My first portfolio was a mess.

Back in 2006 (almost 20 years ago!), I was still an industrial design student. I didn’t know what I was doing. I just dumped a bunch of images into PowerPoint slides. Screenshots from my internship. A few poster boards. Some renders.

(This was the cover page of my first portfolio... dont laugh lol. And yea, I thought that lime green was very cool back then)

It looked nice, but it didn’t tell a story.

The next version was better. I added more context. Explained the product. Shared some rationale. But it still felt flat.

That’s when I started asking myself a question: who are the best in the world at this.

I found out about ArtCenter in California. One of the top design schools. So I started hunting down every portfolio I could find from their students and grads. Google searches. Random PDFs. Folders with hundreds of files.

I studied them. What worked. What didn’t. What made sense to me. And yes, I copied layouts and adapted them. That helped me get my first “real” portfolio together. Something I was finally proud to show.

But here’s what I noticed.

The best portfolios weren’t just pretty. They told a clear story. You could follow the problem, the choices, and the results without getting lost. Even if you weren’t a designer, you could get it.

That’s what changed things for me.

And that’s still what matters today. But the stakes are higher now. The problems we solve are more complex. The stories are harder to tell. Which is why so many portfolios stay stuck half done.

The good news: you don’t need to collect hundreds of PDFs anymore. You don’t need to spend weeks tweaking fonts and layouts.

With the right structure, and with AI, you can turn your messy project into a clear story in under an hour.

Get inspired by others, but make sure your own story comes through. The structure can be borrowed. The story has to be yours.

Next Wednesday, I’ll be showing how to do this live in the AI Portfolio Workshop.

Grab your seat here → https://community.careercreators.com/events/DE0AE5

Talk soon,

Joseph