So, you’re a graphic designer. Whether you’re a student, just getting into design as a hobby, or a seasoned professional, congratulations! Graphic design is a great way to express yourself creatively – and make some money! But how will people know you’re good? How do you even get good as a beginner?
I switched my major from sports medicine to graphic design going into my junior year of college. I had little to no graphic design experience other than doodles in my sketchbook, about 100 Pinterest boards filled with ideas, and some school projects, but after researching careers the entirety of the previous semester, I decided I wanted to become a graphic designer. Boy, do I wish I knew what I know now! All over the internet, there are incredible resources to help you (yes, you!) build your portfolio with absolutely no clients. Here, I’ll share some of my favorites.
Design Challenges
One of the first things I did over the summer before my first semester was the LogoCore 30-day design challenge. The company emails you a brief every day for 30 days, and your job is to create a logo. This challenge is one of the better known graphic design challenges, and you can find a ton of entries for inspiration here and here.
Similar to the LogoCore challenge, The Daily Logo Challenge and Daily UI also offer prompts straight to your email. The latter differs in that the prompts have you build out different pages to a website or app instead of logos, which is great for anyone interested in getting into website or UX/UI design. Having a portfolio that shows you’re a well-rounded graphic designer will make you stand out amongst the competition!
Another great way to find challenges is to search for them on social media. There are a ton of graphic designers out there offering their own challenges. Some are for fun, some have winners, but the important part is that you got to design something of substance to present. You can do some research and find weekly, or even daily, prompts, but here are two of my current favorites:
@AbiLeeDesigns #MoodboardMondayChallenge
Abi is a very talented graphic designer and illustrator that gets designers’ creative juices flowing with fun prompts every two weeks. The prompts give a general ‘vibe,’ and the rest is up to you! Some designers have ever made passion projects out of these prompts (myself included, but that’s a work in progress). A winner is selected on the Sunday before the next prompt comes out, but it’s really all about having fun and creating!
In addition to getting these awesome prompts, you also get to see the amazing work she does for her clients, which is inspirational in itself!
You can follow Abi on Instagram here.
@_AbiDesign #CreativeGlowChallenge
Another Abi! Abi Design is a brand designer based in the UK. Her Creative Glow Challenge is one of my current favorites going around!
Every Monday, a new prompt is posted, and designers have until the following Monday to submit their take on the prompts. Abi then picks her top 4 designs and her followers vote on the winner! Each challenge has a totally different theme with different requirements, so it’s super fun to see where each prompt takes you! The particular prompt going on during the time of publication of this article gives you freedom in choosing a name, but restricts you to one color.
You can follow Abi on Instagram here.
Completing challenges like these is not only beneficial in the long run to see your growth as a graphic designer, but it gives you content to market to your future potential clients! Everyone has to start somewhere!
Prompts
Similar to the challenges above, some accounts offer prompts to inspire designers. There are also websites that specialize in randomly generating prompts, which is great for when you’ve exhausted all other prompts or want to try something new.
Sharpen.design
A personal favorite of mine is the website Sharpen.design. They allow graphic designers and other creatives to choose between design prompts, marketing prompts, and UX/UI prompts. You can also lock the deliverable or the client and continue refreshing for a new prompt until you find one you like. I have used this site plenty of times when I had no work to do or was in a creative rut. The prompts can be as small as designing a few icons or picking a color scheme to as complex as a full style guide or packaging. You really have a lot of freedom with these prompts, which is part of why I love them so much!
@BriefClub by @NatalieGollop
Natalie Gollop created briefs for her own passion project before deciding to start Brief Club. Every Monday, a new brief is posted. Each brief contains a brand name, what they do/sell, and what they need. The rest is up to you! Winners are chosen for each prompt, but she has also asked her followers to help decide on winners from time to time.
In addition to these great prompts, Natalie also posts some helpful tips and is extremely involved with her followers. She also participates in her own prompts and posts her designs to her personal page.
You can follow Brief Club here.
@WildflowerDesign.Co_ Brand Bootcamp
Katie Proctor is the fearless leader of Wildflower Design Co. When you sign up for their Brand Bootcamp, you will receive emails every week with different prompts and deliverables. You can do as much or as little as you’d like, but they give you general guidelines to get the creativity going.
Wildflower Design Co. is an inspiring and helpful account for beginners. Katie gives a ton of tips through reels and is very involved with her followers.
You can follow Wildflower Design Co. on Instagram here. She also has a Facebook group for graphic designers to share tips and get to know each other!
UI Coach
UI Coach is a website that generates briefs for UI designers. Each brief has a description of what is needed, a color palette, a type pairing, and a kit for illustrations (which is really awesome and sets it apart in my opinion!). You have the option of designing in WebFlow and sharing your design directly from there, or designing in your program of choice and submitting later.
I think UI Coach is an amazing site for graphic designers focused on UI design, and it allows more freedom and less time constraints than the Daily UI challenge since it’s self-paced and you can do however many you want, whenever you want, but both are great resources to build your UX/UI portfolio.
Prompts are a great way to get inspiration for projects to fill out your portfolio, and can even turn into passion projects, which I will discuss below.
Passion Projects
Passion projects can come from prompts or can be created by the designer. The whole point is to act like you are designing for a real brand and present it as such.
Natalie Trinidad, a graphic and brand designer, says in her blog post covering passion projects, “Passion projects are great places to show your potential clients or audience what you are capable of and the skills that you have. But I also think that it’s a way that you can continue to sharpen your skills. You have the opportunity to keep improving your skills by creating more passion projects and each time you can keep track of how you have improved.” You don’t need clients to show the world what you can do. By showing your skill, the clients will come to you. Real brand or not, good work doesn’t go unnoticed.
While I have a few passion projects in the works, I have yet to finish them between my hectic schedule with classes, work, and life in general. Here are a couple of my favorite passion projects from fellow designers:
Send Love by @AugusteDesign
I stumbled upon Auguste on Instagram Reel one day when she posted the beautiful work she did for Santa Breeze Beach House in Florida. This project absolutely blew me away. So, when she posted this reel of a recent passion project, I instantly fell in love.
This project is a great example of what a passion project can do for you. Not only is this particular design fun and cute, it’s clean and professional and can now be used to showcase her talents as a designer.
The Good Girls Cannabis Club by @TheBemusedStudio
Lauren is a branding designer and leader of Bemused Studio. This passion project is one of my favorites because it combines a ‘controversial’ topic with excellent branding. The sticker-like branding is a huge trend right now and rightfully so! It’s just so darn cute.
Passion projects that allow graphic designers to show their strengths are incredibly important. Lauren has grown a lot as a designer and has even come back to this project to see how she can take it to the next level. Projects are never-ending, and reworking something old can make a great portfolio piece an even better one!
Mockups
If you already have some work, whether it’s from clients, school, or of your own accord, a great way to make your portfolio stand out is to use mockups. Using mockups can even help you create more content for your portfolio. There are lots of resources out there, but there most recommended sites to find mockups are Yellow Images, Mockup World, Mr. Mockup, and Graphic Burger. You can also search for mockups on Behance and Dribbble.
I personally love mockups as they make the design even more exciting by showing what it would look like in real life. As graphic designers, we don’t always get to see our work physically or have the means to get it done just for a photoshoot. Mockups can add so much value to your work.
Class Work
And finally, class projects. If you’re a graphic design student, you’ll have a decent amount of work. If not, you can utilize design prompts and challenges to fill in this area, or even invest in an online course that includes projects or prompts.
Class work is usually the foundation of portfolios for designers entering the business world after college. Strong class work can make or break your chances of landing a job because these projects are often extremely detailed and time-consuming. Documenting your process is also helpful as it serves as additional content and gives potential clients and employers some insight into your creative process as a graphic designer.
Designers will often keep their favorite pieces from college in their portfolio for years, because not only is it more content, it shows progress. Your first project will be nowhere near as good as your newest, and that’s okay! We grow as designers and people every day- be proud of yourself and your work!
Recap
There are tons of great resources for graphic designers across the internet and in our libraries and bookstores. Inspiration is all around us. As a graphic design student, it’s incredibly important to showcase your work and advertise yourself properly. If you’re not quite to the point where you have steady clients, or you’re just in a dry spell, there are plenty of opportunities to expand on your portfolio and develop your brand as a professional.
As I near the finish line to get my degree, I have a lot to do in the coming weeks. While I’m finishing projects, creating my brand, and applying for jobs, I am reflecting on my graphic design career and hoping to share the things I wish I knew back when I first began. I hope that someone, somewhere, can relate and use my experience to their advantage. We are all in this together, people!
brandi pinette 
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