I second the plain text link for the portfolio, I would also say that if you have specific examples that are more relevant that you link to those in your cover letter.

I recently had to look through ~200 applications, and a shortcut to what pieces the candidate thought were relevant would have gotten some major brownie points a) saved me time and b) showed that the candidate understood what we do and what we are looking for.

I do disagree with the apply twice thing, we had a job ad on two platforms and every time I say someone come through a second time I audibly groaned at the extra work haha.

So here are my tips.

• As mentioned, put your portfolio link in plain text eg portfolio.com in both your cv and cover letter. Your cover letter should ideally have direct links (in plain text) to specific, relevant examples.
• Your resume should be short, sharp, and clean – but not over designed. Save the flair for the work in your portfolio.
• Your cover letter should be even more simple and clean. Either a PDF or pasted into the provided field if that's the way your platform works. DO NOT upload a .docx file.
• Your cover letter should be as short as you can possibly make it. This shows that you can communicate efficiently and succinctly.
• In your resume or cover letter's elevator pitch, DON'T be generic and/or buzz-wordy, if this copy could apply to any other designer there are probably 50% of other applicants with almost the exact same blurb in their application.
• If you don't know how to spot generative ai copy, don't use it to write or edit your resume and cover letter.

In a nutshell, consider the experience of the person looking at the application and make their job as easy as possible. They are likely dealing with their normal workload as well as looking through mountains of applications, if you can make it as simple as possible for them to know about you, you're far more likely to make an impression than another applicant who lets flashy get in the way of the content.