A lot of people start building their architecture portfolios with nothing more than examples of buildings or locations. These are fine, but they can be boring if you look at them for too long!

If someone asked you about three interesting things, one would probably be a house or boat of your family’s. Or maybe something like “I love looking at leaves so there’s my second choice.”

These types of pictures don’t tell anyone anything beyond what your parents raised you with and how you grew up. If you were never taught how to draw well or how to organize your ideas in drawing, then no one will ever really know what you look like when you add some graphics to it.

Architecture is a very expressive medium. When you get into it, you express yourself through shapes, colors, materials, and concepts. All these things combine to make messages and stories that speak about who you are as a person.

But telling everyone what you think is important as an architect isn’t necessarily the best way to show off your talent.

It may also not set you apart from other architects, because most people aren’t aware of the nuances that make up good design. Your personal style could easily drown out others’.

Find an architecture firm you admire

The next step in creating your portfolio is finding an architect or architectural group that you admire and are passionate about, whether it’s for their creative designs, their professionalism, or both.

You can browse through their work online and get some inspiration from there, or even visit one of their projects if possible. If nothing strikes a chord with you, then take some time to read their portfolios and learn how they built up what we call their “artistic voice.”

By investing time into studying other people’s artistic styles, you will be able to pick up some helpful tips and tricks. You may also find something that inspires you to develop your own style.

There are many ways to use this information to create your own unique artistic style, so don’t hesitate to experiment! And once you have found your artistic voice, you can start building upon that.

Message them

It’s very important to not make your portfolio look too professional, polished or perfect. After all, you don’t want to come across as someone who is trying to pose as having experience when they really don’t!

If you feel that your design skills are limited, then start looking into it more. You can take any topic, anything from fashion to music to business – even something completely unrelated like colors – and create a new piece using those concepts as material.

By putting in effort to learn outside of your field, you’ll be proving that you have passion for other things than just designing, which will speak volumes about you as a person.

And while it may sound crazy at first, I promise you’d be surprised how many people don’t know what kind of designer they want to be until they try to teach themselves.

Link your portfolio

When it comes down to it, being able to show how you develop your architectural skills is just as important as having lots of pictures in your portfolio. So, make sure to link your portfolios!

Most people start building their architecture career with no experience at all. This can be fine if you are very creative or have already mastered certain design concepts, but this isn’t the case for most architects.

If you're someone who's always loved looking at buildings and designing them, then the chances are you've wanted to become an architect since you were a kid. Now is the perfect time to do so!

There are many ways to learn about architecture, and while some may seem too technical, there are others that don't get lost in too much talk of structural engineering and such.

Whatever style of architecture you want to pursue, there will almost certainly be courses and/or lectures you can attend to get started. Or maybe there'll even be events where you can present and showcase your work.

Either way, making connections with other architects is one of the best things you can do to gain knowledge and confidence in yourself as an aspiring professional.

Create your website

Creating your portfolio site is probably the most important part of putting together your architecture career! If you are looking to climb the ladder, or even if you already have experience and just want to show off your skills, creating an interactive showcase for yourself can be tricky.

There are several ways to do this, but the best way will depend on what kind of architect you want to become. For example, if you would like to work in corporate design, having a strong graphical style that people recognize makes a difference. On the other hand, if you aspire to practice in residential or academic design, then keeping things relatively neutral helps set you apart.

Whatever genre you choose to focus on, make sure to add enough variety to look interesting! Too much sameness can hurt your image.

Get your licenses

Now that you have your light source, silhouette, and composition figured out, it’s time to get some pictures! While having no experience is totally okay, getting professional quality photos can be tricky unless you are very creative or know how to take photographs.

Luckily, there are plenty of ways to obtain photography licenses for creating an architecture portfolio. Some sites offer free photo credits while others ask for a small monthly fee per image.

Many schools and non-profit organizations use their logos in educational materials so look up those before taking any paid portraits! Most websites also allow you to rotate through all of their stock images which gives you infinite possibilities.

Overall, most website owners are willing to help other artists grow his/her craft by allowing users to download limited editing software such as photoshop or lightroom.

Take pictures

A lot of people start off by saying that you can’t build your architecture career without having at least some sort of degree, but this isn’t entirely true. You don’t need any formal training to be an architect!

All professional architects have at least one portfolio full of examples designed by them. This is because being able to design creative buildings requires artistic talent, which most people are naturally born with.

Furthermore, many successful architects didn’t graduate with a bachelor’s or master’s in art and instead learned their craft through informal education routes like taking courses at community colleges, talking to mentors, and doing job applications.

If you want to make an architecture portfolio yourself then no matter what level of experience you have, all you need to do is take lots and lots of good quality pictures and edit them into something beautiful. It’s totally possible to pick up after that!

And if you’re looking to get started, here are our tips for how to make an architecture photography portfolio that will help you get noticed.

Tell your friends

Before we get into how to make an architecture portfolio, you must tell yourself that it’s going to take time! You will not have quick fixes or shortcuts to building your design career. It takes work and effort to grow as an architect, just like anything else.

But I do want to give you some helpful tips if you are struggling to pick up where you left off before life got in the way. Or maybe you are starting from scratch because you lost your job as an architect.

You deserve to show off what you know so here are my tips for you. These strategies can be done at any stage of your architectural career, whether you are looking to gain employment as an associate, full-time employee, or project manager.

Get a mentor

As with any career, being able to tell people what you want to do is half of the battle. Luckily, there are many ways to pick up this knowledge. One way is to get into a state where you’re not quite sure if you want to be an architect already, and then learn how to be one!

By having a job as an architect, you’ll have access to architects that would otherwise be your mentors. You can ask them questions and gain insights from their work, or just by talking to them, they may offer advice or tips for becoming an architect.

Alternatively, you could look up past projects done by architects in different styles to see what techniques they used and apply those to yours. Or even take some art classes or music lessons – anything related to the arts has lesson books and guides available online these days! The more areas of expertise you have, the better architect you will become.

Getting a degree as an architecture student or recent graduate is also another way to find a mentor. Even if you don’t plan to go into practice as an architect yourself, most universities now require students to complete certain professional courses before graduating. These courses include things like leadership, business, marketing and communication skills, project management etc., all of which play a part in being an architect.