When you have completed a project under a confidentiality agreement or a client simply does not want the work shown publicly, you still need something to put in front of a potential client or employer. The most common approach is to describe the problem you were asked to solve and the process you followed, without revealing the final deliverable. You can name the industry, the type of challenge, and the tools or methods you applied, then stop short of showing the actual output. This works because most people evaluating a portfolio care about how you think, not just what you produced.
A second option is to ask the client for written permission to share specific, limited elements. Sometimes a client will not approve the full project but will allow you to show a single frame, a color palette, a typeface selection, or a brief description of the brief itself. Get this approval in writing and keep a record of exactly what was approved. If the client agrees only to a verbal description rather than any visual, that is still useful material you can present as a case study written in your own words.
A third approach is to create an anonymized or abstracted version of the work. You can rebuild a layout with placeholder content, change identifying details, or produce a simplified diagram that shows your structural thinking without exposing proprietary information. The key is to make clear in your portfolio that this is a reconstructed example based on real work, not the actual deliverable. This honesty protects you if someone later asks for specifics.
When presenting these partial examples in an interview or proposal, frame them around your decision-making. Explain what constraints you faced, what options you considered, and why you chose the direction you did. This gives the person evaluating your work a sense of your judgment and problem-solving ability, which is often more valuable than seeing a finished image. You can also invite them to ask follow-up questions about your process, which lets you go deeper verbally without putting sensitive material in a document that might circulate.
Finally, keep a private archive of your full work for your own reference, and note which pieces have clearance to be shown and which do not. When a new opportunity arises, you can quickly identify what you are allowed to share and prepare accordingly, rather than scrambling to figure out your permissions at the last moment.