Tumblr is slowly emerging into an evolving platform for designers, writers, developers and people who do creative work. If you are a creative, a coder, a designer, an illustrator, a writer or starting up on your journey to become a creative, Tumblr is surely one of the best ways to showcase your work to the world.

Gone are the days when a plain resume or a paper portfolio would make a lasting impact in the interview table. In order to have a profound digital presence, you should have a portfolio website that specifically shows your work, what interests you, what you create and your previous experiences. Creating a website can take some of your valuable time, which is why I recommended starters and laymans to give Tumblr a try.

A Tumblr blog is the easiest thing to create, you don’t have to code a line, design a theme, play around with HTML or CSS and spend hours worrying how your design is going to look like.  Moreover, there is no reason why you should not have at least some web presence that showcases your work or passion. Who knows, you might land up a rock solid freelance career, who knows your portfolio may land you a new job or help you get contractual work from people who like your work. As they say – if you don’t show your work, they’ll never know what you’re good at.

Without much ado, here is a collection of some really beautiful portfolio themes for Tumblr (some free, some with a price tag):

1. Has a Portfolio [Free]

Hasaportfolio is surely the simplest and minimalist portfolio theme for Tumblr you will ever find. It’s free, doesn’t come with bells and whistles and is ideal for designers and photographers who want to showcase their work without having to build a website from scratch. Thhis Tumblr theme takes up a 3 column thumbnail grid like structure, allowing you to showcase photos, videos and textual content one by one. You can install this theme by hooking Tumble with a custom domain or request a hasaportfolio.com subdomain. In either case, this theme is a perfect portfolio theme for designers, photographers and ux engineers.

2. Litefolio [$20]

Litefolio is a minimalist portfolio theme for Tumblr, is elegant and clean from design distractions. This theme supports custom typography, has a jQuery slider in the homepage, so you can quickly showcase your best work. This theme is ideal for designers, web developers and illustrators who are minimalists and want to project their work through a minimalist environment.

3. TumbloFolio – [Free]

Tumblofolio is another free Tumblr theme for a portfolio website. It houses all your work into a 4 column grid, supports infinite scrolling and has a sleek design. The best part about Tumblofolio is that the design is responsive in nature, so your portfolio or online resume will look equally beautiful in mobile and tablet devices. Other features include jQuery image and video previews, so that your project description is shown on the same page and the reader does not have to navigate to a new page.

4. Time Goes Back [ $20 ]

This one should be your pick, if you want to have a very attractive homepage for your portfolio that showcases your profile image, location and interests, rarther than listing your projects one by one. This Tumble theme also helps you setup a contact form in your Tumblr blog, so prospective clients can drop you an email. Clever!

5. Eclipse – a combined blog and portfolio theme for Tumblr [ $50 ]

If you want to consolidate your Tumblr blog and your online portfolio at one place, look no further than Eclipse. Eclipse is a lightweight and subtle Tumblr theme, you can use this one to have your blog and portfolio at the same space – no need to maintain two different blogs.

Do you already have a Tumblr blog and want to convert it into an online portfolio? Do you want your blog and portfolio to compliment each other and do not want to maintain two separate sites for them? Do you want your online portfolio to be a part of your own domain and want the exact same design for your blog and your portfolio?

If you said “Yes”, Eclipse is the answer. This is the best Tumblr theme for creating an online portfolio and also maintain a blog. It costs a bit ($50 might sound too much for just a theme) but then it comes with tabbed pages, jQuery slider, vcard integration, three different colors and lifetime support.

6. Pop Gallery [ $14 ]

Pop Gallery is a visually stunning portfolio theme for anyone who wants to portray his/her own products. If you have an ecommerce store or small business and you want to have a simple portfolio site where your top products are featured and listed, this theme would be a nice pick.

This theme comes with circular thumbnails and a grid layout with infinite scrolling, so you can design a scrollable grid of products one after another. The theme supports Google web fonts, Google analytics integration, social sharing, Disqus and Facebook comments. Ideal, if you prefer a funky style and a minimalist template.

7. Cleanfolio [ $16 ]

Cleanfolio is another super minimalist theme which you can use to make an online portfolio. This theme looks quite similar to Litefolio theme mentioned above, the only difference is that this one has a top navigation and better support for custom fonts.

8. Strands – Portfolio blog combo theme for Tumblr [ $49 ]

Strands is another premium tumblr theme which can be used to host your own portfolio in Tumblr and run a blog in the same website. Modern design, although not minimalist but it gives you blog a retro feel. The sidebar is fixed and thus allows you to stick links and sections on any page of your domain, this theme is perfect if you want a modern design for your blog and portfolio. Strands might appear a bit costly but then good things come with a price tag.

9. Catalog – $20

Not meant to be an exclusive tumblr theme for portfolio sites, but you can intelligently use the catalog theme to showcase client work, your ideas and the things you love to do. The theme is built entirely on HTML5 and CSS3, supports audio, video, image, text and link as posts types. The home page has been brilliantly designed to fit a slider which fades in as the page loads. The theme is responsive which means that your website design is optimized to fit in mobile and tablet devices. The footer design looks elegant, you can customize the template and add your own code to change the theme acording to your specific requirements. A good grab for just $20.

10. Vision – $17

Vision is another simple portfolio theme for Tumblr sites, comes with a slider on the homepage and thumbnail view of all your posts.

11. Musuem [ Free ]

Musuem is a dark tumblr theme, ideal for artists, photographers, and visual designers who want to create an online portfolio using Tumblr’s blogging platform. Musuem is without a price tag and is recommended if you prefer dark themes over lighter ones. This theme sports a grid like layout on the homepage (much like Pinterest) and uses the classical “Courier” font.

12. Videoo [ Free ]

Videoo is a sleek and responsive Tumblr theme for list builders, specially video bloggers who use Tumblr to build a list or an archive of links and web videos. You can customize this theme to showcase a portfolio of videos images and photographs you click – very clean and free from design jargons.

13. Star Aurora [Free]

Star Aurora is a superb free Tumlr theme for creative portfolio and online resumes. If you prefer a vibrant and bold theme, having a grid layout and support for custom background images, this theme would be a nice pick.

14. Inc [Free]

Inc is another dark Tumblr theme which gives a bold feel to your online portfolio. Inc supports a 4 column grid layout with endless scrolling and is ideal for photographers, web designers and illustrators who want to showcase their work and projects.

15. Chapel Road [Free]

Chapel road is another brilliant free Tumble theme which can be used to feature an online portfolio. Chapel road sports a 3 column grid layout with endless scrolling, sports a minimalist design on white, with a clear focus on typography and simplicity. You can upload your own logo, header image and choose a background color you like.

16. Olly II [Free]

Another simple Tumble theme with just a navigation menu and individual post thumbnails

17. Inline [Free]

Inline is a two column portfolio theme for Tumblr with equal spacing between post thumbnails and grids

18. Allegiance [Free]

Allegiance is another free responsive theme for Tumblr with a fresh grid layout. Comes with customizable sidebar, customizable post heights. infinite scroll, sidebar images and links.

19. Incline [Free]

Incline is a super sleek multimedia enabled theme for Tumblr which supports audio, video and HTML5 content, along with text, links and image posts. If you want to showcase audio, music or video projects and want to have an online portfolio for the same, give this one a spin.

20. Purify [ $49 ]

Purify is a fantastic responsive theme for Tumblr which lets you filter posts by type, tags; you can also choose a custom color palette of the theme and switch colors easily from your Tumblr dashboard. Purify mimics the look and feel of Pinterest, giving your homepage a grid like layout while allowing you to house large photos and videos in a one column layout. The theme comes with a fixed left column, with support for Facebook and Disqus comments.

21. Domericano [ $16 ]

Domericano is another premium Tumblr theme for blogs and creative portfolios. Nothing exceptional about the theme, its simple, minimal design elements – the left sidebar contains all the grids while the right sidebar lets you add custom widgets.

22. Vanity – Business Card Tumblr Theme [$49]

Vanity is an excellent business card theme for Tumblr, ideally suited for creatives, professionals, entrepreneurs and individuals who want to showcase the “person” behind their work. Vanity gives your Tumblr blog a customizable landing page. The design also houses your blog posts but instead of sticking recent posts in the homepage, it shown them in an infinite scrolling sliding panel. You can also integrate your Twitter stream, Instagram feed, Flickr photo albums and Likes in your Tumblr portfolio.

23. Gallera [ $15 ]

Gallera is a simple gallery theme for Tumblr with good typography and a crustal clear design. The theme features a grunge background texture and supports custom typography. If your online portfolio demands a web gallery with focus on images and you want to use beautiful custom fonts, this design might just be the perfect choice.

24 Simple Board

Simple Board is another dark 3 column grid theme for TUmblr, which can be used to showcase your online portfolio or creative work. The theme shows thumbnails on the homepage and each single post page is clean from design clutter. This theme is recommended if you are looking for a free portfolio theme for Tumblr with a grid like layout.

25. Simplefolio [ $49 ]

Are you an aspiring web designer? Do you run a small to medium sized design studio and want to showcase your design, audio or video work to prospective clients? SimpleFolio is a simple 3 column grid theme for Tumblr which is perfect for design firms, web designers, copywriters and other creatives.

Show your theme here

Are you a theme developer? Want to add your theme to this list? Easy, just drop a comment or email us and we will add your Tumblr theme to this list. The only requirement is that your theme should be a portfolio theme for Tumblr and not a generic Tumblr theme (both premium and free submissions are welcomed)

Do you have an online portfolio? If yes, drop your comments and let us take a peek. If you don’t have a portfolio and always wanted to create one, which Tumblr theme would you pick and why? Let us know your thoughts and ideas in the comments below