Your portfolio, better online than as a PDF

For an architecture studio it makes more sense to have your portfolio online rather than as a PDF, because it can be updated in minutes, shared with a link, looks good on a phone and also helps people find you on Google. The PDF can still exist for a competition or a tender, but as a short version that comes from the website, not the other way round.

It still happens to me all the time that a studio tells me that, when someone asks to see their work, they send a 40 MB PDF put together two years ago, too heavy for WhatsApp, missing the latest projects and that nobody dares to update because it was made in a program they no longer use.

Why is the PDF portfolio outdated?

Because it was designed to be printed, and today almost everyone looks at it on their phone, where you have to zoom in to read and the photos take ages to load. And since updating it takes work, it ends up frozen: the new projects aren't there and the old ones stay even when they no longer represent what you do.

A portfolio that isn't updated shows the studio you were, not the one you are today.

On top of that, a PDF sent around by email or WhatsApp leaves no trace: you don't know whether it was opened, it doesn't show up on Google and nobody can reach it unless you sent it to them.

What are the advantages of an online portfolio?

• It can be updated in minutes, so every finished project can go up as soon as you have the photos.
• It's shared with a link that weighs nothing and opens on any device.
• It looks good on a phone, which is where most people will look at you.
• Each project can have its own page, with a title and a text that help people find you on Google and in AI search.
• It can end with a button to book a meeting, instead of ending on the last page of a file.

Which projects should you show?

Only the best ones, and above all the ones you want people to ask you for, because what you show defines who you attract. If you've done lots of bathrooms but want to design whole houses, show the houses even if there are fewer of them, and if the project you want to show isn't built yet, renders work too, as long as they're up to standard.

For a small studio, six to ten projects are usually enough, because a few well-presented projects beat thirty with two photos each. And since photos do all the heavy lifting, here's the article on how to plan the photos of your projects.

How should you present each project?

Each project needs a bit of context besides the photos, without going as far as a full design statement. This is what works best:

• A name and a location, like "House in Funes" or "Apartment in Palermo".
• Two or three lines about the starting point: what the client needed and what was there before.
• The key decisions of the project, like the layout, a material or how the light comes in.
• A few simple facts, like the square metres, the year and what the studio did (design, construction management or interiors).
• The photos in an order that tells a walk-through, from the overall view to the details.

So is the PDF useless now?

It's still useful as a complement, because some competitions, tenders or developers ask for a PDF dossier. For that it's worth having a short version, ten or twelve pages long, put together from what's already on the website, so the PDF comes from the website and not the other way round, and you don't have two different portfolios to maintain.

Where should you build your online portfolio?

Ideally within your studio's website, in a projects section, rather than on a separate platform, so every project you add also adds to your website. Behance or Pinterest can be one more showcase, but it's best if their links always lead back to your site.

If your website doesn't have a projects section you can update on your own, on the web design page I explain how I build them, and if you also want to sort out your brand, the New Build package covers both in eight weeks.

So, when did you last update your portfolio?

Write to me and let's talk →