Many young designers are turning to online portfolios to give themselves an edge in a competitive job market. Since your design skills are extraordinary, there’s no need to settle for an ordinary online portfolio. Here’s why you should try a .design domain name on for size.

Showcase a Wide Array of Skills

One of the best features of a .design domain name is that it doesn’t force you into a box. Freelance designer Abi Long has created a portfolio using her custom .design domain name to give employers a look at everything she can create, including typography, GIFs and photography (plus a very adorable illustration of her and her cats).

Visit abilong.design

Abi is using her .design domain to supplement her resume with concrete examples that will ensure she stands out from the crowd.

Make Your Resume Discoverable

Let’s face it - looking for a job is a job unto itself. With a .design domain, you can make it easier for employers to find you on their own. By following best SEO practices, like including keywords you know employers are searching for on your resume, you can ensure your online presence is doing the heavy lifting for you during your job search.

Devin Schumann, a mixed media artist, uses her .design domain to not just showcase her work in the wild, but to provide employers with a direct PDF download of her resume.

Visit devinschumann.design

The next time someone asks you for your resume, wouldn’t it be great to send them to a custom website instead? Think of it as your virtual cover letter.

Redirect a .design Domain to an Existing Profile

Already spent lots of time building your online portfolio on a website like Jimdo or Format? No problem! You can use a custom .design domain to redirect to those existing pages. Why? The URL will be cleaner, shorter and easier to remember.

You can also use your custom .design domain to host a simple landing page, like Abraham Mendoza did for his freelance business, Art Mine Design.

Visit artmine.design

This design is simple and to the point and doesn’t take much time to put together. Now he has a clean and memorable way to share his online business card that isn’t a long, cumbersome URL.

Now that you’ve seen some examples of how to use .design domain names for your portfolio or resume, let’s take a look at how you can make it happen (hint: it’s super easy).

How to Choose a .design Domain Name

Choosing your name is simple and boils down to two questions:
 

1. Are you using your website to create an online resume and portfolio?
2. Are you using your website to build a business?

If you chose option one, your best bet is to grab your name for your domain (i.e. JoeSmith.design). If you chose option two and your business name is different from your own name, go ahead and use that name (like artmine.design). If your business includes the word design at the end, you can use the .design domain to complete your business name. For example, if your business is called Crystal Design, get crystal.design (not crystaldesign.design).

How To Build Your Site with .design

Building your website is easy and fun and you can make it as simple or as feature-heavy as you want. Once you grab your .design domain name, you can use any number of services to build your actual website. WordPress is the world’s most popular website builder, but there are plenty of design-focused website builders out there that will let you drag-and-drop your way to a beautiful website in minutes.

Why not get started building right now? RGD Members can grab their own .design domain name, matching professional email address and easy drag-and-drop Weebly website builder FREE for an entire year. Details in the Members-only section of the RGD website. Offer expires December 31, 2022.

Now that you’ve seen some great examples of .design domain names in action, you can see that there is no wrong way to build your online portfolio. The options are as varied as your talents. We can’t wait to see what you build!