A mentor told me my portfolio was 'too perfect' and it stung but she was right

Back in 2018 I was going through a brutal dry spell, like 3 months of basically no calls back. A designer I used to work with, Sarah, agreed to look at my portfolio over coffee in Austin. She flipped through it and said 'this looks like you designed it for a robot, not a person.' I was kinda mad at first because I spent forever making everything match and look polished. But she pointed out I had zero process shots, no sketches, no messy early versions that show how I actually think through a problem. So I went home and dug through my hard drive for old wireframes and even a photo of my whiteboard from a messy project. I put those up next to the finished pieces and within a month I landed two web design gigs that kept me busy through summer. Has anyone else heard feedback that made them totally change their presentation?

4 comments

4 Comments

luna26118d ago

And flipping through a portfolio that's all finished work is like walking through a gallery where none of the paintings have any story behind them, you know? It's weird how we think hiding the messy parts makes us look more professional when really it just makes us look like we don't actually know how to solve problems. That whiteboard photo you mentioned probably showed more personality and real thinking than three polished mockups ever could.

michael80318d ago

Kinda feel like people make this way bigger of a deal than it actually is. @luna261 I get where you're coming from with the gallery comparison but honestly most clients just want to see if you can make something look good. They don't usually care about your messy whiteboard sketches or how you got there. Sure it might help some designers but this whole "process over product" thing gets pushed too hard sometimes.

river_thompson18d ago

Did you read that study about how people prefer imperfect looking process work?

patricia_hill6018d ago

It's funny you mention the whiteboard photo because that's exactly what worked for me. I was showing a client some early sketches and they actually liked the rough ones better than the clean digital versions. Said it looked like there was real thought behind it, not just something I slapped together in 10 minutes. I've started sharing more work-in-progress shots now and clients seem to engage more with those than the finished stuff. Made me realize we overthink how "perfect" our process has to look when people just want to see how you think. Did you find that sharing the messy parts changed how people responded to your work?