Online Portfolio Tools for Creatives

Submitted by kpryce on 2 May 2017 - 10:40am

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Everyone seems to think that their online portfolio must be an interactive masterpiece. Unquestionably, a web designer/developer and other creatives should indicate their comfort with interactive technologies. But for many, too much technology and interaction can be the wrong move.

Ultimately, it’s more important to present your work in a favourable light - using technology to enhance not overwhelm your work.

What follows is a selection of free/low cost online tools (including UAL options), that require little or no technical expertise to showcase and/or sell your work as a creative:

Behance Network (www.behance.net/)

The Behance Network allows you to showcase and discover creative work. You can also build a dynamic, multimedia portfolio of your latest projects and share with everyone in Behance or those you choose. There are many options for collaboration, commenting and general socialising.

Big Black Bag (www.bigblackbag.com/)

BBB helps photographers, artists and creative professionals to create HTML, template-based, iPad and iPhone-friendly portfolios.

Carbonmade (https://carbonmade.com/

Carbonmade is used by over 1m designers and artists worldwide. As well as free image hosting, the site provides:

An easy way to display and manage your portfolio online
A clean canvas to show off your work
Instant updating with no HTML experience necessary
A set of easy to use management tools
a subdomain in the format of username.carbonmade.com, which makes marketing your URL a bit easier

Cargo (http://cargocollective.com/)

Cargo is a personal publishing platform aimed at creating accessible tools and a networked context to enhance the exposure of talented individuals on the Internet.

To achieve this, Cargo offers members free-standing websites; a wide variety of customizable design templates; simple but sophisticated tools to control the way content is displayed, and a unique user interface built entirely around the work itself.

Crevado(https://crevado.com.com/)

Crevado is a free, easy to use solution allowing creatives to showcase their work using or customising one of the many templates. To get started, all you need is: (a) photos of your work (b) a modern browser (i.e. chrome, firefox or safari) and optionally (c) a paypal account if you want to sell and accept payments for your work online.

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DeviantArt (deviantart.com/)

DeviantArt is the largest art and artist community in the world with some 28 million members. It's simple to set up a profile, create galleries and build a fan base around your work and brand. You can sell your art via the deviantART Shop and communicate, collaborate and learn from artists from more than 190 countries.

Dribbble (https://dribbble.com/)

Dribbble is a community of designers and other creatives sharing screenshots of their work, process and projects.

Dunked (http://dunked.com/)

Dunked provides you with an easy solution to create and maintain your online portfolio. Use Dunked to showcase your work in minutes without touching a line of code. Dunked is for anyone without the time or skills to develop a portfolio from scratch. 80,000+ creative people including designers, 3D modelers, illustrators, artists, models, architects and more use Dunked to showcase their talent.

Figdig (figdig.com/)

Figdig’s claim to fame is that you can view artwork in high definition (HD) and you can signup, create a portfolio and start uploading pretty much straight away. FigDig’s profile page is your chance to share the things that inspire you. If you have loads of high res artwork or PDF’s, FigDig is your tool of choice.

Indexhibit (www.indexhibit.org/)

Indexhibit (Index + Exhibit) is a simple to implement and easy to modify web platform that is available for free from Indexhibit.org. You can upload text, images, movies and sounds and you can even integrate Wordpress. It is totally open source - the only stipulation of using it is that their site says “Built With Indexhibit” with a link back to the project site. While the standard layout and Indexhibit menu system is easy to use, Indexhibit themes are few and may not be in the spirit of your project. However, with a tiny amount of work, Indexhibit is highly customizable and very flexible.

Made in Arts London (https://www.madeinartslondon.com/)

Made in Arts London (MiAL) is a non-profit initiative devoted to nurturing young talent throughout the early stages of their career. Run by the Students' Union at University of the Arts London (UAL), MiaAL aims to provide a physical and digital platform that empowers current students or recent graduates by showcasing and selling their work.

myblog.arts (http://showtime.arts.ac.uk/)

myblog.arts is a blogging tool, which allows UAL students and staff to quickly and easily create blogs within an online learning and teaching community specially created for the University of the Arts London.

Students can use it to quickly and easily set up a personalised online journal. It’s also possible to set up group blogs, to allow for collaborative discussion and documentation of processes and projects. The blogs are open to the web by default but can be made more private to provide a safe-space for students to get to grips with reflection and writing online.

Portfolio Box (http://www.portfoliobox.net)

Portfoliobox makes it easy to create and edit any type of content to produce your own online portfolio website. It features galleries, pages, a blog, an ecommerce store and video capabilities. There is no

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forced standard theme, so you can choose any style for any page and combine them. You can edit your portfolio from your browser, with no coding required and even hosting is included.

Showtime (http://showtime.arts.ac.uk/)

Open to all graduating students, Showtime is University of the Arts London's online gallery featuring up and coming artists and designers. This unique platform supports, promotes and celebrates emerging artists by offering graduates from across the University an opportunity to be seen by potential employers, industry-insiders, curators, gallerists and collectors. Showtime is free to use and you can keep your profile for as long as you like.

You can:

create a profile
upload images of your work / video and embed PDFs (there is no limit)
link to your website / blog / Twitter / Flickr, LinkedIn or other social media account
receive messages from viewers
share content via social media
tag work
view work via college / course / level / year

Squarespace (http://www.squarespace.com)

Squarespace makes it easy for beginners to advance level users to build websites. The fact that you can drag and drop content wherever and however you want, makes it a much user-friendly way to build your website without committing weeks to learn how to use code.

Tumblr (http://www.tumblr.com)

Tumblr is perfect for those who don't need a full blog to publish lengthy posts and who’d prefer to publish quick multimedia posts, particularly from their mobile devices. Tumblr is also a great choice for people who want to join a larger community. If a blog is too much or too big for you, but Twitter is too small or too little for you and Instagram isn't versatile enough for you, then Tumblr might be just right.

Viewbook (http://www.viewbook.com)

Viewbook enables image creators and designers to manage their portfolio and showcase their work in a flexible way. You can upload and organize your work with the Viewbook manager, and design your portfolio website and presentations with the visual design editor to suit your branding and style. You can also download presentations and hi-res images and mobile galleries are a useful feature.

Voodoo Chilli (www.voodoochilli.net/)

A community of artists founded by artists, Voodoochilli is free online resource and online portfolio for visual artists wishing to show their work to the world.

Founded in 2002, the site features 12,369 registered artists from over 100 countries around the world. One of the main philosophies behind Voodoochilli is that anyone should feel able to show off their artwork, regardless of ability or training, and we have discovered that giving people the confidence to do just that really helps them to excel. As human beings, art is a part of us all, it is not something for an elite few.

Each image you upload is viewed by other creative people who can leave comments, suggestions and rate your work. Art is not made in a vacuum It I this feedback that helps an artist to grow.

ViewBook (www.viewbook.com/)

Viewbook, is a tool aimed at designers who want minimal effort for maximum impact. The system allows work to speak for itself, where you can choose to show high res for web or mobile devices. The system also has built in embedding functions, enabling you to add your viewbook presentation to your blog, or existing webpage easily. They offer a free basic account, complete with 100 images and most of the Viewbook features, but if you need more capacity you can pay extra.

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Wix (http://www.wix.com/)

Wix is a cloud-based web development platform that allows users to create free HTML5 web sites and mobile sites through the use of online drag and drop tools.

Wordpress (https://wordpress.com)

Create a free website or easily build a blog on WordPress.com. Hundreds of free, customizable, mobile-ready designs and themes, as well as free hosting and support.

Workflow (http://workflow.arts.ac.uk)

Workflow is the University of the Arts London's portfolio system, which allows you to create custom web pages and gives you complete control over page sharing. It is ideal for documenting your projects, collaborating, or sharing work in progress privately with your peers, friends or a tutor. You can also:

Document your projects and track your personal development
Design and display web pages
Organise your media files in an online repository and access them from wherever you have

internet access
Share your work with others online
Collaborate with individuals or in groups
Create an online CV
Network across colleges and courses

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Online Portfolio Tools for Creatives

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