As a young designer, my web presence is an important aspect of my personal branding, my best method of marketing myself, and a strong reflection of the designer I am, or want to be. Since I started putting my work online three years ago, this domain has had six different designs, only three of which I am not completely ashamed of (a good sign I am growing as a designer). Keeping to my unintentionally established six-month website life cycle, I will be redesigning my portfolio and blog for launch sometime in early 2010.
I have been spending the last couple months accumulating bookmarks of portfolio and blog designs that I find to be highly effective, compelling, or interesting for any reason, and I thought I would share my thoughts. These are some of the best websites out there in the portfolio/blogosphere, in my humble opinion.
I have synthesized what little knowledge I have gleaned from studying Flash and Actionscript over the last month into this little educational interaction on the subject of simple machines. Enjoy!
I’ve got some more silly Flash exercises I have thrown together, thought I might share in the interest of documenting my development with the medium (in the hopes that I eventually make something pseudo-worthwhile).
My very good friend and colleague Anthony Mattox has FINALLY gotten around to putting his interactive work online in a form that you can actually interact with it (in addition to redesigning his blog!). The beautiful generative graphics and visualizations that have mesmerized those who have seen Anthony’s work first hand are now available to mesmerize everyone on the series of tubes. If you have any spare time on your hands, do yourself a favor and jaunt on over to www.anthonymattox.com/interactive and explore some of his beautiful generative works. If you find yourself on a white page where you are not sure what to do, just start clicking in the void and watch the magic happen.
I have begun experimenting with Flash and Actionscript 3, somewhat against my will, in my GD300 class this semester. This is my first real experience with the new program and the third iteration of Actionscript, so I have a lot of learning to do. I will be posting my progress here, thus providing some very, very silly, interactive things for you to play with.
This is also my first shot at embedding flash on my site here, so let me know if anything is wonky or if I should be doing something differently.
My blog is more or less an unprofessional mess, and I wouldn’t have it any other way. But, that’s mostly because I do not possess the dexterity, concentration, or dedication that is required to author an informative, focused blog. Bryan Connor, however, possesses all of these things, and his blog Young & Freelancing has been a long time coming. Bryan has been a very good friend of mine and a partner in the chaotic, often stressful, world of young freelancing for almost 2 years now. Few people I know show the brand of maturity and composure Bryan carries himself with when dealing with floods of emails, frustrating clients, and all the other fun stuff that comes with being an creative individual in today’s freelance market.
If you are young, or freelancing, or have an interest is the behind the scenes of design, be sure to check out Bryan’s Blog. Despite its infancy, Bryan has already stocked the blog with some pretty incredible and helpful articles. I am sure my habits have made/inspired some of his “what not to do” lists, so if you want to hear from the best, click on through.
My good friend and creative consult Anthony Mattox has finally gotten around to putting together a fairly complete portfolio site and blog. The collection of work on his site presently is mostly his older work; he is just now getting completely ingrained in his field of study: Interactive Media. I suggest you all begin following his work immediately; his unique and wholehearted approach to his medium consistently yields breathtaking and inspiring work. (more…)
