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@AdamHodgson Not a problem but this might be a long post so bear with me. Also, to see the images below in their full size, right click and open in a new tab.
Many developers and designers struggle with creating their portfolio. I’ve struggled probably longer than the average person (2 years) without having a functional site and that could be from being a perfectionist. Actually I know it stems from that and I have a real problem with it which withholds me from a lot of things related. I would urge you to focus on your content, first! It will help you speed things up when it comes to the design phase and making crucial decisions.
I knew from the beginning that I wanted to number my articles after being inspired by the magazine article below.
So. I set up the Kirby (CMS) backend particularly on how I wanted to insert specific content and options. Such as custom fields where I could input the article numbers (see below).
From there, I started uploading basic text and content into the backend as shown above and created a template to pull in some of that content into my homepage (see below).
I came to the conclusion that I didn’t want to have a portfolio link or a page with ALL my work. It would mostly be about articles on me pursuing a law degree and also about typography. However, I wanted to have a few selected pieces of my artwork on the about page.
Artwork backend
Result
With this particular design, I didn’t open PS at all. I created everything from within the browser all from experimenting except where I made arrows in AI for my article pagination (which I added to The Noun Project for anyone to use). Anyway, I remember seeing a magazine a while back that had the most beautiful typography and layout structure. Particularly where there was top and bottom borders that were shorter than the large uppercase headings. That’s where I received the idea for my header.
Now came the part on selecting webfonts. I was in contact with Jackson Cavanaugh about his Harriet series type family when he told me that he commissioned Webtype to create a webfont version. While I was waiting for that, I contacted Webtype to purchase a custom license for Benton Modern Regular and Italic styles for my body copy but there options were a bit overboard for my needs. Instead of $20 per style at 20,000 views per month, I asked if we could work out $15 per style at something like 5,000 views per month if I threw in an additional purchase of Benton Sans (used in my menu and footer). They accepted however, in case I do end up going over that, I could have a reason to negotiate on page views due to what I’m paying. Either way they’re flexible and are incredibly easy to work with (unlike Typekit). When Harriet eventually did come out, I tested it against my body type and decided not to use it. For my name, I was looking for an uppercase “R” to have more of a tail on the leg which you see on Benton Modern. I came across Old Standard on Typekit and found that to be a suitable option and it resembles Benton Modern a bit so it worked out well. The only problem with it, which I’m about to email Typekit about now, is that the lack of kerning is a clear problem, more noticeably when the font is set to a large size.
Basically from this point I just continuously tried out ideas like using a two column layout for the paragraph text on my homepage. I added a subscribe button above that for those relying on RSS feeds, etc. I’m still thinking I need a little more content on the homepage to make it more interesting. Eventually it will get finished. I’m just not sure when. Hopefully soon.
I hope this answers your questions but if not, again, I’m happy to elaborate even further.
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