I had created my portfolio website in July 2016 with the intent of showcasing my ongoing and completed creative media projects to prospective employers and collaborators. I had already updated and uploaded a downloadable PDF version for my profile. However, I was not entirely content with my portfolio’s brand image at the time. I love writing, and I am passionate about design and a complete geek when it comes to editing. At first, I had started using the fountain pen as my symbol even when I had been working on my ongoing pet project, Verge of Verse. It seemed to capture my personality and creativity well, in the sense that I am also obsessed with typography and am known among close friends and family to have a distinct cursive handwriting whenever I scribble down ideas in my notebook or sign my name.

During the course of contemplating which direction I wanted to take for my portfolio, I asked myself so many questions: Did I need such a prominent logo? Do I need to show a symbol in my logo to let people know that I am a writer and a designer? Or is there a way to make more concise design choices that would still lead to the same impression? What impressions did I want to make to my audience?

Even if I did not have all of the answers at that very moment, I knew that I wanted to do something different and try out a new design that could potentially lead to another creative opportunity. Drafting a design brief helped me visualize my goals and keep my thoughts organized through each step of the creative process.

I used to doodle my name in my notebooks when I was younger, sometimes I would even imagine that I was the wife of whoever happened to be my crush at that point in my life. However, I always knew that I wanted my letter “J” to have a swooping curve since it sets the vibe for the other letters in my name and anchors everything together. This then led me to think, “Why not?”

Maybe I should experiment with my name in cursive fonts and see if I find a specific one that closely resembles the way I write my own name, and maybe it might actually capture my signature style as a writer, editor, and a designer, so to speak. That’s how I ended up with these doodles in Adobe Photoshop until I finally found a font that closely resembled my own signature:

I wanted the focus to be on my work and my skills while also capturing my essence as a designer and as a creative professional making a career transition. My main goal in redesigning the overall site is to ensure that my projects are more visible and easier for my audience to access, but without relying heavily on the traditional blog format. I designed my website to feature the photos of my projects in a masonry grid format and organized each section by category to make the site easy to navigate and the projects easy to find.

I also wanted to create a business card as a touchpoint when I network with others and provide them with my contact information during social events and conferences.