Considering Portfolios: 6 Tips for Choosing the Right Freelancer
When it comes to finding the right freelancer for your project, resumes don’t always tell you everything you need to know. With creative work, like a website or copywriting, a freelancer’s style can be far more important than the companies he or she has worked for. Looking through examples of a designer or writer’s work can make choosing between freelancers a much simpler matter, especially if you have a whole stack of responses to a job listing. The review process doesn’t have to be complicated: you can find the right freelancer by focusing on a few key points.
1. Consider the Style
You probably have at least a general idea of the sort of style you want to see on your particular project, and it’s worth keeping an eye out for that style in the portfolios you’re looking through. But you’ll want to go a step further and look at the variety of styles each freelancer works with. You may see designs in half a dozen different styles in one designer’s portfolio, while another designer may stick primarily with the one style you’re looking for throughout all of his pieces. Either freelancer may be able to execute your project equally well.
2. Read Any Descriptions
With most portfolios, it isn’t enough to just look at the projects a freelancer chose to include. You’ll find that many portfolios included descriptions of projects, which may have information on the scope and goals of a project, the role the freelancer played and more that can help you determine just how relevant a particular portfolio piece is to your own project.
3. Look at the Dates
Some freelancers will post a portfolio full of excellent pieces that may not be among their more recent work. It’s worth giving more weight to recent pieces — styles can change significantly in only a few years. If you like what you’re seeing in a particular portfolio, but the work seems to be a little dated, consider asking to see more recent samples.
4. Check for Live Versions
While not all freelancers offer links to their work in the wild, seeing such links in a portfolio can be a good sign. Being able to see a freelancer’s work displayed on one of their client’s websites is confirmation that the freelancer in question is able to complete projects satisfactorily.
5. Choose Based on What You Like
Just because one freelancer has a portfolio full of projects for big name clients doesn’t mean you should choose that freelancer over one whose portfolio of work contains projects you particularly like. Finding the right freelancer isn’t so much about past projects as seeing who can complete your project in the way you want.
6. Follow Up on Questions
You’ll likely have questions after looking over a portfolio — like how long it might take a freelancer to complete your project. Even if you haven’t decided on a particular freelancer yet, it’s good to ask your questions. Not only can an answer be a deciding factor, but it can also help a freelancer decide whether he or she is going to be the best person to complete your project.
Many freelancers maintain online portfolios that you can browse through — these freelancers may simply submit a link if you post a job listing. Others may email their portfolios, especially if their portfolios contain material that they cannot post online for one reason or another. A ghost writer, for instance, may have agreed not to post his work online under his own name. Either way, looking through portfolios can make choosing a freelancer a much simpler process than trying to sort through resumes.
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Great post! Knowing these things can be handy when putting together a portfolio. It’s always healthy to put yourself in the client’s shoes at some point. Cheers!
Great article! One advice from my personal experience…If you’re good at something, promote that in your portfolio. It’s better to be great in one particular style, than average in 3-4 different one’s. That always got me long-term clients, that hired me exactly because of my particular style I use.As for the dates – It’s good to show older work that your satisfied with, so the client can see the diversity in your work. Off coarse, that’s only the case if you are still willing to work in that style, if client asks that from you. It doesn’t necessarily mean that if the older work is in a different style, that you will not be able to pull that style off again.
cool ones… thanks for sharing… also, when you converse with a freelancer, before handing him/her the job the questions asked tell you a lot about skills and attitude.
Have to disagree here…while style is a part of it, it’s not everything as their styles can vary depending on the type of business/site. The best way to review a portfolio (in my opinion) is to look at the target audience and the companies brand, did the designer create a site for the intended target audience, does the site work for that target audience, is it in keeping with their brand and is it an easy site to navigate and use? Sure lot’s of designers create pretty sites but are they created for the business or the designers portfolio?
Nice read….
This is gonna help to freelancers also.
I’d add to this to be sure to ask a potential freelancer if they have any comments or concerns about the project. It’s a good way to sound out someone–do they sound too arrogant, overconfident, etc…how willing are they to be part of your team, however temporarily? Beware the freelancer who talks in platitudes but seldom has anything to say that contains specifics about your project.
“While not all freelancers offer links to their work in the wild, seeing such links in a portfolio can be a good sign. Being able to see a freelancer’s work displayed on one of their client’s websites is confirmation that the freelancer in question is able to complete projects satisfactorily.”
Your second sentence doesn’t even come close to the mark of the ability of the freelancer’s ability to complete projects satisfactorily. I had a client take down the website only about two months after I created it because she wasn’t taking any more business (strange reason and I didn’t agree…but it’s her business, not mine).
A better point to bring up under “Check for Live Links” would be that the visitor could interact with the website’s functionality – a strong reason to hire on web designer or developer over another is the freelancer’s ability to understand website usability first and foremost.
ShannonDesign makes a great point. I know in my own work the style of the piece created varies greatly based on the target audience. A group of engineers don’t appreciate the same sort of things that someone looking for a day spa does.
As far as web design is concerned, the amount of site content and the complexity of the site can also have a huge impact. Small sites with little content can rely a lot on the art to tell a story. But large, complex sites with a lot of categories etc simple navigation and high usability come first.
These things need to be kept in mind when looking at portfolios.
cool ones… thanks for sharing… also, when you converse with a freelancer, before handing him/her the job the questions asked tell you a lot about skills and attitude.
I’m going to have to agree with Missy—I’ve spent 50+ hours working as part of a team on a huge site only to find it got pulled a month after its launch because the multi-billion dollar company was having budget problems and couldn’t afford the maintenance costs.
I wouldn’t view this as unable to provide “confirmation that the freelancer in question is able to complete projects satisfactorily.” I feel I fully came through on my end of the deal.