Portfolio School
96% of design hiring managers say the first thing
they look at is the portfolio. Is yours up to scratch?
Path Unbound’s Portfolio School is perfect for anyone with a background or foundational education in design. Take your skillset and create a polished, professional portfolio during our 8 week intensive portfolio course with the guidance of our acclaimed design intructors.
Overview
We created our Portfolio School because time and again we hear design school graduates say they don’t have a portfolio of work they’re confident in. So often, traditional two or four year colleges will teach you the skills, but won’t help you distill and refine your best work into an employable portfolio—that’s where we come in.
This course is designed to help you focus on refining and elevating your work to a stand-out level. Our industry professional instructors will guide you through the most important things to consider when building your portfolio, and help you showcase the depth and breadth of your design skillset and knowledge.
What to expect in Portfolio School:

Build 4 Portfolio Projects
Create and receive multiple rounds of feedback on 4 new portfolio projects

Refresh Existing Projects
Inject new life and energy into stale projects and expand smaller projects with large cross-channel deliverables

Real Client Projects

Polished Delivery
Learn to mock-up your work to look professional and realistic

Unique Personal Brand
Build your unique personal brand so that your portfolio stands out from the crowd

Build Your Portfolio Website
Build your portfolio website that doesn’t look like everybody else’s.

Cultivate Presentation Skills
Practice presenting your portfolio to working professionals in the industry

Practice Valuable Career Skills
Learn to negotiate salary and manage clients before you even start your first design job
Student Results


Evleen Huang
Evleen Huang is a working designer who needed to improve her portfolio for better job opportunities. Under our guidance, she was able to uplift her portfolio to a refreshing new look that landed her a new job.
Donna Carroll
Donna Carroll is a dance instructor turned UX designer who completed a bootcamp elsewhere but dissatisfied with her portfolio. Under our guidance, she completely revamped her portfolio and changed her career outlook.




Kristina Bozhanova
Kristina Bozhanova was looking to transition out of print design for quite some time but unsure of where to start and how to structure her portfolio to land new opportunities. Under our guidance, she was able to completely transformed her portfolio to an elevated look to better prepare for opportunities.
Carina Venet
Carina Venet is a multifaceted illustrator and designer. She was stuck in her job search and wasn’t getting callbacks until she joined Portfolio School and landed a new job after.


Learning Paths

Portfolio Express
- 9 weeks
For students who passed our design assessment and already have at least 3-4 full-length portfolio projects but need guidance on polishing their work, personal branding and career strategies.
Week 1
1 x 60 Minutes: After student completes Intro to Portfolios, they schedule a 60 minute kick off to go through all their existing projects and create a list of refinements and evolutions they plan to do based on their instructors feedback and advice. 1x Written Feedback: Review updated design work of Project #1
Week 2
1 x 60 Minutes: • Review Project #1 in final Mock-Ups • Kick off Project #2 1 x Written Feedback: Review updated design work of Project #2
Week 3
1 x 60 Minutes: • Review Project #2 in final Mock-Ups • Kick off Project #3 1 x Written Feedback: Review updated design work of Project #3
Week 4
1 x 60 Minutes: • Review Project #3 in final Mock-Ups • Kick off Project #4: Client Project It’s ideal to have this meeting after the student has met with the client 1 x Written Feedback: Review design progress
Week 5
1 x 60 Minutes: • Review client project design progress • Discuss logo approach and questions about personal branding 1 x Written Feedback: Review students’ logo process and design work
Week 6
1 x 30 Minutes: Review client project in final Mock-Ups 1 x Written Feedback: Review students’ brand guidelines
Week 7
1 x 60 Minutes: • Review students’ case study • Review students’ website research and ideation 1 x Written Feedback:Review students’ sitemap and final website content
Week 8
2 x 30 Minutes: • Review website progress and provide tech help x2
Week 9
1 x Written Feedback: Review final portfolio website design 1 x 60 Minutes: Career Coaching overview, portfolio and case study presentation, questions, close out

Portfolio Kickstart
- 12 weeks
For students who passed our design assessment but don’t have any full-length portfolio projects or need to work on more projects in addition to guidance on personal branding and career strategies.
Week 1
1 x 60 Minutes: • Summarize Intro to Portfolio questions student may have • Discuss students’ goals and objectives for their portfolio and decide which projects the they will complete • Review Project #1 with them and explain overall process and expectations
Week 2
1 x 30 Minutes: Review Project #1 V1 1 x Written Feedback: Review Project #1 Progress
Week 3
1 x 30 Minutes: • Review Project #1 in Mock-Ups • Answer Project #2 Questions 1 x Written Feedback: Review Project #2 V1
Week 4
1 x 30 Minutes: • Review Project #2 V2 1 x 30 Minutes: • Review Project #2 in Mock-Ups • Answer Project #3 Questions
Week 5
1 x 30 Minutes: Review Project #3 V1 1 x Written Feedback: Review Project #3 Progress
Week 6
1 x 30 Minutes: • Review Project #3 V2 1 x 30 Minutes: • Review Project #3 in Mock-Ups • Discuss working with real clients in prep of Project #4
Week 7
1 x 30 Minutes: Review project brief and help student plan and begin ideation 1 x Written Feedback: Review Client Project Progress
Week 8
1 x 30 Minutes: Review Client Project V1 before student meets with client 1 x Written Feedback: Review Client Project V2
Week 9
1 x 60 Minutes: • Review Client Project in Mock-Ups • Discuss logo approach and questions about personal branding 1 x Written Feedback: Review Personal Logo and Brand Guidelines
Week 10
1 x 60 Minutes: • Review both Case Studies • Discuss website options, direction, next steps and answer questions
Week 11
1 x 30 minutes: Review Sitemap and Content 1 x 30 Minutes: Review Website Progress 1 x Written Feedback: Review Website Progress
Week 12
1 x 30 Minutes: Review Final Website Progress 1 x 60 Minutes: Career coaching
Enter your email for the complete syllabus
Get paired with a startup for a real-world project.
1
Portfolio project built with real business impact
1
Maximum 1-month duration
1
Startup founder paired for you
Tuition
Upfront
Pay now, learn today- Available to students worldwide
- Lowest total tuition
- Pay one-time and enroll directly
- No interest rate to worry about
Monthly
Make smaller payments- Available to students worldwide
- Evenly split your tuition into 6
- Less total payment than “Defer”
- No interest rate to worry about
Defer
Learn first, pay later- Available to U.S. students only
- 0 payment until you land a job
- Rates based on merit score
- Repayment not based on future salary
Upfront
Pay now, learn today- Available to students worldwide
- Lowest total tuition
- Pay one-time and enroll directly
- No interest rate to worry about
Monthly
Make smaller payments- Available to students worldwide
- Evenly split your tuition into 6
- Less total payment than “Defer”
- No interest rate to worry about
Defer
Learn first, pay later- Available to U.S. students only
- 0 payment until you land a job
- Rates based on merit score
- Repayment not based on future salary
Are you from the UK?
Take advantage of our 12-month split payment program just for U.K. residents upon approval.
What Students Say
Our students tell us how taking courses at Path Unbound have transformed their career and lives.




FAQs
If I go over the suggested time of the course due to my schedule, can I extend?
We require every student to sign an enrollment agreement which stipulates the suggested length of each course. We ask that students commit to the course period they agreed to when they enrolled. We do have flexibility that requires a separate written request from students if special circumstances arise that necessitates a course extension. We will evaluate each circumstance on a case-by-case basis. Our goal is to help students graduate as soon as possible so that they can reach their career goals in the shortest timeframe possible while remaining flexible enough to accommodate special circumstances.
What kind of portfolio should I expect to produce from this course?
You should expect to produce a visually-polished and completely customized portfolio website with 4 portfolio projects, including 1 real client project, that have been reviewed, critiqued and iterated during your assigned coaching sessions.
Unlike many other programs, we emphasized on individualized coaching for portfolios. We hold students to the highest standards in terms of their work, especially the visual quality, the case study presentation and the storytelling of their personal brand.
Expect to have a stunning portfolio that wows anyone who comes across it, but you have to work hard under our guidance to achieve that.
I don't have any design background. Can I enroll in Portfolio School?
We require that students either 1) already completed a design education program at another institution or by self-study, or 2) complete our School of Design certificate program first before enrolling in Portfolio School. You cannot produce the level of portfolio that we require for this program if you are starting from 0. Luckily, we have the exact design education program to help you meet the requirements of this program.
After a student applied to Portfolio School, we require them to complete a short design assessment to make sure they are fully-skilled in design foundation. If you did not pass the assessment, we will suggest you take our School of Design program, which is designed for students with 0 foundation or students whose design skills need improvements.
Which track should I take?
If you already have at least 3 finished portfolio projects, we recommend the Portfolio Express track where you spend 6+ weeks learning no code website building tools, working on your personal brand, designing your portfolio website, building it yourself and receiving rigorous feedback for iterations.
If you already have a solid design foundation but do not yet have any portfolio projects, or if you are unhappy about your current portfolio projects and want to work on new ones, we recommend the Portfolio Kickstart track, where you have an additional 6-7 weeks to work on new projects under our guidance. You will also receive the bonus opportunity to be paired up with a startup founder for an optional month-long startup project if you choose to.
What is the difference between School of Design and Portfolio School?
School of Design is our main design certificate program where we take students from 0 to 100 on learning how to be a great digital-first designer. We created a well-rounded curriculum that builds a solid foundation for students who do not yet have experience in design. The certificate program includes 9 courses with in-depth focus on topics that are most relevant to becoming a successful designer. We recommend students who have no design background to enroll in the full program and take all 9 courses, but if you already have some experience in design, you may choose to skip over some courses. We will help you determine your custom course package once you apply to enroll.
Each course in the School of Design program can be taken individually for students who would rather build their skillsets one topic at a time, but remember that you will pay more per course if you take courses individually rather than enrolling in the certificate program.
If you decide to enroll in our certificate program and receive a reduced workload recommendation from us, you will also receive a reduced tuition rate accordingly.
Portfolio School is for students who have either 1) completed School of Design or 2) completed another education program from another school or through self-study and now wish to create a uniquely outstanding portfolio to be competitive in their career search.
I completed a program from another school. Will I still benefit from Portfolio School?
For most students who completed another program from another school, you probably feel unfulfilled or unsatisfied with the outcome of your portfolio, if you are looking at this page. If that is how you feel, then yes, you will benefit from this program. In fact, a large number of our students are in the same shoes as you! We specialize in "filling in the gaps" and helping students work on parts of their portfolio that they are not confident about.
What type of support do I have after I completed Portfolio School?
We do not abandon our students after they graduate! We are always open to hearing your career journey after you completed the program. You can always purchase additional coaching sessions a la carte if you need more support after the program. We would also invite those students who want to share their stories with prospective students back for events, workshops and even as our podcast guests! So don't be a stranger.
Can I get a refund if I am unhappy with the program or cannot continue?
For one-time payment, the drop out policy is as follows: 90% refund of your entire tuition if you drop out within 1 week; 50% refund of your entire tuition if you drop out after 1 week; 25% refund f your entire tuition if you drop out after 2 weeks and no refund of your entire tuition after 3 weeks of enrollment. Exceptions with customized refund will only be granted with proof of extreme financial hardship, which requires a separate application and review process.
For deferred tuition agreement, the dropout policy is as follows: 90% refund of your down payment if you drop out within 1 week; 50% refund of your down payment if you drop out after 1 week; 25% of your down payment refund if you drop out after 2 weeks and no refund of your down payment after 3 weeks of enrollment. Exceptions with customized refund will only be granted with proof of extreme financial hardship, which requires a separate application and review process.
For monthly payment plans, the drop out policy is as follows: Based on the total monthly payment you already submitted, you will receive a 90% refund if you drop out within 1 week; 50% refund if you drop out after 1 week; 25% refund if you drop out after 2 weeks and no refund after 3 weeks of enrollment. Exceptions with customized refund will only be granted with proof of extreme financial hardship, which requires a separate application and review process.
To reference our complete financing and refund/dropout policies, please refer to the Afford page for all details.