How to build a portfolio that gets you hired

By Olya Kuryshchuk

Every year, around December, we begin to see the same pattern: the strongest students – talent, taste, ideas, everything – quietly sabotage themselves with portfolios that undersell their work. Meanwhile, students whose collections are less refined often secure the best opportunities simply because their portfolios are clearer, sharper, and more intentional.

A portfolio determines how a studio sees you before they ever meet you. It shapes whether a design director feels excited by your eye, whether they trust your judgement, and whether they can imagine you sitting beside them at 9pm on a deadline.

This guide is written by Olya Kuryshchuk, founder and editor-in-chief of 1 Granary. Olya teaches at Central Saint Martins, sits on graduate juries around the world, reviews hundreds of portfolios each year, and works directly with luxury houses in recruitment and talent strategy. Few people see as many student portfolios, or hear as frankly what studios actually look for.

This is the guide we wish every student had before applying for placements or junior roles.

A portfolio is not a diary of everything you have done at school. It is a visual CV – a concise, deliberate, well-curated demonstration of your skills, your thinking, and your taste. Most students overfill theirs with information and under-communicate the things that actually matter. The goal is not to impress people with density; the goal is to make your abilities unmistakably clear.

When a studio reviews your portfolio, they are not looking for perfection. They are looking for answers to three questions: What can you do? How do you think? Would we want to work with you? Everything you include – each image, each detail, each layout choice – shapes how those questions are answered.

This guide is written for final-year students and those entering placement year, at the point when you shift from thinking like a student to presenting yourself as a designer inside a team. The advice is direct because the industry is direct.

1. KNOW WHAT YOU’RE SHOWING

Your portfolio is your visual CV

The first thing to understand is that your portfolio communicates your skills whether you intend it to or not. Many students assume their strengths will be obvious simply because they know what they are. But inside the portfolio, those strengths often disappear.

Strong illustrators fill every page with beautiful drawings, but reveal almost nothing about development, construction, or material thinking. Drapers bury their drape images at the back of a project. Technically minded students mention their technical skills on their CV but show none of them visually. And in almost every case, the student believes they are showing far more than they actually are.

Studios typically spend one to two minutes on an initial review. In a matter of seconds, your skills must be legible.

Start with a skills audit...