I created a one-page portfolio web design comp that focuses on Dorothy Delong, a feminist photographer. She wanted a one-page portfolio website to showcase her work to galleries and magazines. This website would make it easier for potential clients to request Dorothy’s work and get in touch with her.
With this project, Dorothy had two goals. She wanted to entice magazines to purchase her photos for publication because until recently, she hasn’t had a good place to showcase her work when magazines ask for a portfolio. Secondly, she wanted her work to get shown in museums both locally, and abroad. A great digital website would allow her to work to be shown to a wider audience and fix the problem of her not having a place to showcase her work.
Before working on Dorothy’s design, I started the process of preliminary research. I began asking her questions such as Who are you trying to reach with this website? Who are your competitors?, Do you have a logo, specific colors, or any other content I should include on the site?. These questions allowed me to understand Dorothy, the main goals of her site, and any parameters that I need to keep in mind when designing her site. When first starting out for Dorothy’s design, I created a paper wireframe that included all of Dorothy’s parameters. I used basic placeholders such as rectangles with x’s to represent images and horizontal lines to represent a block of text.
After drafting my wireframe, I imported the image into Adobe XD to begin the process of creating my digital wireframe. The next step to achieve Dorothy’s portfolio site was to apply the color scheme & typography. After creating this, I applied the site’s typography which included Source Sans Pro as the main font and Lora as the secondary font.
The final step was adding the images Dorothy requested for her site. I created multiple clipping masks for each set of photos and made sure the spacing between the images was far enough apart from one another. The client was extremely happy with the final site and has already gotten offers from magazines and museums.
The challenges I faced during this design process are as follows. When I first designed Dorothy’s website I picked a color scheme that was a little bright compared to what Dorothy had wanted. After getting feedback, I chose a different color scheme that worked well with the photos she had taken. Adobe Color Wheel was extremely helpful through this process. The colors that you see now on the website were founded by this source and are perfect for what Dorothy had wanted.
The second challenge I faced was not incorporating enough white space between my images. When making my wireframe for this design comp, I made four rectangles with minimal spacing between the images & forgot to leave a space for text. When I inserted my images through Adobe XD, I was able to space each image further apart and added the name of the picture along with the date and location of the project.
The final design of the project was able to solve Dorothy’s problem of enticing magazines to purchase her work. After the website was created Dorothy got an offer from a local magazine requesting to use the Father & Daughter photo for a father’s day article. Dorothy also got a call from a museum telling her that they would love to use her photos for a new feminist exhibit. I was really happy that I was able to fulfill the needs of my client and that Dorothy was able to achieve her goals with this website.
