Portfolio games: transforming creative blocks into growth opportunities

If you’ve ever felt stuck when working on a portfolio, then got frustrated and ended up procrastinating—most likely, creative blocks are to blame. Luckily, dealing with it is a matter of perspective, which can be changed through several tangible practices. We’ve invited Catalina Risso, designer, educator, and Readymag Ambassador, to write a guest article on her approach to creating portfolios and share her tips on making the best of the process.

Catalina Risso teaches Personal Professional Development at Elisava, helping students define their personal brand, build strategic portfolios, and develop the confidence to navigate their careers authentically.

Seeing frustration as an invitation to grow

From time to time, we creatives may experience moments of doubt, hesitation, and feeling stuck—what we often call creative blocks. Many of those creative blocks arise when we’re building our portfolios. A portfolio is crucial for shaping a career, but there arise struggles with uncertainty about how to present your work, fear of judgment, or difficulty defining your unique style. While these moments can be frustrating, they’re also invitations to grow, redefine, and refine our creative identity.

How can one transform these challenges into opportunities? Rather than seeing these blocks as obstacles or signs of failure, you can reframe them as essential steps in creative and professional development.

I often tell my students that starting is often the hardest step, but progress comes from enjoying the process—which is imperfect, uncertain, and evolving.

By shifting our mindset and embracing both the struggles and the breakthroughs, we gain a deeper sense of clarity, confidence, and purpose. Later in the text, you’ll learn practical tips for shifting your focus.

Identifying creative blocks

From my experience working with students and creatives, I’ve observed that the most common creative blocks include:

Struggling to showcase work authentically. Many creatives hesitate to share their work, as they fear it’s not good enough or that it won’t be understood.

Not knowing what to present or how to present. Creatives often struggle to curate their portfolio, unsure of which projects best represent their skills and vision. They might feel the need to include everything they’ve done, leading to an overwhelming and unfocused presentation, or they may under-represent themselves by omitting work that truly reflects their capabilities.

Comparing oneself to others. The abundance of creative work online can be inspiring, but it can also lead to self-doubt and impostor syndrome.

Falling into a perfectionism that leads to paralysis. The desire to refine every detail can prevent creatives from ever finishing or sharing their projects.

These moments of uncertainty offer a chance to pause, reassess, and refine how you want to present your creative identity.

Self-reflecting to navigate the trouble points

A portfolio is more than a showcase of past projects; it’s an ongoing narrative of who you are as a creative. The process of curating and designing a portfolio offers a valuable opportunity for self-reflection.

Some key questions that can help navigate this process:

Who am I as a designer? What values, themes, or ideas consistently show up in my work? What skills or strengths set me apart? How do I approach problem-solving in design?

What kind of work excites me the most? Identifying the projects that bring the most joy and fulfillment can help clarify the direction of your portfolio.

What are my career goals, and how can I achieve them? Defining both short-term and long-term goals can shape the way you present your work.

What opportunities am I looking for, and how can my portfolio support that goal? A portfolio should act as a bridge to future opportunities.

When you engage in this process with intention, your portfolio becomes a tool not only for visibility, but for personal clarity and confidence.

Approaching a portfolio as a living project

One of the biggest misconceptions about portfolios is that they need to be final and perfect before you share them. In reality, a portfolio should be viewed as a living, evolving project that grows alongside your career.

Here are mindset shifts you might want to adopt:

Your portfolio is never truly finished. It should adapt and evolve as you develop new skills and interests.

Authenticity is more important than perfection. Showing your process, challenges, and evolution makes your work more compelling.

Iteration is part of the journey. Experimenting with different formats, narratives, and styles helps refine your creative voice.

By embracing this mindset, you can reduce the pressure to create a perfect portfolio and instead allow space for exploration and growth.

Overcoming creative blocks

Beyond mindset shifts, there are tangible ways to break through creative blocks and move forward:

Practicing reflective exercises

Write a short statement about why you create, then identify three words that describe your creative identity. Finally, gather work that makes you feel proud and analyze why it resonates with you.

Try to shift your focus from “Will people like this?” to “Does this feel true to me?” and remind yourself that your work holds value simply because it’s a reflection of your creativity.

Engaging with analog and physical creativity

Step away from the screen and work with tangible materials like sketching, collage, or bookbinding. Explore different mediums—they can help unlock new perspectives and break routine patterns. Try activities like dancing, singing, photography, or even meditation to clear the mind and stimulate creative flow.

Taking action

Start messy—don’t overthink the first version of your portfolio. Use interactive tools like Readymag to experiment with engaging and flexible digital storytelling. Share your progress with trusted peers or mentors for feedback. 

By working not on your portfolio but more on your self-expression, you’ll end up with a truly authentic representation of yourself. Such a portfolio not only strengthens self-confidence but naturally attracts opportunities that align with your values and interests.

When you share your creative process—including challenges and progress—you build trust more than when you only show polished results.

Also, your originality, perspective, and ways of navigating challenges make you stand out and add extra value to your creative experience in the eyes of clients.

When you know how to deal with challenges that come along while creating a portfolio, you might need a tool that’s easy to learn, fully customizable, and allows for wow moves. Thousands of creatives already use Readymag for their artistic and client-winning portfolios. Check this page for inspiration.