What can a website show when the work is private?

A visitor still needs to understand what you do when your strongest work cannot be shown. Start with the facts you can publish, the material you can share and a clear way to ask about a project.

A useful example is not automatically a public one

Make two lists: what would help a prospective client judge the work, and what you have permission to publish. The overlap is the starting selection. Keep the remaining material out of drafts that anyone outside the review group can open.

For an interiors studio, a room photograph might identify a residence through the view, objects or floor plan even when the owner's name is absent. For a jeweller, a date or inscription might reveal more than the object alone. Review the actual export and caption together, including its filename, text alternative and any download metadata.

Record the decision beside the asset

For each proposed example, write down:

• Material: the exact image version, caption, credits and location wording.
• Use: the page and any other places you intend to publish it. Do not assume a website decision covers social posts or outreach.
• Approval: who is authorised to decide and where their decision is recorded.
• Limits: what must stay out, when the decision needs review and who handles a removal request.

This is a project workflow, not a way to decide legal rights. A professional office should apply its own requirements and obtain advice where needed. A designer can record the decision and implement it; the office remains responsible for deciding what it may disclose.

If an assistant coordinates the material, distinguish the person sending files from the person authorised to approve publication. Record whose reply closes the decision so the designer is not left interpreting a forwarded conversation.

Give the visitor something specific to assess

When project images are unavailable, look for other useful evidence you can substantiate: the services you provide, the team's actual role, an approved detail, materials you work with or the steps a client can expect. A private office can explain who receives an inquiry and which kinds of request it handles.

A lawyer's website might need clear service descriptions, accurate professional biographies and office-approved contact instructions. It does not need a disguised client story to fill the page. Confirm professional wording with the practice before publication.

Illustrative example: an object maker cannot name the buyer or show an installed piece. The maker has approval for a cropped material detail and its dimensions. The page identifies that limited view, explains the maker's role and offers a project inquiry. It adds no invented location, endorsement or result.

A password link is a separate sharing decision. Agree who may receive it and what it contains; do not treat the presence of a password as permission to circulate the work.

Help someone who arrives through a recommendation

A recommendation may introduce your name without explaining your services. Check the page with this situation in mind: someone has forwarded the link to a partner, an assistant or a prospective client who has never met you.

1. Confirm the fit. State the work you take on and the practical boundaries, such as service area or appointment arrangements, where relevant.
2. Make responsibility clear. Identify the team or office accurately and explain who receives the first inquiry.
3. Provide one useful destination. Send the relevant service or project link rather than asking the recipient to work through the whole site.
4. Leave room for discretion. Let them describe the broad request without naming a client, home or matter before it is necessary.

Use a short forwarding test. Ask someone to send the page to a colleague with one sentence of context. Can the colleague say what the business does, why that page was sent and how to ask a question? Record anything they have to guess.

A first hello can be shorter than the email signature.

Let someone inquire without telling you everything

Ask for the broad type of request and a reply address. If an assistant may write on a client's behalf, make that route understandable without demanding the client's private address or personal details at first contact.

Agree where detailed files or sensitive information will go after a person has replied. State what the visitor should avoid putting in the initial form. Review the inquiry route with the same care as the portfolio: which details are necessary, who receives them and what happens next?

Use the readiness worksheet to keep unresolved publication and contact decisions with the project scope.