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Discarded Designs

Nick Snyder recently sent me an email with a question he’s been dealing with at his full time job. “Is it ok to show and code unused designs in your portfolio” I thought answering the question here in order to shed some light on this frustrating topic and hopefully help others out as well.

Niki,

Do you feel it’s acceptable to host the websites you create on your portfolio site and not link to them on the intertubes?

I work as an in-house web designer and my web design process is almost always like this:

1) I create comps in Photoshop
2) Unit Manager approves
3) I build the site based off the comps
4) Unit Manager approves
5) Site launched
6) Unit Manager approves
7) Let sit for one week
8) Unit Manager sends list of required changes
9) I try to talk them out of most of said changes
10) I fail
11) The sites become something I’m not proud of and wouldn’t include in a portfolio

I’ve recently been saving these approved first drafts that I would include in a portfolio. I’m just a bit wary of doing it because I’m afraid my new potential employer may think that I haven’t done any real work or that I’m lying because what I show versus what’s live are almost completely different.

Thanks for your time and keep up the sweet tweets ;)
—Nick Snyder

Hey Nick –

Thanks for emailing me and asking. I’ve definitely been in your situation before and understand the frustration of dealing with designs that veer away from your original intended design (thats a huge topic to address in itself!). The first thing I would do is ask your employer about showing work in your portfolio. You have every right to show the work you’ve done, but its always nice to give them a heads up and credit where the work was created. I would even bring up showing the first round designs. If they are ok with it you are in the clear and everyone is happy. If they aren’t ok with it you could just show them during an in person interview – or on a special portfolio page that isnt public.

I would also say that showing the first design and then showing the coded result isnt a bad thing. I’ve seen situations where a designer shows their intended design but then notes that the live site has been altered by the client or they host their coded version of the site. Again I would ask/inform your employer of what you want to do just to be in the clear. Most design agencies or even those that work with designers understand that things change and clients don’t always give the best design direction.

I hope that answered your question Nick – thanks again for asking!

Do you show unused designs in your portfolio?

What would you do in Nicks situation? Have you been in this situation yourself? Leave a comment and let me know what you think!

Also – if you have a design question you want answered feel free to shoot me an email and ask away!

Photo Credit Pak Gwei

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Posted in Web Design, design, design ethics