Creating an online portfolio has never been easier. With the tools available, it has now become something anyone can do.
In the past, to create something that would look great and allow you to display artwork in an elegant way, you had to hire a developer. Hiring someone to create a custom website can be very expensive and may not be an option available to everyone.
Luckily for those artists on a budget, WordPress has grown in the last ten years. It is no longer something that is used simply to create blogs for writers to showcase their work. With a few plugins or a specifically designed theme, WordPress can easily be transformed into an impressive online portfolio for any visual artist.
Media management has become an important component of newer versions of WordPress. Developers and designers are taking advantage of these advancements to create some great themes and plugins that artists can use.
Let's take a look at some of those creations that you can use to create your own beautiful portfolio website.
Topics
We've already chosen a full selection of portfolio WordPress themes for you to browse. We have managed to find a lot of them, this way let's take a look at some of my favorite topics that we have already found.
Photocrati
Photocrati has been specifically created for photographers to display their work.
Rather than being a simple theme, Photocrati is a framework that enables you to make use of 60 built-in styles to create a site that looks exactly the way you want it to. Not only does the framework include powerful gallery management, but at the same time it has a built-in e-commerce system so you can sell your work directly from your site.
With access to a community of over 17,000 photographers, this premium theme is a bargain at $ 89.
Total WordPress theme
With tons of demos to choose from and built-in options, you can't go wrong with the Total WordPress Theme. It's a multipurpose theme with built-in support for drag-and-drop page creation, WooCommerce onboarding for creating a store, support for the popular Event Calendar plugin for displaying events, and tons of helpful customization settings to make the theme look better. For your needs.
To illustrate
Illustrate is a great premium portfolio theme created by the team here at R Marketing Digital with the help of design from Blaz at Blazrobar.com.
The theme is clean, simple, and built with the intention of allowing you to easily share your work online. The theme enables you to create unlimited categories and tags to organize your portfolio. It comes with a unique portfolio color overlay and an image color palette feature to add a bit more style and information to your portfolio pieces.
Accessories
If you already have a WordPress website with a theme that you like, changing it may not be your best option. Rather than redesign your entire site around a new theme, you should use one of the many portfolio plugins out there.
With these plugins, you can transform a section of your site into a fantastic portfolio that easily integrates with your current site design. Let's take a look at a selection of plugins that are available for your use.
Impressive filterable portfolio
Not only does this plugin have a great name, it delivers exactly what it says on the tin. This plugin enables you to create a clean and powerful portfolio on your website.
Awesome Filterable Portfolio enables you to create multiple categories for your portfolio items and then filter the portfolio page using these categories. The filtering process happens with a very smooth and professional animation and has a great image scrolling effect that really makes each item stand out.
This is a wonderful plugin that will be exactly what the vast majority of artists want. It has no cost and is available in the WordPress plugin repository.
Media grid
Media Grid is a premium plugin that enables you to create unlimited portfolio grids. These grids automatically change the display size of each item to fit whatever grid size you set. This means that as you add more items to each grid, the display changes to accommodate them.
The plugin comes with a visual grid generator that enables you to customize the appearance of each grid manually. Subsequently, each grid can be added to the pages using the shortcode wizard built into the plugin. There are several customization options for each grid, including adding items in categories to filter and adding various overlay colors for the items in the grid, allowing you to make the grid display exactly how you want it.
ZoomFolio
ZoomFolio is a very stylish portfolio add-on. As with the others, it enables you to categorize each item and then filter those items on the page. What sets ZoomFolio apart is the way it enables you to customize the page layout.
With your portfolio page created, there is a Quick Settings menu that allows you to change the background, the color of the text links, and the scroll color on the fly. This settings menu at the same time enables you to change the grid style and width of the default element live on the page.
Each portfolio item is displayed in a lightbox when clicked and can then be further expanded into a full screen image. This is a great way to display higher resolution versions of your work. The plugin at the same time has the social exchange built into each item in the portfolio.
OnePage Portfolio
The OnePage Portfolio plugin is a very simple plugin for creating portfolio pages. The plugin enables you to add all the pieces of your portfolio into one category and then filter the items on the page with the use of tags.
The plugin displays your portfolio items in a Pinterest-equivalent style that is very clean. Each portfolio item can display a description when clicked. Items are added to the group by creating a new publication and assigning it to the portfolio category you have selected.
It is a minimalist and very simple plugin that will appeal to those who don't want their pages to look too complicated. It can be downloaded for free from the WordPress repository.
Do you have an online portfolio?
As you can see, there are a myriad of options to help you build an impressive portfolio. I have only scratched the surface of what is available for you to use to create your own portfolio website.
Developers and designers are adding great new themes and plugins to the market every day with photographers and other visual artists in mind. If the ones I've talked about here don't suit your needs, I can guarantee that there will be a theme or add-on for you.
Do you have any suggestions for themes or plugins to create awesome portfolios? If so, we'd love to hear from you in the comments below.
