Ditch Generic Portfolios?

A designer who goes by Ridd argued in a social post that creatives should stop relying on Behance and Notion portfolio pages and build custom websites instead. (x.com) The case was straightforward: a bespoke site can show taste, voice, and specialization more clearly than a standard template shared by thousands of other portfolios. Ridd’s profile identifies him as Michael Riddering, founder of Figma Academy and a former founding designer at Maven. (x.com) (substack.com) The argument lands in a market where generic portfolio tools are easy to start and heavily promoted. Behance says it is “the world’s largest creative network,” while Notion markets more than 10,000 templates, including portfolios and personal websites. (behance.net) (notion.com) Those platforms also sell convenience as a feature. Notion says any page can be published as a site “with just a click,” and Adobe says Portfolio is included with Creative Cloud and can quickly turn work into a responsive personal website. (notion.com) (adobe.com) That convenience comes with constraints. Notion says custom domains for Notion Sites require a paid plan plus a custom-domain add-on, and Behance Pro says Adobe Portfolio can publish up to five sites and connect a custom domain. (notion.com) (help.behance.net) Behance and Adobe have also moved toward a hybrid model rather than an either-or choice. Adobe’s help pages say Behance Pro includes Adobe Portfolio, and Adobe Portfolio can import work from Behance instantly into a separate site. (help.behance.net) (behance.net) That means the real split is less about whether a designer must leave platforms entirely and more about where the main impression happens. A Behance profile can still act as discovery infrastructure, while a custom site can control layout, pacing, and brand cues on a designer’s own domain. (help.behance.net 1) (help.behance.net 2) Notion is pushing in the same direction from the opposite end. Its Sites product says users can choose a domain, theme, favicon, and look and feel, but its portfolio pitch still starts from templates rather than a fully bespoke build. (notion.com 1) (notion.com 2) For designers trying to look more specialized than interchangeable, that distinction is the point of the debate. The easier it gets to publish a portfolio in minutes, the harder it can be to make the portfolio itself look like no one else’s. (notion.com 1) (notion.com 2)