Most designers keep trying to improve their portfolios by adding more work. But some of the most interesting portfolios being recognized by FWA right now are doing something completely different: they are turning the website itself into the project.
Sep 22, 2026
7 min
Designer portfolios have become incredibly predictable. Big hero image, short introduction, project grid. About. Contact. Maybe some smooth scrolling if we are feeling adventurous. There is nothing wrong with this structure. It works. I have used versions of it myself. But after looking at some recent FWA winners, I am starting to think designers have optimized portfolios so much that we have forgotten something obvious.
A portfolio is supposed to show how you think. Not just what you finished.
Your Portfolio Is Also a Project
Designers often treat their portfolios as packaging: the projects are the real work, and the website simply holds them. But I think that’s increasingly a missed opportunity. If you’re a digital designer, creative developer, art director, motion designer or UX designer, your website is one of the few projects where you get to be both client and designer. No client asking for a bigger logo, no marketing manager adding another CTA, no brand guidelines saying the button can’t be orange. Just you. So why do so many portfolios look identical?
Templates Solved a Problem and Created Another
Modern website builders are fantastic. Squarespace, Webflow, Framer and dozens of other platforms let designers build excellent websites without becoming full-time developers, and that is progress. But templates have also made portfolios look increasingly alike: choose a beautiful typeface, add enormous project photography, leave generous whitespace, apply subtle animation, and congratulations—you have a beautiful portfolio that could belong to 40,000 other designers.
More Projects Are Not Always the Answer
When designers feel their portfolio is weak, the instinct is usually to add more projects. Five become eight, eight become twelve, and eventually the visitor needs annual leave to finish the website. I think the opposite can work better: show fewer things, explain them better, create stronger context and give people a reason to remember them. Most creative directors aren’t counting projects; they’re trying to understand what kind of designer you are. Can you solve difficult problems? Do you have taste? Can you explain your decisions? Do you have a point of view? Would they want to work with you? Those questions don’t require twenty case studies.
Show Some of the Bad Ideas
This is why I love the cemetery concept. Design portfolios normally pretend every project moved elegantly from research to a brilliant final solution, but we all know that’s fiction. Real projects contain terrible ideas, dead ends, client feedback and designs that looked incredible at midnight and completely ridiculous the next morning. Those failures are part of the work, and showing some of them can make a case study much more interesting because it reveals judgment. Why did you reject something? What changed? What did you learn? The final design tells me what you chose. The rejected design tells me why. That can be much more valuable.
Personality Is Becoming a Competitive Advantage
Behance’s broader 2026 design research points to a growing appetite for work that feels human: imperfect details, emotional expression, and a little less polish. People seem tired of digital experiences with every edge smoothed away.
I think portfolios will follow. That doesn’t mean making them messy. It means letting more of yourself show.
Maybe that comes through in funny writing, an unexpected way to navigate, or sketches that reveal how you think. Maybe your About page offers an actual opinion instead of introducing you as “a multidisciplinary designer passionate about crafting meaningful experiences.”
Please. We’ve met that designer. Several million times.
Tell me something only you could say.
A Portfolio Should Have a Point of View
I think this matters even more for senior designers. After years in the industry, your value goes beyond what you can make. Your portfolio should show how you think and why you make certain decisions.
What do you believe about design? Which problems draw you in? What work would you turn down? What have fifteen years taught you that you hadn’t figured out after three?
There should be room for those answers in your portfolio. You don’t need a manifesto. Nobody needs a manifesto before breakfast. But through the projects you choose and the stories you tell, we should get a sense of the person making the decisions.
Do Not Turn Your Portfolio Into Disneyland
One word of caution: a few interactive portfolios on FWA can convince you that yours needs WebGL, a 3D avatar, spatial audio, and a loading screen that takes seventeen seconds.
Please resist.
Your portfolio should make sense for the work you do. If you specialize in editorial design, beautiful typography might be enough. If you work in branding, give the portfolio an identity worth remembering. If you’re a motion designer, let movement lead. And if you design digital experiences, give people something to explore.
Add something because it helps people understand your work. “I saw it on FWA” is probably not a good enough reason.
My Take
I still think designers need personal websites. Probably more than ever.
Platforms help people find you. Your website gives you control over what happens next: the work they see, the stories you tell, and how it all feels.
Use that freedom to make something recognizably yours. It can be simple. It should still leave an impression of the person behind the projects.
If I close your site and remember beautiful mockups but nothing about you, there’s still work to do.
