Do Clients Care More About Portfolio or Experience ?

portfolio over experience for sure when you starting out, thats already been said a bunch here so wont rehash it. but one thing... dont undersell the no experience part too hard. some clients actually like working with newer designers cause they assume youll be more flexible and put more effort in, and they not wrong half the time lol.

what i'd add is pick a lane. if you throw 20 random pieces at someone it just reads as messy. better to have like 6-7 things that show youre good at one specific thing, then expand later. and yeah write a tiny bit of context next to each one, even if the brief was made up. makes it feel real and shows you can think past just making something look pretty.

you already ahead of most people just by asking honestly.
 
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Being on the other side of that, a protfolio is one of the easiest ways to see a prospect's experience. Most clients either have a bulk of people they want to hire or a curated shortlist. You want eyes on your profile or application for longer than a few seconds and usually, a protfolio is amazing at that. While I defo look into people who have promising portfolios, experience is also a good measure for all other related skills I might be looking for. A bit of a balance still, maybe 70-30 or so. Clients are gonna weigh these things differently of course.
 
Portfolio gets you in the door, no question. But @SignalMint already nailed the part about picking a lane so wont repeat that.

One thing nobody mentioned... the no client experience thing matters less if you just stop saying it out loud. Nobody asks "how many clients have you had" before looking at your work. They look first, then judge. So lead with the work and let them assume whatever they want. Half my early gigs the client never even asked, they just liked what they saw.

The made up brief trick works too btw. Did that when i started, made up a fake coffee brand and a fake gym and built full little case studies around them. People couldnt tell and honestly didnt care, it just looked like i knew what i was doing.

You overthinking the experience side imo. Just keep making stuff.
 
portfolio is king when youre starting, thats obvious by now. but nobody really touched on how you present it outside just the pieces themselves. where you show it matters. a clean behance or even just a tidy pdf beats a wall of random images in a dm every time.

the fake brief thing works but dont overdo it either... if every single case study is some invented startup it starts smelling fake when they all have that same "here was the problem, here was my solution" polish. mix in something real if you can, even a flyer for a local shop you did for free. real constraints show in the work and clients kinda pick up on that.

and yeah stop mentioning the no experience thing. let the work talk.
 
Clients care about both, but experience is always the core factor prioritized first, while the company profile serves as the tool to demonstrate that experience.
 
In general, clients are interested in the portfolio rather than your experience.
 
You auto build portfolio if you have experince. and clients are mixed some care about experince and some want portfolio
 
YujiItadori said:
I am new to graphic design. I have some sample work in my portfolio, but no client experience yet. Do clients look more at your portfolio or your experience? What do you think ?
Click to expand...
Well it depends...For artistic skill and integrity? Portfolio. For sticking to tight deadlines, almost always experience.
 
Portfolios are more of a concern than the years you’ve been in graphic design.
 
Most clients care more about portfolio than experience at the start but what i think is that strong work can easily beat years of average experience
 
experience becomes important later but portfolio is what gets attention first if the designs look professional and solve real problems
clients are more likely to trust your work
 
Most clients want to see what you can create a good portfolio with a few impressive samples often outweighs limited experience.
 
A solid portfolio usually gets you the first few clients. Experience becomes more important once you're competing for bigger projects.
 
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