Portfolio Website — Janie Pham

Branding + Content Strategy + Website Design

Portfolio website—Defining who I am as a designer coming from a non-design background.

Skills learned—

Designing a website in Webflow, Squarespace.

Crafting personal branding and content strategy based on research

Timeline—5 weeks and ongoing

Tools—Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Photoshop, Webflow, Squarespace, Figma, and lots of coffee

Portfolio Website V1.0—Powered by Webflow

“To know thyself is the beginning of wisdom.” - Socrates

I started the project by asking myself this “seemingly simple” question: “Who am I?”

It kinds of terrified me that I don’t really know—I have a vague idea but if I need to spell them out, nope. But as a UX designer, I know just the best way to tackle this.

Research, research, research.

It seems weird to do research about… myself. But I quickly crafted a fun survey, sent it to friends and people I’ve worked with. I also interviewed 2 closest friends to see what they have to say about me as a person and as a team player in a professional setting.

Here’s a link to the survey if you want to check it out.

The insights are interesting!

I don’t really have a favourite colour to be honest—but I know I love earth tones, subtle and organic. The answers from my survey are consistent with that as well.

Learning Webflow

What’s up with all the hype around this tool?

I’m a curious person by nature, so learning new tools is what excites me the most. I spent weeks playing around with Webflow, watching their tutorials and diving head first into building my first ever home page.

Gains.

I learned so much within such a short timeframe.

Building static webpages
Building dynamic content and linked it with Webflow’s content management system
Making texts move!

Pains.

I’ll admit it, I love Webflow but I think I’ve been spending way too much time playing around with the tool, instead of focusing on the content and my case studies (and I need to get a portfolio website out asap). So I sadly said good bye to Webflow, but I know someday these newly acquired skills will come in handy for a new designer like me.

I identify myself as a minimalist—but when I tested the initial designs with my friends, they don’t think it represents me well.

“You’re a minimalist, but with a warm touch. I don’t think black and white speaks “Janie” to me.” - a good friend of mine.

Putting it all together.

I took a step back, gathered all the research insights, and looked at the brands I use—to define the final look and feel of the website you’re on right now.

INSPIRED BY

Wabi-sabi, a Japanese philosophy of finding beauty in things that are imperfect, impermanent and aged.

FEEL

Organic

Calm

Slow

Handcrafted

BRANDS I LOVE

Aesop

MUJI

Within a set timeframe, I managed to do research, design 4 different versions of my portfolio website, test it, and learn Webflow, Webflow CMS, animation and HTML/CSS in the process. It’s also interesting to learn more about myself and how other people perceive me in a professional setting.

A portfolio project is a life-long project. It will grow with me as I embark on my journey as a designer. This is not Portfolio_Final. This is V4. And I’m excited to see what’s next in this journey.