How to Read a Design Agency Portfolio (and Spot Work That Isn't Theirs)

To evaluate a design agency portfolio, check eight things in each case study: the problem, the agency’s role, the date, the team, a live link, the outcome, whether the outcome is sourced, and whether the work is close to yours. Then confirm the work was theirs by reading the credits and checking the client’s own site. Below is the full checklist, worked through on three real San Francisco case studies.

Most advice on agency portfolios is written for agencies building one. The buyer’s side, how to read one critically, is thin. Yet the portfolio is where most buyers form their first opinion, usually from a grid of thumbnails that shows what the work looks like and very little about how it was made.

Looking good is the easy part. The case study is your best evidence of how an agency thinks, what it actually did, and whether it can do the same for you. A careful 20-minute read can save weeks of pitches that were never going to fit.

How to evaluate a design agency portfolio: the 8-point check

Score each point 0 (missing), 1 (partial) or 2 (clear). A case study scoring 12 or more out of 16 is unusually strong.

#	Check	What “clear” looks like
1	Problem stated	What was wrong before, in the client’s terms
2	Role and scope	Which parts the agency did, and which it did not
3	Date	A year, or at least a launch date you can check
4	Team or credits	Named people or partner firms
5	Live link	A link to the shipped site, app or product
6	Outcome claimed	What changed after launch
7	Outcome sourced	A client quote, public metric or press coverage
8	Close to your project	Similar type of work and similar market

Points 2 and 4 are how you spot work that is not entirely theirs. Points 3 and 5 tell you whether it is current. Point 7 is where most portfolios fall short.

Worked example: three San Francisco case studies

We read three case studies from agencies with a verified San Francisco office on 1 November 2026. All three are good agencies; the point is to show what the checklist reveals, not to rank them.

Clay: Slack’s interactive demo

Clay’s Slack case study describes designing and building an interactive demo aimed at three different audiences.

Check	Score	Note
Problem	1	The challenge (engaging three audiences) is stated; the business problem is loose
Role and scope	2	Strategy, web design, development and content listed
Date	0	No project year; mentions a “multi-year partnership”
Team	0	No individuals named
Live link	0	None
Outcome claimed	1	Says the demo became Slack’s primary sales tool
Outcome sourced	0	No quote or data
Close to your project	depends	Strong evidence if you need an interactive product demo
Total (first 7)	4 / 14

What to ask Clay: when was this built, who on today’s team worked on it, and can you speak to someone at Slack about it?

Neuron: Vendr’s workflow builder

Neuron’s Vendr case study covers a procurement workflow builder designed for less technical users.

Check	Score	Note
Problem	2	Clearly stated: procurement is disorganised and information siloed
Role and scope	2	Lists the screens designed, user testing, and handoff to Vendr’s developers
Date	1	No year, but gives a duration: four months
Team	0	“Our team” only
Live link	0	None
Outcome claimed	1	Positive user-testing sentiment; intended efficiency gains
Outcome sourced	0	No sample size or measured launch results in the text
Close to your project	depends	Strong evidence for complex B2B workflows
Total (first 7)	6 / 14

What to ask Neuron: how many users were in testing, what changed after launch, and who led the design?

Manual: Waabi’s rebrand

Manual’s Waabi case study covers a rebrand for an autonomous-trucking company whose brand did not reflect its scientific rigour.

Check	Score	Note
Problem	2	Clearly stated
Role and scope	2	Identity, messaging, 3D renders, art direction, website content design, motion
Date	0	No year
Team	2	Credits name the photographer, video studio, messaging writer and website collaborator
Live link	0	None
Outcome claimed	1	Says the rebrand gave Waabi a platform that matches its ambition
Outcome sourced	0	No quote or metric
Close to your project	depends	Strong evidence for a deep-tech rebrand
Total (first 7)	7 / 14

The credits are the best feature here. They show the website was a collaboration with another firm, Antinomy. That is exactly what you want to know: if you need a website as well, Manual will likely bring in a partner.

What the three have in common

None of the three gives a project year, a live link or a sourced outcome. That is normal, not a scandal: dates make work look old, and clients often restrict what can be published. It means you should ask for those three things directly, and treat a firm that volunteers them as unusually transparent.

How to spot work that isn’t theirs

Agencies rarely fake work outright. The more common problem is overstating a role: showing a whole product when they designed one feature, or a whole brand when they did the illustrations.

1. Read the credits. Manual’s Waabi page names its website collaborator. If a case study shows a full website and names no developer, ask who built it.
2. Check the client’s side. Search the client’s own site, press releases and job posts. Agencies of record are often named in launch announcements.
3. Ask who on today’s team worked on it. If nobody did, the case study shows what the agency could do with people who have since left.
4. Look for the same project in other portfolios. Large brands use several agencies. Two firms showing the same launch may each have done part of it.
5. Ask for the brief. An agency that did the work can describe what it was asked to do and what it pushed back on.

Reading the rest of the portfolio

Look at the range, then the depth. A grid of 40 logos tells you who the agency has met. Three detailed case studies tell you how it works.

For brand work, check that colour, type and tone hold up across every application shown. A freelance product designer on Hacker News suggested exactly this, along with looking for written explanations of the problem and solution (HN, Dec 2021).

For product and UX work, look for screens presented as a flow or a system, not isolated hero shots, and realistic content rather than placeholder text. The same thread makes this point: attractive screens can still hide poor interaction.

For websites, visit the live site, even if the case study doesn’t link it. Check it on your phone. Note whether it still looks like the case study; if the client has replaced it, ask why.

What to do with the scores

Bring the low-scoring points to the first call as questions. “Your Vendr case study is great; what year was it, and can we talk to someone there?” is a fair, specific question that a confident agency will answer.

Then fold the result into criterion 1 (portfolio relevance) and criterion 2 (case-study evidence) of our design agency selection criteria scorecard. For the questions to ask alongside it, use our 25 questions to ask a design agency, and watch for the portfolio-stage warnings in design agency red flags.

Looking for agencies whose portfolios are worth reading? Start with our verified lists of branding, UX and web design agencies in San Francisco.