Image preview: Design a Bold and Vibrant Portfolio

Design a Bold and Vibrant Portfolio

Learn how to design a bold and vibrant portfolio website, using a combination of lighting techniques and blending options. Download the source file for this and all our other tutorials in our VIP Members Area.

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Final Image

As always, this is the final image that we’ll be creating:

redport20 Design a Bold and Vibrant Portfolio

If you want access to the downloadable .PSD file for this, and every other tutorial at PSDFAN, then join our members area for just $4.95 per month.

Step 1

Create a new document (900X900px).

Create a new layer called ‘orange header’. Make a selection that’s 900X450px and fill it with an orange gradient:

redport1 Design a Bold and Vibrant Portfolio

Step 2

With your header selection in place create a new layer called ‘header clouds’. Go to filter>render>clouds to fill your header area with clouds. Then change your layer mode to ‘color dodge’ and reduce your opacity to 10%.

redport2a Design a Bold and Vibrant Portfolio

redport2b Design a Bold and Vibrant Portfolio

Step 3

Now download this great texture set from PSDFAN:

Texture Thursday: Damage

Paste one of the textures into your header selection. Call this layer ‘header texture’.

Then reduce this layer’s opacity to 20% and change the layer’s blend mode to ‘overlay’.

redport3a Design a Bold and Vibrant Portfolio

redport3b Design a Bold and Vibrant Portfolio

Step 4

Now use your radial gradient tool to create a white to transparent radial gradient in the right area of your header.

Then reduce the opacity of this layer to 20% and the layer blend mode to: ‘color dodge’.

redport4a Design a Bold and Vibrant Portfolio

redport4b Design a Bold and Vibrant Portfolio

Step 5

Create a new layer called ‘lighting 1′. Use your lasso tool to create a triangular shard like selection in your header. Fill this selection with a white to transparent gradient.

Then reduce the opacity of this layer to 5% and the layer blend mode to: ‘color dodge’.

redport5a Design a Bold and Vibrant Portfolio

redport5b Design a Bold and Vibrant Portfolio

Step 6

Repeat this technique to create a collection of light shards in your header.

redport6 Design a Bold and Vibrant Portfolio

Step 7

Create a new layer called ‘menu’. Create a 60px high selection at the top of your canvas. Fill it with black, and reduce the opacity of this layer to 40%.

Then, to create a 1px white line under your menu apply a drop shadow (settings below):

redport7a Design a Bold and Vibrant Portfolio

redport7b Design a Bold and Vibrant Portfolio

Step 8

Add some menu text, as well as some 1px dividers between the menu items.

redport8 Design a Bold and Vibrant Portfolio

Step 9

Download this Macbook Pro vector set:

Macbook Pro vector set

Paste in your Macbook Pro vector, and position it the right half of your header.

redport9a Design a Bold and Vibrant Portfolio

Then apply the following layer blending options to your Macbook Pro layer, including a color overlay, in order to make the laptop blend better with it’s background:

redport9b Design a Bold and Vibrant Portfolio

redport9c Design a Bold and Vibrant Portfolio

Step 10

Now create a new layer called ‘macbook shadow’. Create an oval selection beneath your Macbook Pro and fill it with black. Then apply a gaussian blur to your shape. This should give the impression of your laptop casting a downward shadow.

redport10 Design a Bold and Vibrant Portfolio

Step 11

Write out some large header text (I used the free font Museo).

Then apply the blending options shown below:

redport11a Design a Bold and Vibrant Portfolio

redport11b Design a Bold and Vibrant Portfolio

Step 12

Add some more text to your header, this time using Arial as your font, and select a color that is a darker version of your header background color.

redport12a Design a Bold and Vibrant Portfolio

redport12b Design a Bold and Vibrant Portfolio

Step 13

Now work on creating a form in your header section. Create a rounded rectangle shape for your form input (radius 10px), and apply the blending options shown below. This should make your form look embedded in your header background.

redport13a Design a Bold and Vibrant Portfolio

redport13b Design a Bold and Vibrant Portfolio

Step 14

Now work on creating a form in your header section. Create a rounded rectangle shape for your form input (radius 10px), and apply the blending options shown below. This should make your form look embedded in your header background.

redport14a Design a Bold and Vibrant Portfolio

redport14b Design a Bold and Vibrant Portfolio

Step 15

Now create a button for your form:

redport15 Design a Bold and Vibrant Portfolio

Step 16

Add some text for your form elements:

redport16 Design a Bold and Vibrant Portfolio

Step 17

Add text to the white area beneath your header, I’ve just used filler text/images as an example:

redport17 Design a Bold and Vibrant Portfolio

Step 18

Create a new layer called ‘footer’. Create a selection at the bottom of your canvas and fill it with light gray.

redport18 Design a Bold and Vibrant Portfolio

Step 19

Create a new layer and create a circle in the bottom middle of your canvas. Fill it with the same light gray color as your ‘footer’ layer. Then merge this layer down with your ‘footer’ layer. Apply a gradient overlay (settings below):

redport19a Design a Bold and Vibrant Portfolio

redport19b Design a Bold and Vibrant Portfolio

Step 20

To finish up, add some text to your footer, adding a subtle drop shadow:

redport20 Design a Bold and Vibrant Portfolio

And We’re Done!

I really hope that you enjoyed this tutorial and would love to hear your feedback! (Click on the image below to view the full-sized image):

redport20 Design a Bold and Vibrant Portfolio

Don’t forget! If you want access to the downloadable .PSD file for this, and every other tutorial at PSDFAN, then join our members area for just $4.95 per month.

About the Author: Tom is the founder of PSDFAN. He loves writing tutorials, learning more about design and interacting with the community. On a more interesting note he can also play guitar hero drunk with his teeth.

16 Awesome Comments: Leave Your Comment

  1. User GravatarTutorial Lounge 9th February 2010

    you design professional web layout and also giving tips for beginners in this whole tutorial.

  2. User GravatarVim Web Design 9th February 2010

    The design is easy on the eye, all the important elements are there, yet you made it easy to follow, Thanks Tom

  3. User GravatarSJL Web Design 9th February 2010

    Great tutorial, really nice clean design. Always find this hard to achieve when using such a bold, vibrant colour.

    Thanks.

  4. User GravatarAdriano Trenahi 9th February 2010

    Nice Design Layout – I loved this.

    Thanks so much.

  5. Parthu 9th February 2010

    nice tut tom……

  6. User GravatarTom 9th February 2010

    Thanks a lot guys! I agree that a colorful layout can be difficult to keep clean, but hopefully this should give some ideas of how to achieve the bold, clean look.

  7. Discovery 9th February 2010

    I like this design, but always think how converta design like this to html correctly

  8. User GravatarNew York Web Designer 9th February 2010

    wow!! amazing tutorial!!! Thanks a lot ..
    Best regards

  9. User GravatarKarl 10th February 2010

    Nice tutorial Tom, you need to code this one!

  10. gregor r. 14th February 2010

    this is an ugly template, looks rather like a wp-theme than a serious portfolio; absolutely mismatched the color-scheme;
    regards

  11. User GravatarMatthew Heidenreich 21st February 2010

    good looking results, nice write up!

  12. User GravatarImon 24th February 2010

    Thanks for the tutorial, the end result is very nice!

  13. User GravatarWebcodez.net - Web Development 24th February 2010

    Nice design but i don´t see it fit for a protfolio.

    Why?
    - too chaotic
    - wrong color-sheme
    - nothing creative/unique, looks like the 0815 portfolio and therefore it´s no good for a “personal showing off”

    Don´t get me wrong, you are doing a great job on the tutorials, those are just my 2cent.

    regards,
    Admin – Webcodez.net

  14. User GravatarTom 24th February 2010

    I actually appreciate your constructive criticism. I’ll bear your feedback in mind for my next web design tutorial!

  15. User GravatarVahid 26th February 2010

    Thanks :)

  16. Rafeeqalmas 22nd April 2010

    Nice Work, But you need to code the colour for gradient

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