What do you do if your mid-career Interior Design portfolio needs a boost? (2024)

FAQs

What do you do if your mid-career Interior Design portfolio needs a boost? ›

Here are some quick tips to boost your design portfolio: Focus on quality over quantity: Showcase your best work, not just everything you've done. Variety is key: Include projects from different areas to demonstrate your range. Tell a story: Briefly explain your design process and the thought behind each project.

Create Design Boards & Sketches

Even if you have never worked with a real live client before, you can still show off your design skills, on designs you have created. Professional looking design boards, floor plans and elevations showcase your work, and they are easy to create from the comfort of your own home.

The main draw of your portfolio will be the photographs of finished projects, but you may also want to include design concepts, mood boards, renderings, layouts, and other documents in your portfolio that show how you came to each final product.

Employers will be interested in your specialism or area of interest as a creative professional. Try to include some detail about your background and specialism, whether that's in branding, marketing, user experience, web design or another area in the broader graphic design field.

Showcasing value-based design methods, together with soft skills, will go a long way. A winning portfolio demonstrates excellent work and an ability to present process, strategy, and various design styles. Design managers want to dive deep into projects and are interested in the details.

What are the career goals for interior design? ›

Good career goals for interior designers should include developing a deep understanding of client needs and market demands. This focus ensures that designs are not only aesthetically pleasing but also functional and tailored to the clients' lifestyles.

To get a better sense of what it takes to be successful in this industry, we asked six interior designers to weigh in on what their jobs are really like. One thing they all agreed on? It's hard work, but they absolutely love it. And it is that passion that helps when you hit road bumps along the way.

You should aim to include at least three projects in your portfolio, but ideally around five to show some variety in your work.

Some states require that interior designers meet certain minimum standards to be a residential interior designer, a commercial interior designer, or both. On the other hand, some states have no certification requirements at all, so you could call yourself whatever you'd like and practice however you wish.

To be crystal clear, you don't NEED a fancy sleek portfolio to land your first job in UX or Product Design. However, having something tangible that shows your interest in the field will trump telling about it any day.

When designing a portfolio, a designer must take the time to narrow their work down to a select few that really represent their talents and their brand. As a rule of thumb, interior design portfolios should include 10 to 15 examples of a designer's work.

Less is more. You may be tempted to include bits and pieces of everything you've ever worked on, but when it comes to interior design portfolios, you'll only want to include the best, most recent, and most representative of your projects. A good general rule is to include 5 to 7 of your projects.

11x17 portrait and 17x11 landscape are the most common book sizes. Unless you have a driving reason why you need a book that is taller in portrait orientation or longer in landscape orientation, it's probably best to stick with the standard size. You can go a bit smaller or a bit larger, but don't go to extremes.