New year, new portfolio website!
I design and build, so it's important for my work (and my sanity) that I custom build my own portfolio website, showcased here. The website is of course responsive. I kept it super simple, clean and to the point. It needs to clearly communicate what I do, and share my design thinking, process and case studies. I have no interest or need for a 'personal brand' — so there is no logo or stylised photos of myself looking thoughtfully into the distance... ;) But the simple, clean aesthetic does communicate my approach to design. I love the simplicity and clarity of the Sofia Pro font used throughout, with Courier for navigational elements, because I've always appreciated it's quirkiness, which I guess represents me well :) I sparingly use a 'hot pink' throughout, chosen as it's the colour I've used for annotating wireframes and specs for several years, which I thought was a nice touch.
Case study
The next three screens show the template for showcasing design projects. I kept it super simple. A clear introduction to what the project was, details of the problem, process and annotated examples of the designs. Visit this particular live case study >
Home page
The next three screens show the home page. Simple, clean and to the point. In recent years I've moved (probably temporarily) from freelance to full-time positions within organisations, leading design, working with a team. As such my attention is not just on ideation, design and build — it's also encompassed a degree of mentoring and leading by example. I've found myself writing more articles and talking about design process. I started to feel like these insights are more valuable than just showing work. So on the home page I lead with three recent articles, titled 'Design thinking', before any design case studies. Visit the live home page >
Archive
It was important to group some design case studies by client. In the example below, I've worked on several digital campaign websites for the charity Surfers Against Sewage — this archive allows me to give the projects showcased an introduction. In other cases there are projects I worked on while working at a company, for example at Behance in NYC, or Believe.in in London.
Footer
Wouldn't normally show the footer in a case study, but here we are! It's obviously important to let people know how to contact or follow me. I also used the footer to 'cross-sell' — for example, from case studies (as shown below) I would prompt you to read my bio, and from a bio or news page I'd prompt you to see my work.
