A colorful art portfolio website design
Hedof is the illustration portfolio website of Dutch artist Rick Berkelmans, and it's hard to miss. The homepage opens with a clean grid of project thumbnails that immediately communicates the studio's signature style: bright, candy-colored sceneries, wonky shapes and off-kilter characters packed into tight, satisfying compositions. It is one of the most distinctive artist website examples you will find built on a minimal structure.
The overall design strips back everything that is not the work. A white background, a compact top navigation and a simple wordmark logo keep the structure invisible so the illustrations can do the talking. This kind of restrained art portfolio website design is a smart move for illustrators. Your work is the brand.
Ready to build your own art portfolio website?
Hedof website design
The homepage doubles as the full portfolio. Projects are laid out in a scrollable image grid with short project titles below each thumbnail: Nike Fathersday, Magic Spoon, Duvel x Hedof, Bristol Comedy Garden. The variety of project types in one view tells the full story of what Berkelmans does without needing a word of explanation. For designers researching art portfolio ideas, this immediate visual clarity is a strong layout choice.
Typography is deliberately minimal. No big introductory headline dominates the hero, just the logo and the grid. The About page is where personality comes through: a press quote from It's Nice That leads the copy, followed by a direct bio and a long list of global client names. This structure works because the work itself has already done the credibility-building on the homepage.
Navigation is organized into work categories (Packaging, Collaboration, Surface, Design, Advertising) as dropdown sub-pages, giving returning visitors a way to dig into specific disciplines. The shop link sits naturally alongside the main nav, a clean integration of a commercial layer into a portfolio site without it feeling disruptive. These structural choices are worth studying for anyone building their own art portfolio website examples.
The illustrator behind the portfolio website
Rick Berkelmans has spent years building Hedof into a recognizable creative studio whose work shows up on shopping mall installations, cereal packaging, airline campaigns and city murals. His laid-back yet considered approach to image-making has found its way into magazines, products, advertising campaigns and large-scale installations across the globe.
Berkelmans keeps a strong, recognizable voice across very different disciplines and client types, from Greenpeace and the Red Cross to Nickelodeon and Snapchat. Based at Maan studio and represented by V Collective in China, the studio operates as a solo practice with an international reach that most agencies would envy.
Who this website is a good example for
Freelance illustrators building their first professional site: Hedof shows how a one-person studio can present a wide range of commercial work without a complicated site structure. The portfolio grid does all the heavy lifting. It is a strong artist portfolio example for anyone whose illustration portfolio needs to speak before any copy does.
Illustrators working with global brands: The About page client list (Nike, Google, Ikea, Samsung and dozens more) is handled without dedicated case study pages. A well-organized grid and a tight bio are enough. A useful pattern for creatives building their first illustration portfolio website aimed at commercial clients.
Creatives who also sell their work: The shop sits naturally inside the nav alongside the portfolio, keeping the site commercially useful without dominating the creative-first feel. A practical art portfolio website design reference for anyone who wants to handle both showcase and sales in a single, unfussy layout.
Illustration portfolio website design tips
Let the grid be the hero
Hedof's homepage has no hero image, no scrolling animation and no tagline above the fold. Just a tight, well-organized portfolio grid. For illustrators, this is often the right call. Visitors who land on your site want to see the work immediately. Use a consistent thumbnail shape and a neutral background so nothing competes with the art.
Pair a restrained layout with expressive content
The site's white background and minimal typography create a quiet container for some very loud artwork. This contrast is part of what makes the artist website examples here so memorable. When your illustrations are bold and colorful, a stripped-back layout gives them space to hit hard.
Use your About page to consolidate social proof
Rather than scattering client logos across the homepage, Hedof puts all that credibility onto the About page in a single punchy list. This keeps the portfolio clean and gives the About page a real purpose. A small detail worth borrowing for your own art portfolio website design.
Organize work by discipline, not just chronology
The dropdown navigation categories (Packaging, Collaboration, Surface, Design, Advertising) let clients filter by the type of work they are commissioning. This is a practical illustration portfolio structure that scales well as your project list grows and your client base gets more specialized.
Learn more:
