The rule
Every image on a project card is either an authentic screenshot of that project or it is clearly labelled as something else. There is no third option.
That sounds obvious. In practice, agency portfolios drift. A mockup from a pitch becomes the product, a design concept is presented as shipped software, and a client's private dashboard appears with real names blurred just enough to be deniable. We decided not to do any of that.
How we capture public projects
For projects that are publicly deployed we run an automated Playwright script against the live URL. It captures a 1440 by 900 desktop viewport and a 390 by 844 mobile viewport for a short list of pages we choose by hand, usually the homepage, services and one conversion page. Images are converted to WebP and stored with alt text that describes what is actually on screen.
The script deliberately skips anything that looks like a login, dashboard, account or tracking page. If a page contains contact details or testimonials we did not verify, we crop or skip it.
What happens when there is nothing safe to show
Some of our work is private. Workforce systems with employee records, internal operations dashboards, products still in development. For those we show an editorial placeholder that says exactly what it is, preview being prepared, alongside a factual description of the system and its status.
Owners can approve sanitised screenshots later through the dashboard. Until then, the placeholder stays. A case study without a screenshot is still a case study. A case study with a fake screenshot is just marketing.
Why this matters to clients
If you are evaluating a software partner, you are also evaluating how they handle your data and your reputation. A portfolio is the first place that shows.
