Creating a portfolio that could include copyright material or sensitive info?

Question

I have a question regarding my portfolio. I'm a UX worker who has been employed either client side or for agencies.

What am I allowed to produce or publish onto an online portfolio?

I want to avoid publishing the actual work, or company logos and I'm more keen to showcase one's thought process and ways of thinking. How the projects improved me etc.

So for instance. I did some work for Coca Cola. They will clamp on me for putting their logo onto my website. But am I allowed to put an icon of a soda bottle onto a red circle instead?

And instead of showing an entire wireframe am I allowed to show a snapshot or maybe some stock photography that I purchase instead?

Answer 1

My contract states I have the right to display work for self-promotional purposes unless it is a work-for-hire situation or otherwise requested.

In addition, in any non-work-for-hire situation you own the rights to everything except the final deliverables unless you've agreed otherwise.

Now that doesn't mean you own the rights to the Coca-Cola logo, but you own the rights to the design preliminaries and all pieces which lead up to the final deliverables.

It's generally understood that any freelance labor, especially that of a creative nature, has a need to display pieces to promote themselves.

Advertising agencies and designers have been using pieces for decades to promote themselves.

That being posted, I have worked on some confidential documents where the client specifically asked that I not display them for any reason and that was honored.

The only thing I'd ever be wary of displaying is secret proprietary information I created for the company, but logos, photos, and UIs are hardly secret. If the UI is of a confidential nature, you could just change the data to be generic.