Hello!
A lot of designer friends of mine mentioned that it would be super useful to convert a behance profile/project to PDF. Mostly to send on job offers, print their portfolio, etc, and not waste time having to create a PDF. So I decided to build a tool that does exactly that.
Here it is: www.lasso.ink
I thought that it could be useful to other designers, so I wanted to share it with you.
Would love to hear what you think,
Thanks!
We don’t allow free promotions here, but your post has enough relevance to keep it. However, I will move it to the software part of the forum.
I’m unsure why anyone would want to create a PDF portfolio from a portfolio made for the web. They’re two very different things with different advantages and limitations. Designing a separate portfolio in InDesign and saving it as a PDF would be a more effective and impressive solution.
Creating a separate layout designed for PDF distribution when applying for a job is hardly a waste of time. Taking a lazy shortcut and simply creating a portfolio from the Behance website seems like a good way not to get the job.
Thanks for the feedback!
It depends, I don’t think it’s a lazy shortcut. It’s more about spending time creating projects that matters, instead of spending more time updating portfolios.
For example, Behance has a tool to build layouts, with columns, etc, that some people use a lot and spend a decent amount of time polishing it.
So instead of having to recreate everything in illustrator, they can just convert that existing portfolio to PDF.
And sometimes to apply for a job position, you need a PDF format of your portfolio and a lot of people don’t have one. So with a tool like lasso.ink, they can just generate a PDF will their existing content. A lot faster than recreating everything from scratch.
What B is saying is, a more polished PDF than a Behance layout is what HE would be looking for as someone who hires designers.
As for freelancers who might use this, I guess it all depends on the level of the work being sought. When we pitch, we mix and match assets to build a portfolio that suits the proposal at hand, not a project dump from our website portfolio. But eh, this industry is tanked already. If this works for some folks and makes you money, whatEVer.
Today is all about whatEVer. 
When applying for a design position or pitching oneself to a potential client, a designer is in competition with every other designer doing the same. The designer who makes the best impression wins. Everyone else loses. The results of coming in second place in a field of a hundred applicants is the same as coming in dead last.
A best-possible impression doesn’t depend only on one’s portfolio; along with a resume, it’s the most important factor in getting an interview. The best portfolios are more than simply a collection of images that show one’s work. The best portfolios make an impression that exceeds the sum of its parts.
As a longtime art director, I’ve reviewed thousands of portfolios. For any open position, we typically received 100–150 applicants. We could always rule out around three-quarters based on their resumes. After looking at the work in their portfolios, we quickly dropped half of those who remained. This preliminary winnowing usually left 10–15 applicants worthy of more serious consideration. That analysis usually singled out 5–7 people to bring in for in-person interviews.
The best of the best usually excelled in multiple areas, but one consistent standout quality was the best designers treated their pitch to us like a design project. Everything about their applications, from the initial resumes to their in-person pitches, was fine-tuned to demonstrate to us precisely why we needed them.
Would the best of the best — the one who got the job — have sent me a canned portfolio distilled from their Behance account? I doubt it.
That said…
I looked at your portfolio showcase examples. The examples are clean, simple, well-organized, to the point, and they look pretty good. For most designers who apply for dozens of jobs using the same resume and portfolio, you’re offering a nice product they can probably use, which is great — especially for you since most designers take that approach when looking for work.
However, for me, a canned resume and portfolio distilled from Behance would signal that the applicant was going through the motions of applying for yet another job — spamming every open position with the hopes that someone would bite.
In this day and age though, designers with Behance accounts are quite often freelancers who have to market themselves and their abilities. The best designers are going to create tailor-made pitches to their prospects, perhaps highlighting previous work that shows their abilities that may not be as current as their online portfolio. Any prospect can see Behance, as most will have conducted an online search. But there might be something else, something more to the point that isn’t in the online portfolio. A simple rehash might indicate lack of serious consideration. Or lack of experience if the 10 or 12 pieces are all there is.
I’d rather the reverse tool.
Take my highly successful portfolio that I’ve polished for over 25 years and convert that to Behance.
These points make sense if you’re talking about the behance profile to PDF only.
But you can also convert any individual behance project.
You can organize everything in the Behance editor and then convert it to PDF, instead of having to recreate everything in illustrator. I won’t be a generic portfolio. It can be anything.
This is mostly just complementing a feature that behance is missing (Maybe it’s missing intentionally so that users keep using their platform).
It’s probably a very niche use-case but it has been useful to several designers already.
But in the end, it’s you designers that have to tell me what features are most useful to you, I’m just the dev. So if you have any features or even other apps you’d like to see implemented, let me know!
Most designers that know what they are doing, wouldn’t recreate a multipage document in Illustrator.
I don’t use Behance - don’t think I’ve ever logged into it.
Some people post a piece here and there - don’t think I ever got a serious job application with behance as their portfolio.
And anytime I do review a Behance portfolio a quick Google Lens or TineEye Reverse image search shows they’ve ripped off designs from Stock websites, or other portfolios, or other big brands.
I wouldn’t seriously use Behance - and I’d take every portfolio with a pinch of salt.
I don’t know anyone who uses it as as serious portfolio - apologies if anyone here does - you’re obviously excluded from my skepticism of the sincerity of the work posted 99.99% of the time on that platform.
It’s a crapshoot.