Fox Fridays: Build a Personal Portfolio with FIGMA: No Coding Required!

This free workshop will give participants the tools and techniques to craft a portfolio that truly stands out - no coding is required!! Whether you’re a designer, artist, or just have some work that you want to showcase more formally, we will equip you with the skills to transform your work into captivating visual narratives.

During this hands-on workshop, Alex and Christine will guide participants through the fundamentals of Figma and demonstrate how to leverage its powerful features to create a visually unique and interactive portfolio. Over the course of the three hours we have together, participants will gain a comprehensive understanding of how to optimize their portfolio-building process in Figma, get a head start on building the foundations of their own Figma portfolio, and gain access to resources to continue learning and creating on their own. Through step-by-step demonstrations, students will learn how to showcase their work effectively, making a lasting impression on potential employers, clients, or collaborators. We’ll explore techniques for creating easily manipulated, but highly personalized, designs utilizing Figma’s design components, new variable modes, and implementing interactive prototypes that showcase your work in action. Join us for the “No coding required: leveraging Figma to build a personal portfolio” workshop and make a portfolio that gives your work the pedestal it deserves.

Takeaways

• A template for building a portfolio exclusively in Figma
  
• The first few pages of that portfolio (one of each type of page: landing, about, project, etc.)
  
• Steps and a printed/emailed guide for setting up a Figma file so it translates to development
  
• Figma Cheat Sheet
  
• An understanding of variables, styles, and advanced prototyping in Figma
  
• Some intro to conditional logic, applicable to both Figma and coding
  
• Link to our studio’s Figma Learning Modules

Cross-Disciplinary Connections

• Figma is a tool that is starting to make its way into general product and project management in many different disciplines. Having a base understanding is important even outside of design.
  
• Connections to computer science. Setting up Figma files for development.
  
• Connections to writing + marketing. Portfolios are about marketing yourself through the language you use, in addition to the visuals.
  
• Any student interested in showcasing work from their academic experience will benefit from learning Figma! It’s not just for designers.

Instructors

Christine Watridge, AB ‘22, is program coordinator and studio manager at the Sam Fox School’s Health Communication Design Studio, working with Assistant Professor Penina Acayo Laker. Interested in the intersection of design and public health, Watridge’s work merges co-creation practices, health communication methods, and public health principles to work with community partners to design solutions for health equity issues in St. Louis. She’s also a “die-hard art history nerd” who visits as many museums as she can, backpacks and hikes, and watches Star Trek.

Alex Koehl is an interdisciplinary designer with a focus on equity-centered design research and interaction, currently working as the UX/UI Designer at the Health Communication Design Studio. Having previously worked at Creative Reaction Lab with Antionette Carroll, they bring lessons of equitable design learned there with them into the health communication space. A 2021 graduate of Washington University in St. Louis’ Sam Fox School, they are now at the school’s Health Communication Design Studio, under Assistant Professor Penina Acayo Laker, contributing to equitable health access for those in the St. Louis area and beyond.