Hey Jeffrey,

Just read your pdx-pix article designers without portfolio. Unfortunately you sum up the sad situation all too well...
        A couple of other options do exist, at least for some sites:
        You could negotiate rights in your contract to keep copies of the site you develop as portfolio copies, either offline or solely under your company site.
        Admittedly, this has some problems and issues as well.

          * if you keep copies online, then you have to have (and pay for) hosting with the features to support the copy. This may not be trivial, especially if you have a site tied to back-end systems or databases.
          * If you keep copies online, then you need a solid way to mark them as portfolio copies only so they don't get confused with the official ones.
          * If you keep copies offline, then customers have to contact you to see them.... and again, you need to have some way to host them or show them if they contain server-side dynamic features.

One other note for contracting... many people ask for "designed by" links on sites they develop but don't write in a clause that says when the link goes away. I'd certainly want it to stay until any major redesign but also to have the right to tell the client to remove it. If they mutilate my work I'd rather not have the link there claiming that I did it. I'd have my separate copy or notes.... sorry if I'm teaching granny to suck eggs here... I'm sure you've dealt with this stuff *far* more than I have...
        No wonder most people just save a few screen shots of nice looking pages eh? Unfortunately that does very little to illustrate most of what we do in a site...
        Ironic that most developers cherish the will-o-the-wisp, dynamic nature of the web until it results in the removal or mutilation of their hard work... sigh

later,

jeff wilkinson
jwilkinson at mail.com
wilk4.com