17 Student Portfolio Examples for Your Design Inspiration
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Having a well-made portfolio to display your skills and school projects is crucial as a student. It can help you further your education or grow your career by showing future potential employers and clients your skills.
Your portfolio should highlight all the best projects you’ve completed in your student career. Show off your favorite projects, explain your learning process, and emphasize your skills. Whether you’re in the financial field or going into design, a portfolio is crucial for all.
When designing your portfolio, the hardest part is just getting started. A great way to create the motivation to build a stunning portfolio is to look at other student portfolio examples for inspiration. Pay attention to any design elements you love, and note things you want to avoid.
Building your own student website? We highly recommend using Squarespace. With a huge selection of beautiful templates, creating your site with Squarespace is fast and easy, no coding needed. Start a free trial and build your site without commitment.
Student Portfolio Examples
We’ve compiled this list of student portfolio website examples to inspire and encourage you to build your own. Take notes and find things you want to use on your site. Pay attention to font styles, page layout, and how color affects the site’s overall appearance. By the end of the list, I’m sure you’ll be full of inspiration and confidence to build your portfolio website!
And for more web design inspiration, you can see some of our other showcases like design portfolio websites, school websites, and Squarespace websites.
Devansh Gandhi
Built with Squarespace
Devansh Gandhi is a student at the University of Washington, studying Interaction Design. His portfolio website shows off his professional experience, such as his work for companies like Facebook and Duolingo. He shows this information to the viewer with large text in the header. This is great for showing the viewer the skill level as soon as the website loads.
The site’s overall design is minimalistic, with large center-aligned displays of his work. The light background color makes the projects pop since most of them include bold backgrounds and elements.
Kayla Padilla
Built with Squarespace
Kayla Padilla is a student at the University of Pennsylvania studying finance and management. Her student portfolio website is organized and straight to the point. The home page opens with a large introduction, showing the visitor a professional photo with details about her and what she does.
With this site, adding some call-to-action buttons that direct visitors to her projects page could help improve the overall user experience. People have a short attention span, so reducing the number of steps needed for navigation can keep them engaged.
Kayla Valane
Built with Squarespace
Kayla Valane is a New York-based graphic designer and a senior at the Fashion Institute of Technology. Her website is minimal, with only two pages, though minimal does not mean it lacks impact.
The home page opens with a dark background with bold text on top. The text has a hover-over effect, where you can preview her project in the background. While this is a memorable effect, it’s hard to see any other options once you hover over a project.
Cristina Clerici
Built with Squarespace
Cristina Clerici is a Ph.D. candidate in Economics at the Stockholm School of Economics. Her website is very minimalistic, with the landing page including a brief introduction and a simple navigation bar.
The photo displayed on the home page is low quality, making it appear slightly blurry. I always recommend using high-quality photos to improve the overall appearance of your site. The rest of her portfolio remains minimal, and I love how her research page is cited with helpful, clickable links.
Lauren Hung
Built with Webflow
Lauren Hung, a recent graduate from Carnegie Mellon University, is a product designer, maker, and sketcher. Her home page opens with a large introduction with an eye-catching typography style. She displays her favorite projects front and center on the home page below the introduction, which makes it effortless for visitors to browse.
I love the way she set up her About page. It includes personal photos, showing what she enjoys doing in her free time, and her career aspirations. This is great for connecting with viewers and prospective employers in a personal and memorable way.
Brandon San
Built with Weebly
Brandon San is a student studying biology, chemistry, neuroscience, and health studies at the University of Washington. His website is beautifully organized and engaging, with clear headers and sectioned content. I love his home page, which is a detailed introduction to him. It includes details about his values, goals, and some personal photos.
Overall, his website is well-designed and a great tool for potential employers. The header image is blurry, so changing that to a higher-quality photo could improve the portfolio even more.
Mary Grace Reich
Built with Squarespace
Mary Grace Reich is a graduate student at the UC Berkeley School of Information. Her UX Researcher portfolio website is minimalistic and elegant. It features an engaging introduction with useful links to her contact information, like her resume, email, and social media.
I like the layout of her portfolio page. It guides your eye from project to project. I would suggest adding links to these project descriptions. The descriptions are very short and don’t have a lot of information to show. Adding citations or links to her studies and interviews would be helpful for anyone trying to check her experience.
Dalya Baron
Built with Wix
Dayla Baron is a Tel Aviv University Astrophysics Department graduate student, and her website is one of my favorite online portfolios. The home page has a brief introduction and a high-quality photo. I love the action buttons displayed on the home page. They’re bright and stand out from the background as a call to action for users after they read her introduction.
All of her content, academic projects, and professional experience, are displayed in organized sections with clear headers and citations.
Overall, her website is professional and user-friendly. It displays all the necessary elements of a portfolio website with no visual clutter.
Andrew Ransom
Built with WordPress
Andrew Ransom is a graduate student in the Aquatic Ecology and Fisheries Lab at the University of Wisconsin. His portfolio website opens with a high quality hero-header image that shows him out on a boat doing what he loves.
The navigation bar is below the header, which can be confusing because it’s not the typical location for a menu. After using the menu, the navigation bar moves to the top of the page with the minimized header. Keeping the navigation bar in one place can make the site more user-friendly.
Jumana Adams
Built with Weebly
Jumana Adams is a talented artist and student. Her website has a simple layout, with a lot of white space and easy-to-use drop drown menu options.
When we open her site, we’re greeted with a quality photo of Jumana and an introduction. The font style used throughout the site is difficult to read, especially on top of the white background. I would recommend changing this to a larger, more legible font style.
I love that her project pages show her entire creative process, from inspiration to the final piece. You can see her great advancement in skill this way.
Anu Manohar
Built with Wix
Another one of my favorite professional portfolio websites is by Anu Manohar. Anu is a graphic designer based in New York, specializing in branding, typography, art direction, and 3d design. Her font style throughout the site is bold and legible, perfect for eye-catching titles and headers.
The website contains only two pages, an About page, and a home page doubles as her portfolio page. The portfolio page shows her projects in large sizes on top of a neutral-colored background. Even with the wide range of different projects she’s worked on, the background color compliments them nicely and shows off her design skills.
Kantwon
Built with Squarespace
Kantwon is a computer science Ph.D. student and instructor at Georgia Tech. His website is engaging and memorable, showing off his bright personality.
His website includes a lot of content, from engaging photography designs to YouTube videos and podcasts. I love these elements, as it gives viewers even more options to learn more about him and his work, outside of his teacher portfolio website.
There are a lot of different colors used on this website. It’s hard to tell the difference between action buttons and design elements. Adding an outline or animation to the buttons would help distinguish between them.
Kelly He
Built with Cargo
Kelly He is a student at Columbia University GSAPP Graduate School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation. Her website layout is user-friendly and has her work as the star of the show. The artistic photography style on her home page is memorable and makes for a gorgeous display of her work.
I love her Journal page, as it lets viewers peek into her personal life. You can view photos from impressive trips she’s been on and what she’s learned along the way. This is a unique personal touch for a portfolio website that can connect with viewers and potential employers.
Kabel Mishka Ligot
Built with Squarespace
Kabel Mishka Ligot is a student and writer from the Philippines, currently based in Shikaakwa. His website is organized, with an easy-to-use navigation bar at the top of the page. The home page features a brief introduction to him, with links incorporated throughout that make it easy for users to view some of his projects.
I think moving the content up on the home page would help the overall design of this website. Doing this would eliminate the need to scroll and make everything visible. This would add to the simplicity of the site and make it easier for users to read and stay engaged with the content.
Fred Pastrana
Built with Adobe Portfolio
Fred Pastrana is a graphic designer and a “good dude.” His digital portfolio has a memorable black background with pops of bold color on top.
I love the display of his portfolio projects, shown as large images with hover-over effects to learn more about each project. Users can also click on these projects to be redirected to a dedicated page for that project.
The navigation bar is sticky and shown with a black background, which blends in and makes the menu options always accessible without overtaking the rest of the content.
Ella Adams
Built with Weebly
Ella Adams is a visual artist studying at UW Madison. Her website opens with a large introduction and photo of Ella, which is friendly and easy to read on top of the black background.
The navigation bar is very difficult to read. It’s shown in a color just barely darker than the background color, and in a small font. Adding a background to the navigation bar or altering the font so it’s larger and darker would make the site easier to navigate and more user-friendly.
Ashley Cortez
Built with WordPress
Ashley Cortez is a journalism student at California State University. Her website is professional and engaging, with a light background and noticeable action buttons. I love the way she has her publications page laid out. The left side has a large title, while the right has more project details and links for users to learn more.
Overall Ashley has an engaging and professional portfolio website. The layout is nice, and it’s easy to use.
Tips For Making a Student Portfolio Website
Creating your student portfolio doesn’t have to be daunting. Here are a few tips and reminders for creating an effective student portfolio website.
1. Get Clear On Your Goals
Before you design your website, it’s important to determine your goals and purpose. Figure out what you aim to achieve with this site, and document any key elements you want to include in your website.
Getting organized on your goals and intentions before you start the designing process is the best way to ensure the process is smooth and you end up with a result you’re satisfied with.
2. Keep It Simple
As tempting as it is to add every cool element idea you come across, remember that less is more, especially with web design. When designing your site and adding your typography styles, design elements, and more, try to look at it from the perspective of your future viewer.
Ensure all key information, such as your navigation menu, is easy to find and use. Keeping your site user-friendly is crucial to your website’s success.
3. Highlight Your Best Work
This may be the hardest part of designing a good portfolio website! When you add your projects to your portfolio, make sure you’re showing off your best work. Choose projects that best showcase your strengths and achievements to the viewer.
Remember that most people skim through websites, so present your projects in a visually appealing way right on your landing page. This is a great way to catch attention and keep viewers interested.
4. Get Feedback
Before launching your portfolio website, get feedback from your friends, family, professors, or peers in your industry. This can help you see your website from another perspective, and find things you may have missed. Identifying your areas for improvement is important for making your portfolio website even more impactful.
5. Optimize and Maintain
After you launch your portfolio website, don’t just stop there! Ensure you’re periodically checking that your website is functioning well, and make any edits and updates as time goes on. Also, ensure you update your experience and projects at least a few times a year. This way anyone that browses your website can see that you’re still active and dedicated to growing and improving your skills!
Final Thought on Student Portfolios
Having a solid portfolio to show off all that you’ve accomplished and learned as a student is the best way to gain employers and grow in your desired industry. Your student portfolio should show off who you are as a person, and showcase your best work.
Express your creativity when designing your portfolio website and display your professionalism. Your portfolio will be the number one go-to for future employers and potential clients when they want to see your capabilities.
Now that you’ve seen some of the best student portfolio website examples, I hope you feel confident and inspired. Use the notes and thoughts you’ve had while browsing these sites and use some of your favorite elements to create your unique website. I hope to see yours in the next website roundup!
