Bi-weekly snapshot #1: Personal website or portfolio overhaul
Bi-weekly snapshot #1: Personal website or portfolio overhaul
Welcome to the first edition of our bi-weekly newsletter! This issue features a discussion on personal website and portfolio design, as well as my thoughts. Be sure to tune in for future updates!
Happy New Year!
The first edition of my bi-weekly snapshot! I decided to create at least a biweekly update or snapshot where certain topics depend on my weekly musings. If you have suggestions or feedback, don’t forget to comment and enjoy!
As designers, our yearly goal is to update our portfolio at least once. After seeing this, @brian_lovin tweets about asking for those who have redesigned their personal websites recently.
The year 2023 is coming up in a few hours (I'm based in the Philippines), and as designers, we always want to update our personal website or portfolio.
We know that a good portfolio is necessary to get hired and show our skills, so we invest a lot of hours doing new stuff every year to update it and keep up with the trends in the industry. But what does “update” really mean? Do we want to change a few colors or include more projects? These days, updating your portfolio involves much more than that. For example, now that you have your portfolio online, it is very important to keep it up-to-date! Just like in real life, if you haven’t looked in a mirror lately (or if you haven’t updated your CV since you graduated), it is inevitable that you will be seen as outdated. So for this newsletter, I want to highlight some of the best portfolios, share some design tips, and share some reflections I learned when designing a portfolio or website. Continue reading below to learn more and have fun!
Design Inspiration
Given that this newsletter is about portfolios, here are my top five favorites that never fail to impress. It's a fantastic design, especially the interaction, and as a UI designer, it's one of my long-term goals to design just like this.
Amelia Wattenberger
I highly recommend checking out Amelia's website if you are a big fan of data visualization. You can also read her book about Fullstack D3 and Data visualization. Amelia is a Staff Research Engineer at GitHub.
Marco Cornacchia
It’s an interactive website, so check it out and click and hover over every element. It also has an audio 🤯. Marco is a Product Designer at Diagram.
Rafael Conde
A video loop of the hero banner caught my attention, and it was very entertaining; it’s simple and unique. Rafa is the Founding Designer at Along.
Rauno Freiberg
The website's animation and interactive aspects are much more detailed, and the navigation is the same as on the macOS experience. Remember to check the “Craft” page and be amazed by each interaction. Rauno is currently a Design Engineer at Vercel.
Brian Lovin
From the bookmark page to the ask me anything page, even the stack page is useful. It’s clean and simple, but I like how Brian's website interacts with readers or visitors. You can leave a comment, react if you are using that app, and so much more. Brian is currently building at Campsite and is one of the hosts of the Design Details podcast.
Life Musings
Before, when I was looking for a new job and freelancing, I tried to invest more time in designing and coding my online personal portfolio. But since some of my work is subject to non-disclosure agreements with clients and previous employers, what I do now is design a portfolio in Notion, which I can at least share with selected companies. Designing a portfolio in Notion can be a challenging but rewarding experience.
It is not as simple as formatting or adding an icon or hyperlink. But it’s easy to update from time to time and hide some projects that do not relate to the companies' industries. But here is a preview of my notion portfolio.
Finally, if you are looking for new work, you must demonstrate how you execute your design process and present your work to impress the recruiter, and it is an added bonus if you want to share your work online. But if you want to build your online presence, it’s better to have a personal website to showcase your skills than to have 👌.
There are a few key considerations to keep in mind when re-designing a portfolio or website:
Purpose - It's important to identify the purpose of the portfolio and how it will be used. Are you going to use it to look for a new career or want to highlight and be updated your portfolio/website?
Content - Think about the projects and accomplishments you want to include in the portfolio. Do you plan to do a writing or blog?
Design - Do you want to follow the latest trend? or consider the overall look and feel of the portfolio?
Maintenance - Are you going to update monthly? Or do you plan to update yearly?
Design Tips
For this week, I don’t have design tips related to a portfolio or personal website, but I recommend trying this book by Dann Petty about creating a portfolio. Visit the website at That portfolio Book.
It’s a step-by-step interactive video if you prefer to read, watch, and listen while reading, and this is one of my favorite books about creating a portfolio. Because it's a new year, I'm giving away "Book Only" to one lucky reader. So make sure you are subscribed to my Substack.
My Recommendations
Since our weekly digest focuses more on portfolios, here are some resources that might be helpful.
Design Life Podcast: Positioning your portfolio for a design manager role - A good podcast about discussing how to stand out your portfolio
Show your work by Austin Kleon - One of my favorite books that might be related to showcasing your work.
Bestfolios - Design portfolio inspiration
The portfolio presentation that got me hired as a design manager by femke.design - Femke shared a video about how she got hired with the portfolio presentation.
That’s all for this week!
Thank you for reading the first edition of my biweekly snapshot. If you like this format or have any suggestions, feel free to message me on Twitter at @ericsonluciano. Also, don’t forget to subscribe. I will send an email directly to the winner.
Happy New Year, everyone! I’m looking forward to 2023! Let’s go!