the design can single you out from competitors. Telling the design story doesn’t just show your process, it also highlights your artistic passion, communicating your dedication to the field. Tell your story but don’t be too wordy. Is that even possible? Remember that your selling point is achieving a visual impact. Most people tend to scroll through pages in a matter of seconds. They won’t waste their time reading every word they’ll find in your industrial design portfolio.
It can be quite challenging to strike the balance of telling your story but not flooding the page with too many sentences, but if you do it right, you’ll have one remarkable industrial design portfolio set to grab readers’ attention. At the end of day, creating a winning portfolio that could help you achieve your goals is your top priority.
Image taken from Strikingly - Modern Home template
3. Point Your Premise
Your industrial design portfolio should take the reader into a journey they won’t get lost in.
This is part of creating your industrial design story. You have to set the premise: why you made the design and the output: if the designs address the highlighted concern.
This allows you to connect your work deeper and explain your industrial design story more effectively. It can seem overwhelming at this point. To ease your worries, here are some portfolio templates you can work with to make it simpler for you.
4. Present Industrial Designs By Projects
It’s quite frustrating for potential clients to see random sketches grouped on one page, Photoshop renderings in another, and prototypes in yet another. It can seem organized, but in reality, there’s no sense of structure.
It doesn’t show the process of doing a project from start to finish. It won’t guarantee a potential client that you can finish what you started. Your industrial designs should be grouped by project, not by skill.
Doing your design portfolios by project integrates your skillset and puts it in a process. Incorporating process and structure will set you apart from all other industrial design portfolios. Thus, making a memorable web design portfolio can put you on top of the rank.
5. Focus On Being An Industrial Designer
In some cases, an industrial designer has side gigs like designing logos, branding, or taking photographs. Including your outputs in these fields in your design portfolio examples can be tempting. Don’t do it; it can do more harm than good. It’s not relevant to your role as an industrial designer. It tells potential clients you’re all over the place that your dedication to industrial design is not 100%. Since you’re in the artistic trade, creating compelling branding for your projects will help you even more to stand out.
6. Keep It Simple
Give your audience time to appreciate your industrial design. Putting too many photos and words on one page drowns the chance to get your industrial designs to get the focus it deserves.
Image taken from In Plan View website
7. Take Time To Choose Your “Hero Shot”
You can have the best industrial design globally but still, end up losing the deal if your design photos are poorly shot. Remember, your initial chance is just through your industrial design website portfolio, on a flat screen, showcasing a 3D product. Unless you do it right, things will not end up good for you. Don’t even think of including a photo from every angle possible. It will make your design portfolio aesthetically off-putting. Remember: visual impact is the key. Too many objects in view are just so much of an eyesore. Here at Strikingly, we love providing you with simple and effective guides to build a strong online portfolio.
Industrial Design Portfolio Examples
With that in mind, here are some of the famous industrial designers with their website portfolio examples and some more pointers to keep in mind. It is also good to be guided with simple steps to create a beautiful portfolio website. This will help you get a clearer picture of the points and ideas we’ve tackled above. Let’s just consider three so you don’t get overwhelmed wanting every design for your industrial portfolio. The important thing is, you follow all the tips to get the most effective industrial portfolio you can have.
1. Rino Claessens
Image taken from Rino Claessens website
Rino Claessens is one of the simplest famous industrial designers’ portfolios you can find online. The abundance of white space with the sample of his works in the middle shows how pleasing it is if you make minimalism right.
This kind of industrial design portfolio also calls for more care in choosing your “hero shot” because in this case, you only have one chance for each industrial design you have.
2. Hi.Hi.Studio
Image taken from HiHi Studio website
Like Rino Claessens, Hi.Hi. Studios also took advantage of giving the white space a big portion of the page. The difference is, instead of just one photo horizontally, Hi.Hi.Studio added creativity by setting the images in different rectangular sizes.
When you hover over the image, it will be covered in a slightly transparent black overlay with the name of the industrial design on it.
3. Satomi Minoshima
Image taken from Satomi Minoshima
Satomi’s industrial design portfolio is a bit like Hi.Hi.Studio’s only in that it has fewer white spaces around. It’s kept simple, giving more time to appreciate each industrial design’s “hero shot”. In building your own industrial design portfolio, always keep in mind the power of simplicity and clarity. These are vital qualities that your website must-have.
Final Thoughts
Creating an industrial design portfolio can seem daunting at the start. However, after reading this article and getting ideas from all the related articles, you’ll be in a better position to create your industrial design portfolio website. If it still feels overwhelming, just pick some of the tips you see as easy to apply. As you build your portfolio, you can go back on these tips and awesome web design tools to see what else you can improve on one tip at a time. Your industrial design portfolio doesn’t have to be perfect in one go. No portfolio website does.
To get more people to notice your website, you’ll also need to work with tags, ads, and keywords to help them rank well on search engines. Since you’re in the artistic trade, creating compelling branding will help you even more to stand out. An industrial design portfolio with a strong brand can be recognized with the simplest yet very important quality. For instance, choosing a unique and consistent font in business communication and presentation is a bright idea.
Image taken from Strikingly website
Famous industrial designers didn’t have their website perfect the first time they made it. There was a lot of tweaking along the way. They also took the time to work on their tags to get more people to notice their website. The important thing is you start building now so you’ll be one step closer to creating the bid-winning industrial design portfolio website you dreamed of. But, the sense of urgency in creating one should be backed up with the best tools and features you can start with. You need to work with the best website builder that will not only make your life easier but help you build a stunning and shining space online. Want to find out what we’re talking about? Head on to Strikingly homepage and sign up for a 14-day free trial now.
