Goal
Get a good-looking website up, fast, using something you already pay for through school.
Audience
Designers who want a real site without touching code, especially anyone who will keep paying for Creative Cloud after graduation.
Process
Sign in, pick a template, import your Behance projects, customize, publish. Optionally point a domain at it. Then read the warning.
Overview
Adobe Portfolio is rented, not owned. It stays online only while somebody is paying for a Creative Cloud plan. Right now that somebody is Maricopa, so it is free to you. When your student access ends, Adobe gives you a 14-day grace period, and then your public site goes offline.
Your work is not deleted. You can still get into the editor and your content is safe. But the site stops loading for anyone who clicks the link on your résumé.
This is the single most important thing on this page. Do not put a link on your résumé that will die the semester you start job hunting.
So should you use it?
Yes, if you are going to keep paying for Creative Cloud anyway. Most working and freelance designers do. If you are already paying Adobe every month for Photoshop and Illustrator, Portfolio comes along with it and costs you nothing extra. In that case it is a great choice and the easiest good-looking site here.
Think twice, if you are not sure you will keep Creative Cloud. Adobe subscriptions are expensive, and “my portfolio will go offline” is a rough reason to be locked into one.
The escape hatch: if you own your own domain, you are never trapped. Rebuild somewhere free, re-point your domain, and every link you ever handed out still works. That is what a domain actually buys you. It is not vanity, it is portability.
Set it up
- Go to portfolio.adobe.com and sign in with your Adobe / Maricopa account.
- Pick a template. Choose based on your work, not on which one is prettiest. If your work is image-heavy, pick a grid. If you have long case studies, pick something with room to read.
- Import from Behance. This is the big one. If you already published projects on Behance, Portfolio will pull them in. If you already use Behance, this step takes minutes instead of hours.
- Build your About page. A photo, a real bio, and what kind of work you are looking for. Not a résumé dump.
- Add a contact method. An email address at minimum. A portfolio with no way to reach you is a brochure, not a job application.
- Embed your walkthrough videos on each project page.
- Preview on your phone. Most people who open your portfolio will do it on a phone. Look at it there before you publish.
- Publish.
- Optional: connect a custom domain. Portfolio settings has a Domain Name tab. It will give you DNS records to add at your registrar. Expect it to take up to 72 hours to start working. Read the domain page first.
Pros and cons
Pros
- Free while you are a student.
- Syncs with Behance. Least duplicate work of any option here.
- Real custom domain support.
- The templates actually look good. Built by a design company, for designers.
- No code at all.
- Publish up to five separate sites, if you want a portfolio and a side project.
Cons
- Goes offline 14 days after Creative Cloud lapses.
- Locks you into an Adobe subscription for as long as you want a site.
- Less layout control than building it yourself.
- You are one of many. The templates are recognizable.
- Adobe can change the terms whenever they like. You are a tenant.
Resources
- portfolio.adobe.com
- Adobe Portfolio Help Center
- What happens when your subscription ends · read this one before you commit
- How to point a custom domain at it
Platforms change their plans and their menus constantly. If a step here does not match what you see on screen, tell me and I will fix the page.