Deslove guides

Your first design portfolio project, from brief to publication.

A useful portfolio case shows what you made, what problem you were working on and which decisions were yours. On Deslove, you can combine images and text in a work, add a cover, category and tags, and share the published project from your profile.

For designers publishing a first project, including students and people with self-initiated work. You need a Deslove account to publish; you can read this guide without one.

Create a work on Deslove

1. Choose one project and state your role.

Start with a project you can explain clearly: a small identity, poster series, interface or illustration. If it was a team project, say which parts you created. A portfolio case is easier to understand when the reader can distinguish the brief, your contribution and the final outcome.

Client work is not required for a first case. Use a self-initiated concept or a study assignment and label it at the start. For a fictional coffee shop, write “Self-initiated identity concept for a fictional coffee shop.” Describe design goals as goals; do not invent a commission, customer feedback or business results.

2. Prepare images that tell a sequence.

Choose an opening image that makes the result readable, then add the details needed to explain it: the mark or main screen, a useful process view and a few applications. Show variations when they reveal a decision. Several near-identical mockups usually explain less than one clear close-up.

The Deslove work editor accepts JPG, PNG and WebP images, up to 35 images and 2 MB per image. At least one image is required. Export readable previews from your design tool and keep the original source files separately; uploading a portfolio image does not replace them.

3. Write a specific title and a short description.

Open the work editor after signing in. Give the case a title that identifies the project and the kind of design, such as “Morning Cup — identity concept”. Deslove allows up to 80 characters in a work title and 500 in its required short description.

Use the description to name the project, the task and your role. Leave the longer explanation for text blocks between images. A first paragraph can cover the brief and constraints; later captions can explain why you chose a typeface, colour or interaction. Connect each explanation to something the reader can see.

4. Combine images with short text blocks.

Use Add in the work editor to add Images or Text. Arrange the case so it can be followed without an oral presentation: context, main result, the decisions behind it and the remaining applications. Add text beside the part of the story it explains rather than placing every caption at the end.

You can reorder images, add text after an image and adjust spacing. Use the Style controls to keep text readable against the canvas background. A process image should answer a question: for example, how you simplified a symbol or why one layout was easier to scan.

5. Choose a cover, category and relevant tags.

The Preview cover panel lets you use the first image, choose another image from the work or upload a separate cover. Drag the image in its frame to choose the crop. Deslove displays the cover in a 600 × 469 frame, so check that the key element still makes sense when cropped.

Choose the primary design category in the Category panel and add one to eight relevant tags, separated by commas. Each tag can contain up to 24 characters. For an identity concept, “Visual Identity” with tags such as “Branding, Logo, Typography” describes the work more clearly than unrelated popular terms.

6. Preview the case, then publish and check the result.

Use Preview before publishing. Read the case from top to bottom: is your role clear, is the order useful, and can the text in your images be read at a normal viewing size? Check the cover crop and ensure that a concept, exercise or team contribution is described accurately.

Press Publish when the case is ready. A saved draft is not the same as a published work. After publication, open the public project and your profile, check the images and share its link. You can return to the work editor to update the case; keeping your source images and written text separately makes later edits easier.

A worked example

Example: a fictional coffee-shop identity.

This is a teaching example, not a claim about a client project or measured commercial results. Adapt the structure to work you actually created.

Title

Morning Cup — identity concept

Short description

A self-initiated identity for a fictional neighbourhood coffee shop. I designed the mark, typography and packaging concept to explore a calm, welcoming visual language.

Image order

Cover with the main identity; mark and clear-space detail; type and colour choices; cup and bag applications; one process comparison with a caption explaining the change.

One decision worth explaining

“I removed two small details from the mark so the silhouette stayed legible at the size used on a cup label.” Show both versions so the reader can assess the choice.

Before you finish

A final check before publishing.

The reader can tell whether the project is commissioned, self-initiated or a study exercise, and which work is mine.

The case includes a clear title, short description, at least one supported image, a category, tags and a readable cover crop.

Text explains specific decisions without inventing user research, client approval or measured results.

Images and text remain readable in Preview, and the published link shows the intended project.

Make the first case clear enough to share.

You can build a portfolio one considered project at a time. Start with the work you can explain honestly, then use feedback and your next project to improve it.