Get a random design brief to practice on: an invented client, what to design, who it is for, the goal, a short list of must-haves and one constraint. Choose a landing page, app screen, logo, dashboard, online store page or game menu, set the difficulty and an optional time limit, and press the button until a brief excites you. Briefs come from lists of ideas and a fixed template, so they are prompts for practice rather than real client work.
Designers improve fastest by solving problems, not by browsing finished work. A brief gives you the three things real projects start with: someone to design for, something they want, and a limit to work within. Without those, an exercise turns into decoration, and you cannot tell whether a choice is good because nothing defines good.
Random briefs also protect you from your own habits. Most people drift toward the kinds of projects they already do well. A brief for a dentist, a board-game publisher or a nursing recruiter pushes you to research an unfamiliar audience, which is exactly the skill clients pay for.
Hiring managers look for reasoning as much as visuals. After you finish, write a short case study: restate the brief, list your assumptions about the audience, show one or two ideas you rejected and say why, then present the final design and how it meets the goal and the constraint. Three or four paragraphs and a few images are enough.
Choose the briefs for your portfolio on purpose. A few strong pieces that cover different kinds of work, such as one page, one app flow and one brand mark, tell a better story than a dozen similar ones. When a brief turns out well, it is also a good candidate to build as a working page, since seeing the design running in a browser teaches you things a static mock-up hides.
It picks one item at random from separate lists of clients, audiences, goals and constraints, then adds three must-haves chosen for the kind of design you picked. All of it is put into one brief template. The results come from templates, so some combinations will be odd, and rerolling is part of the process.
It changes the constraint. Easy gives a simple limit, such as using two colors. Medium asks for a bit more, such as an accessibility target or a second screen size. Hard asks for something demanding, such as designing with only type or for a very small screen.
No. The names are made up and any resemblance to a real business is a coincidence. Please do not present these as real client projects. In a portfolio, label a piece as a self-initiated practice brief.
Yes, as long as you say it is a practice brief. A good portfolio piece also shows your process: the brief, a few sketches, the choices you made and the final design.
That is up to you. Thirty minutes suits a quick sketch or a logo exploration, one or two hours suits a single screen, and a full day lets you design a few screens or a small system.
Related: Brand style guide generator, Font pairing, Color contrast checker.
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