How can I start a graphic design portfolio?

Can I be forced to take down freelance web design work that I did for a start-up agency's client from my portfolio site, even if the site is now live?

• The relationship with the start-up digital agency was casual, and the only agreement ever signed was a generic NDA.

• Answer:

  Nobody can give specific legal advice in a public forum or outside of a lawyer / client relationship.  Further, although there are too many variables to announce a general rule, there is probably a lot of discussion all over Quora and the web if you do a search on "portfolio rights".  The default position, absent any other concerns, is that without a written agreement to the contrary the creator of copyrighted works retains ownership of and has a right to display works they create, and to the extent it incorporates copyrighted work belonging to the client there is usually some degree of fair use right to display copyrighted content belonging to the client for that purpose.  There are a lot of of "but if..." scenarios, though.  You may have made an agreement to the contrary, and the specific terms of the NDA are a good place to look.  Displaying the work might violate the confidentiality promise.  If you republish their content in a way that violates their copyright that's no good - suppose you were hired to typeset a book and you published the entire book online as a sample of your typesetting abilities?  No good.  There may be trade secrets embodied in the site (e.g. their future product plans) that you can't give away, agreement or no agreement. A relatively safe place to be is to keep the portfolio private, and only give it on a confidential basis to interested potential clients.  If you do display it publicly, you can do things to obscure any content belonging to the client - change the name, blur out, crop, or replace their copyrighting, swap the logos (unless you want to show off your logo creation), and so on. Changing gears here, why would you want to display work that your client doesn't want you to display?  If you're proud of it they should be too.  If they don't want it up there, you're not going to get a good referral out of them.  Why not preserve the peace?  And if this is the fallout from a payment dispute or some other client/designer failure, perhaps it's best just to walk away and try again.