Looking at other portfolios can certainly help with presentation and structure, particularly if you are a visual learner. However, I would be careful about treating any one portfolio as a model to copy, because the most effective portfolio should be tailored both to the designer and to the job being applied for.
A portfolio should also feel like an extension of you. Who you are, how you think and what design means to you personally. I have seen portfolios containing excellent work where the portfolio itself did not reflect the quality of the projects. I have also seen beautifully presented portfolios where the actual work was comparatively weak. Ideally, the presentation and the content should support one another.
For example, there is little benefit in leading with website projects when applying to a company whose work is mainly print production. Likewise, I would not make large-format exhibition or stage-event work the main focus when applying to a publisher. The work most relevant and interesting to that employer should appear first.
That does not mean rebuilding the entire portfolio for every application. You could create a modular portfolio in InDesign, perhaps using an InDesign Book file, with separate sections that can be reordered, included or removed as required:
Cover
About
Branding and stationery
Publications and editorial
Packaging
Digital and web
Events and large format
You can then produce a version suited to each application rather than having one fixed portfolio that tries to cover everything equally.
I learned something similar many years ago when applying for a data-driven design role. I submitted a strong, colourful portfolio, but deliberately kept my CV as a very plain black-and-white Word document. My reasoning was that the portfolio would demonstrate the creative work, while the CV was purely informational structured, easy to scan and focused on communicating data clearly.
The CV was raised during the interview because the employer felt it lacked design. I explained that the restraint was intentional, but the decision clearly did not communicate in the way I expected. I was offered the job but ultimately turned it down, partly because of how the interview went and the lack of understanding from the employer on the design decisions, I felt we wouldn’t align or agree on a lot of things.
The useful lesson was that intention alone is not enough. A restrained design still needs to look deliberately designed. If the viewer interprets a decision as a lack of effort rather than a considered choice, then the communication has failed, even if the underlying reasoning was sound.
For the individual projects, a “case study” does not need to mean several pages of writing. A short explanation is often enough:
• What was the brief?
• What was your role?
• What limitations or problems did you encounter?
• Why did you make the main design decisions?
• What was produced or achieved?
The images should still do most of the work, but the supporting information explains what the viewer is seeing and what you personally contributed.
It doesn’t have to be an essay, a line or two.
As you can tell, this is quite boring to read, as it’s too long, by design. But it illustratres why your portfolio descriptions should be short.