How to Create a Free Art Portfolio With Instagram
Earlier this week, Ji Lee, a communication designer at Facebook, created an Instagram account that serves as a free art portfolio. That’s great, and with his blessing, we’ve outlined how to do the same – even if you’re a moderate Instagram user, it’s an easy, accessible, and organizational way to unleash your talent.
Step forward in an Instagram account
It’s simple! Create an Instagram account to serve as the hub for your portfolio.
Download the “About Me” image
Before sharing your art, the first image in your account should act as an introduction – think of it as an “about me” page. This is, of course, not necessary, but there must be some kind of personality in every portfolio. Lee (see below) is pretty straightforward; it includes his photo, name and signature, which serves as a summary.
Indicate what you want to include in your art portfolio
This is where the process becomes more detailed. Before uploading, you should have an idea of what you would like to include in your portfolio, so organize your thoughts accordingly. Want a section dedicated to branded projects? Editorial effort? Logos? Exhibits? Whatever your artistic skillset, make sure you have an idea of what a separate page would be for (we’ll come back to that in a minute) and what could be put on a single Instagram post with multiple images.
Upload images to be featured in one Instagram post (with multiple slides)
Let’s say you want to host a project in your Instagram portfolio that requires no more than 10 images. You can do it in one post! (Once you have more than 10 images, you will need to take the next step, which we have outlined below.) Upload the project or section images (as with any other Instagram post with multiple photos), making sure the first one is selected … are tagged according to how you chose the topic name. In the example above, the Lee for “Book” title field is used to individually describe each image. You can do the same.
Set up separate Instagram accounts for ongoing or larger projects
Let’s say you want to highlight your drawing talent and don’t want to limit yourself to ten images highlighted in the Instagram Multiple Photos feature, or plan to update your drawing portfolio regularly. In this case, your best bet is to create a separate, dedicated Instagram account. Once you’ve done that – and upload whatever best illustrates your talent – you’ll want to upload a few drawings to your main portfolio account just like before: the first image with the caption and then a few examples. Tag the first image with a caption by linking it to your highlighted image on Instagram. Use the title box to ask users to touch an image and click a tag for more information.