Request for PDF portfolio of my work

I started out as a graphic designer and all purpose in-house Creative, then morphed into creating social media content for my own clients. I used to have a web portfolio but didn’t renew it. Bad decision.

A social media company requested I submit a PDF portfolio of my work.

Any resources you can share on best practices? I use light animation and video that I’d also like to share with them.

If you have a sample PDF portfolio you’d be willing to share, I’d appreciate that.

I’m really stumped on how to put this together. It’s a great company and I want to do freelance work for them.

Thank you!

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wesdacar•26 days ago•1

Since they asked for a PDF, I’d make it a case deck, not a visual dump.

A simple structure that usually works:

Cover: name, role, 1-line positioning, contact info.
Best 3 to 5 projects only. For each one: client/type of business, goal, your role, constraints, final assets, and result if you have it.
For video or light animation, use a still frame or storyboard strip in the PDF and add “full motion available on request” rather than trying to cram everything in.
Add one page showing your process: brief, concept, content plan, production, revisions, final delivery. Companies hiring freelancers want to know you can be managed easily.
End with a short services list so they know what to hire you for.

The biggest mistake is making it too pretty but vague. A hiring team should be able to skim it in two minutes and understand what problem you solved, not just what the work looked like.

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