How Squarespace Helps Lesley University’s Graphic Design Students Pursue Careers with Portfolio Websites
Lesley University’s graphic design students use Squarespace to showcase major projects they completed in the program and prove their competitiveness in the job market.
By creating portfolio websites that tell a story about their work, instructors say the students can give potential employers insight into their creative process and share research they conducted for complex assignments.
“It’s the way of the world now, for designers especially—everything is about portfolios,” says Shalini Prasad, assistant professor of graphic design. “A resume can only get you so far, and websites are the only way students can really make their voices heard.”
Prasad says her design students produce content in a variety of media including print, web, and physical space, and that they specialize in brand extension across platforms. In order to graduate, they must demonstrate proficiency in producing a wide range of visual works—all of which they’re encouraged to represent in their portfolio sites.
“With Squarespace, it’s easy for students to categorize their work,” Prasad explains. “They can add menu [tabs] in their portfolio for the likes of graphic design, illustration, and explorations, which makes for a nice matrix to differentiate their pieces.”
Squarespace supports students in showing off diverse skills
While the star of Lesley students’ portfolio sites is their final capstone project—a research-heavy assignment that takes two full semesters to complete—they’re also asked to include samples of any earlier work that highlight their skillsets. According to Prasad, she guides students in identifying work that’s worthy of a portfolio mention.
“As professors, we walk students through what makes their work have efficacy and value,” she says. “We say, ‘there is merit in that [project], and it shouldn’t be discarded.’”
While many students believe they should exclude work that falls outside of their focus area, Prasad says portfolio sites should prove their versatility as designers and show an ability to operate beyond their comfort zone. The sites should also be simple to update on demand in order to accommodate specific job applications and students’ continued professional growth.
“A graphic design portfolio is a repository where everything comes into play,” she says. “Squarespace makes it easy to rearrange the order of what’s presented, so students can adjust what they want moving forward with creative freedom.”
View Lesley University student portfolio examples
Squarespace portfolio sites show the final assets—as well as the creative process behind them
Megan Handley is an adjunct design professor at Lesley University who oversees the development of student capstone projects. She requires her class to include the full scope of their research documentation in portfolio sites, so employers can see the diligence behind their creative process.
“This year, I had a student design an app [interface] for users stuck in abusive relationships,” she says. “They not only included screenshots and mockups of how the app would look, but they also posted their case studies, user journeys, testing, and personas.”
Having access to this level of detail is helpful for employers who want to dig deeper into students’ work ethic and design methodology, she says. So it’s important to choose a website portfolio platform that presents such information in a clear and attractive way.
Prasad agrees, adding, “The content has to be the hero. You don’t want to have a background or layout that competes with your work. You just need a supportive template and clean typography.”
She also advises students to keep site text and descriptions to a minimum and let their work speak for itself without distractions.
Explore Squarespace’s award-winning templates.
Students can self-promote and maintain their portfolio sites indefinitely
Through Lesley University’s partnership with Squarespace Enterprise, students have free access to their portfolio sites for one year and can opt to maintain them beyond that term at a discounted subscription rate. With help from Lesley University’s dedicated account manager, transferring any relevant domains is handled smoothly without additional work from the students.
According to Prasad, removing the financial burden for students to start building their portfolio sites was critical in hastening the process and winning their enthusiasm.
“Students really grabbed [the idea] by the horns, knowing they don’t have to pay for their portfolio sites,” she says. “It was a nice, philanthropic thing we could do for them.”
Handley encourages her students to promote their completed portfolios on social media and share links with any professional contacts they have. “Networking is always the best way to get a job, so when you’re promoting yourself and getting eyes on your work, that often leads to employment,” she says.
“It takes perseverance and putting yourself out there,” Prasad adds. “Students need to be aggressive and make those connections. A good portfolio site helps them open doors. If I’m an employer, and I’m intrigued by your portfolio, I’m going to want to talk to you.”
