8 Amazing Free Online Creative Portfolio Community Sites – Share and Inspire

8 Amazing Free Online Portfolio Community Sites – Share and Inspire

1. Behance Network

About : I’ll be honest, I am struggling to write a short description of the Behance Network (you could write a book), the features are endless, the portfolio designs are clean stylish and professional, the high pedigree of professionals on there network is very high… There really isn’t anything negative you can say about it.

In there own words: “A free platform for the worlds leading creative professionals”. There you go, nice and simple.

Features: You can build a dynamic, multimedia portfolio of your latest projects, open to all or shared selectively ; Form groups (“circles”) gathered around interests, share content and get feedback ; Behance’s Tip Exchange provides insights for creative professionals, and throughout Behance one can access knowledge, services and products for the creative community ; Behance’s JobList features great work opportunities. Creative industry leaders use the Network to find, track and hire top talent.

Set-Up : You will need to request an invitation to you join the Behance Network, click here: Request an Invite. They are extending invitations on a selective basis at the moment, so what are you waiting for! Request your invite.
Take the Tour here : Behance Network Tour.

Is It Free? : Yes, participation is free, and there are currently no restrictions on the amount of space that participants can use for their projects. The Behance platform is free for creative professionals, with no limit to space, I am loving this.

Areas of Expertise : For all creative professionals.

Example Galleries

URL : behance.net/JackRadcliffe.
Areas of Expertise : Photography, Fine Arts.

URL : www.behance.net/tamerkoseli.
Areas of Expertise : Graphic Design, Industrial Design, Branding.

URL : behance.net/studiokxx.
Areas of Expertise : Design, Illustration, Web Design.

2. Carbonmade : Your online portfolio

About : With Carbonmade, you can manage and showcase your online portfolio with a variety of tools that will allow you to change how you display your work.
Currently Carbonmade has over 78,470 portfolios stored, its that popular!

Set-Up : Its a snap. Click Signup and fill out the form, you will then arrive at your own personal dashboard. Click the About tab and fill out all your personal details as you would like them to appear on your portfolio for public viewing. Then click Projects and Add a Project. You can upload images and flash movies and then group these into projects, with some details (Title, Client URL, and Description). You also have the option of allowing your projects to be visible or hidden from public viewing.
Try the Demo : Free online Demo.

Is It Free? : They have two packages, the first is free called Meh you get 5 projects with 35 images (which is plenty). The pro package is called Whoo!, for $12/month you get 50 projects with up to 500 hi-res images and 10 high quality videos (not too expensive).

Areas of Expertise : If you are an artist, photographer, graphic designer, web designer, fashion design… Hell, it covers everything.

Example Galleries

URL : gri3fon.carbonmade.
Areas of Expertise : Web Design, Vector, Minimalism and xhtml/css.
Skills : Macromedia Dreamweaver, Inkscape, Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Photoshop, xhtml, css, html/css

URL : aaron-humphreys.carbonmade.
Areas of Expertise : Graphic Design, Interactive Design, Web Design, Logo Design, Illustration, Photography, Artworking.
Skills : Adobe Creative Suite CS3 (which includes; Dream…, Photoshop, Illustrator & Flash 9), Adobe Audition, Reason 3, Quark Xpress 7, Microsoft Office 2008, Final Cut Pro. CSS & XHTML W3C compliancy, RSS feeds, ActionScripting, Blogging, Social Networking, User-generated platforms such as Joomla, Myspace and WordPress.

URL : Adrie.carbonmade.
Areas of Expertise : Illustration, Photography, Art Direction, Web Design, 3D and Desktop publishing.
Skills : Illustrator, Photoshop, InDesign, After Effect, Premiere, 3DsMax, Freehand, Flash, Dreamweaver.

3. SHOWN’D : SHOWCASE YOUR STUFF

About : SHOWN’D aims to provide users with a centralized hub to maintain a portfolio and secure employment. Employers benefit from the vast array of creative professionals and artwork displayed on the web site as well as the tools provided for sorting through the various showcases. A little bit younger than Carbonmade, so the volume of online portfolios is smaller, but still it is just as good. It also has a job section making it easier for potential employers to quickly find the professional that they need. Overall, I really like this site, it has a lot of potential.

Set-Up : Signup, add your personal details (About You Button), and then add your projects (New Project Button) giving as much detail as you like. What I really like about Shown’d is the Settings Button, you can customize your homepage by changing the background, font-size, thumbnail size… Also your entire dashboard has drag and drop functionality, so you can have the layout just the way you like it.
Try the Demo : Free online Demo.

Is It Free? : Yes, it is, with no limit to space.

Areas of Expertise : illustrator, photoshop, graphic design, logo design, logo designer, web design, after effects, corporate identity, css, flash, graphic artist, illustration, indesign, motion graphics, stationery design,ui design, video and web design.

Example Galleries

URL : shownd.com/joanneduff.
Areas of Expertise : Graphic Design.
Skills : Graphic Design, Logo Design, Web Design, Stationery Design.

URL : shownd.com/elusivemuse.
Areas of Expertise : Digital Artist.
Skills : Flash, Graphic Design, Illustration, Videography, Motion Graphics, Illustrator, Photoshop, After Effects, Premiere, Indesign, Logo Design

URL : shownd.com/henriqueoli.
Areas of Expertise : Graphic Design.
Skills : Illustrator, Photoshop, Web Design, Branding.

4. Coroflot – Design Jobs and Portfolios

About : Coroflot is a career and community site for creative professionals. Coroflot hosts individual creative portfolios and a database of job and project openings. The thriving community that visits the site daily represents a cross-section of the global design industry-working designers, design managers, internal and external hiring professionals, business managers of design firms, marketing and product management professionals, students, and educators.

Features: Statistics on profile and image views, organized by month ; Group your projects into sets and organize them with a drag-and-drop interface ; Let everyone see how great you are, or share your project sets confidentially ; Add tags to images to help people easily find your work; Build a network of industry peers. Share your connections with others ; New job postings that match your criteria sent via email daily or weekly. RSS feeds of new job listings available as well.

Set-Up : Signup here : Sign Up, and your good to go.

Is It Free? : Yes.

Areas of Expertise : The site covers cross-discipline design, with Industrial Design, Interaction Design and Graphic Design the three most popular categories. The audience returns daily to monitor the ever changing array of content, and uses a variety of tools and resources found at the site to help them in their careers.

Example Galleries

URL : Anita Acharekar.
Areas of Expertise : Print, Illustration, Art Direction.

URL : Darold Pinnock.
Areas of Expertise : Fashion/Apparel, Illustration; Interaction Design.
Skills : Flash, Graphic Design, Illustration, Videography, Motion Graphics, Illustrator, Photoshop, After Effects, Premiere, Indesign, Logo Design

URL : Julian Gelvezon.
Areas of Expertise : Interaction Design.

5. Professional On The Web

About : Professional on the Web is a fresh directory where web agencies and freelancers can list their profiles and easily manage showcase of their projects. They keep the directory as focused as possible to get the most number of professionals listed in the directory.
After signing up you can complete your profile using in_place_editors and you can arrange projects and tags by drag and drop .
Users can search web professionals by tag and also rate projects instantly. No need to register or sign in.
You can subscribe to the ever increasing list of designers and projects being added to Professional on the web via RSS.
URL : Professional On The Web Homepage.

6. Deviantart

About : Surely, you don’t need a description for devianart!!!
URL : Deviantarts Homepage.

7. design:related

About : design:related is a community site and inspiration tool that brings together creative people from different disciplines (and parts) of the design world. Design:related serves to motivate designers to share ideas, inspire, and be inspired.
URL : design:related Homepage.

8. Portfolio’s Friend

About : This is a collection of artist’s web portfolios to learn from, enjoy, and promote. With an emphasis on individuals, rather than agencies and studios, the range of artistic style is vast.
URL : Portfolio’s Friend Homepage.

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