Home

Open Doors

Helping early-career designers on their way to their first or next job

Written by

Florian from Open Doors

Junior Portfolio Showcase: Helen Li

A portfolio that puts the essentials within easy reach, with compact project previews and positioning grounded in cognitive science and psychology.

Florian Bölter

How to Learn What Good Design Looks Like 🔍

Oct 7, 2026

•

8 min read

How to Learn What Good Design Looks Like 🔍

Reverse engineer strong design to train your judgment and improve what you make with AI.

Florian Bölter

Junior Portfolio Showcase: Ambika Ramesh Menon

Sep 30, 2026

•

8 min read

Junior Portfolio Showcase: Ambika Ramesh Menon

A portfolio that makes complex product work easy to follow, with strong research roots and a thoughtful approach to confidential projects.

Florian Bölter

Job search

A Take-Home Task Isn’t a Design Contest. Treat It Like Your First Week on the Job 🧠

Sep 30, 2026

•

7 min read

A Take-Home Task Isn’t a Design Contest. Treat It Like Your First Week on the Job 🧠

How to judge the brief, use the right tools, and show the thinking behind your work.

Florian Bölter

Sep 23, 2026

•

7 min read

Junior Portfolio Showcase: Itzie Pulido

A playful portfolio with unusually sharp zero-to-one positioning and serious product thinking beneath the whimsy.

Florian Bölter

The Two Things Junior Designers Should Invest In Now 🧭

Sep 23, 2026

•

10 min read

The Two Things Junior Designers Should Invest In Now 🧭

As execution gets faster, mentorship and design fundamentals become more important—not less.

Florian Bölter

Sep 16, 2026

•

7 min read

Junior Portfolio Showcase: Giang Tran

A portfolio that pairs high ownership and systems thinking with an unusually broad range of visual skills.

Florian Bölter

How to Network Without Asking for Anything 🤙

Sep 16, 2026

•

5 min read

How to Network Without Asking for Anything 🤙

The best networking rarely starts with an ask—and it almost never ends with one message.

Florian Bölter

Junior Portfolio Showcase: Sophie Manalo

Sep 9, 2026

•

7 min read

Junior Portfolio Showcase: Sophie Manalo

A playful, sharply edited portfolio that pairs scan-friendly case studies with a personal site worth wandering through.

Florian Bölter

...

Archive

Junior Portfolio Showcase: Helen Li

How to Learn What Good Design Looks Like 🔍

Junior Portfolio Showcase: Ambika Ramesh Menon

A Take-Home Task Isn’t a Design Contest. Treat It Like Your First Week on the Job 🧠

Junior Portfolio Showcase: Itzie Pulido

The Two Things Junior Designers Should Invest In Now 🧭

Junior Portfolio Showcase: Giang Tran

How to Network Without Asking for Anything 🤙

Junior Portfolio Showcase: Sophie Manalo

Open Doors

Account