An online portfolio is always a good idea for anyone, especially for creatives to showcase their work. More often than not, when applying for a job in designing, you’re likely to be asked to show your portfolio. So, why not show it off by building your own very own portfolio website?
With a portfolio website, you can always update it from time to time to ensure your best work is showcased for you to land that job, or simply just build a name for yourself.
But building an online portfolio website is a process and one thing we suggest doing is adding animation to bring your portfolio to life. Plus, it drives a lot more interest to keep people scrolling throughout.
So, here are 12 animated designer portfolios to give you inspiration to start your own, or as ideas to spruce up your current one.
1) Stutpak
Stutpak is an animated portfolio by Andra, a freelance illustrator and animator from The Netherlands. In line with her profession, you’re immediately greeted with a beautiful illustrated Lottie animation once you open up the portfolio. As you scroll through, more illustrated animations greet you that complement her introduction. You can’t help but gaze at the details of her work.
2) Samuel Day
Samuel Day’s personal portfolio website is certainly unique and sends you on an interesting trip. As you enter, you’ll see a mouse pointer (a Lottie animation) that tells you to scroll down. But once you start scrolling, the experience leaves you spiraling into Samuel’s mind - literally.
The more you scroll, the more you continue to swirl in. You’re then met with an introduction as it keeps going into a world of animated drawings. Amazing.
3) Bella Shing
Bella Shing, a writer, director, and producer, uses a combination of lines and shapes that are animated throughout her personal portfolio website. A simplistic approach, the clean and thinned out lines offer a classy elegance to a minimal portfolio - a smart use of subtle animation that is easy on the eyes.
4) PEDRA
Another personal portfolio website that uses subtle Lottie animation is PEDRA by Petra Pommé. His website showcases his wide range of work using Lottie animation in his name logo and minimal geometric shapes to complement his homepage. This just proves that even the smallest animation can make a big impact.
5) Diego
A brand designer and Webflow developer, Diego’s personal portfolio website is beautifully done to showcase his abilities even just by scrolling down his page. It’s minimal enough that it’s not distracting. Together with links to live previews, the layout is pretty easy to consume. The colors themselves contrast but go together seamlessly at the same time. The Lottie animations he uses are quite minimal as he adds it as smaller details of navigational arrows and for his mailing call-to-action.
6) Henry Northington
If there’s one thing we love about Henry Northington’s animated portfolio is his love for pixelated art. A writer, creator, and brand specialist, Henry’s portfolio draws interest from the very start with horizontal to vertical scrolling. Complete with pixelated motion made with Lottie animation, it brings nostalgic reminders of video games back in the 90s.
7) Gary Lim
Designer, Gary Lim, showcases his work in an eye-catching portfolio built with standout colors. The first glimpse of the website we see is aptly a Lottie animation of his website name, Glimy - which we can’t help but replay because of how seamless it merges with his overall portfolio.
8) Ollivere
The first thing that catches your eye with this portfolio is a Lottie animation of a dinosaur that gnaws at the text when you start scrolling down. The best part is that it’s eating the word “nonsense” to further emphasize the “no nonsense” narrative. Throughout the portfolio, several more dinosaurs made with Lottie animation present themselves with animated train carriages that move as you continue to scroll further.
9) Mark Appleby
Web developer, Mark, certainly shows his skills in his personal portfolio website with an interactive experience. Using a mix of 3D animations and Lottie animations, you have to continuously open an animated treasure chest to reveal the rest of his portfolio - such a fun and creative concept!
10) Rubens Cantuni
Designer, Rubens Cantuni, smartly represents design work with a large Lottie animation of “CIAO” where the letters are made to look like it's in the midst of being designed. Rubens’ entire portfolio has hints of animation that work just enough to capture and go with each section.
11) Tucker Harris
Digital designer and creative developer, Tucker Harris, has created a personal portfolio website that reminds us of the minimalism of art exhibitions. The use of illustrated lines in his Lottie animations create a sleekness to the overall portfolio, and we love the straight-to-the-point layout it uses.
12) Jack Jaeschke
Dubbing himself as a “pixel pusher” - among other unique titles - Jack Jaeschke plays with pixels in text animation from the moment you load the portfolio. Together with Lottie animations that are seemingly suspended in zero gravity, it’s certainly a concept that captivates.
Build your own online portfolio with Lottie animations
If you are in the midst of building your own personal portfolio website, we hope this list has inspired you. Plus, using Lottie animations is your best bet because they’re small, scalable, and high-quality - making them really awesome for interactive portfolio styles (or any digital portfolio for that matter).
You can even turn SVGs into Lottie animations just by uploading it into our site. Plus, because Lottie animations are made as a JSON-based file format, this means you can change features like colors easily.
On top of that, if you are looking for some quick, easy animations without having to make your own from scratch, then just browse through our library of free and ready-to-use Lottie animations that are customizable with our Color Palette and Lottie Editor.
Also, here are 15 Best Portfolio Websites for Designers to Showcase Their Work in case you are looking for a portfolio website to start with!
