Design has been my full-time job and passion for 27 years.
A gamut of design ... print, typography, advertising, web, interactive, user-experience. The whole nine yards. And I realised, that I have never really needed a portfolio. So in mid-January of 2020, after not finding the right "fit" in my last job, I decided to invest in myself and create a stunning visual portfolio to showcase my work. The current pandemic is forcing me to stay home and job opportunities have dried right up so I have time. In that time, I managed to create a handful of really slick and stunningly visual portfolios for myself.
I didn't like any of them. They were all too much. I don't need all that stuff. I need a portfolio that reflects who I am as a person and as a reflective, quiet, thoughtful, seasoned designer. I need something much simpler. Something that said something about how I think about design.
I use design principles and processes to solve design problems. I use my experience to adapt parts of that process depending on a project's specific needs and goals. To do design right, you first have to understand and define the problem, then design the solution.
That might mean conveying a snippet of data so that's it's quickly understood and acted on. A well-designed and positioned UI element a user sees and interacts with. Providing detailed information to allow a user to make important long-term strategy decisions. Using colours and shapes to influence buying decisions or emotions. Figuring out how to simplify an interface so that it disappears from the user's consciousness, allowing them to complete a task successfully, and be smiling when they do it.
The designs I was creating for my own portfolio were "too much". I already have a portfolio, I just didn't realise it. It's simply how I think about design. That's my portfolio. How I talk about design, understand problems, communicate and share solutions and create stunning experiences for users over the past 27 years. It's the perfect representation of who I am as a person and a designer. Yes, I've won design awards, can show you pretty work, and can explain my design thinking and processes to C-levels, and the bright design university co-op students and junior designers I enjoy mentoring. But there's no point in showcasing the visual stuff here. There's no point in having a "proper portfolio" when it's my curiosity, passion, and love of design (and those 27 years of doing and learning) that are the main things that I can honestly and fully offer you.
So, welcome to my new portfolio. I hope you like it.