The best new portfolio sites, November 2016

Hello readers! World events have been very interesting lately, but now it’s time for what we all know is really important: other peoples’ portfolios! Okay, it’s not that important in the grand scheme of things, but design is one thing we can all agree o… ahahaha. I can’t even properly finish that sentence. Not even as a joke. Now, I knew that some of you designers liked your asymmetrical post-modern designs but wow, you have outdone yourselves this month. We have a lot of them for you this time, so I hope you like minimalism and odd dimensions. As always, if you’d like to contribute your own portfolio for next month’s roundup.

Alex Suarez

uses semi-flat design tastefully. While the site may be a bit low on contrast, the layout works, the drop shadows actually work, and the overall style gives a very clear picture of what kind of work to expect. 

Robin Saulet

uses brush fonts and colorful photography to give us a bit of a retro feel, while keeping the colors muted enough that they don’t blind anyone. It works well when paired with the now-classic full-screen-sections layout. 

Carina Czisch

is about as minimalist as they come without being brutalist, and looks fantastic for it. Now, the (large) header being the same on every page might confuse some people with small screens, but otherwise, this site is just plain calming to lok at. 

Owen O’Donnell

we have our first monthly it’s‑nothing-too-original-but-still-well-done site! Good craftsmanship deserves appreciation, even if it’s similar to things you’ve seen before. I’d just recommend more paragraph breaks in the blog entries. 

DUX

doesn’t shy away from vibrant design. With the blues, greens, high contrast, geometric designs, and minimalist illustrations, this site is a glut of color and style. It’s enough to make you forget that it is, technically, a flat design. I love my minimalism, but it’s fun to see designers go all out, too. Know when to follow your constraints, and when to break them. 

Jens Nielsen

And we go back to the mostly-monochrome minimalism with Jens Nielsen’s portfolio. It’s small, it’s sweet, it’s smooth. Go check it out. 

Florian Monfrini

follows the trend of many art-focused sites these days, with a focus on minimalism and asymmetry. As in other cases, it works quite well, here. 

Re:collection

is brought to you by minimalism, asymmetry, and presumably a whole lot of float: left;. I love it. 

Liam Ricketts

takes things old-school with what may be one of the early 3D/​Flash/​Video effects I can think of. I don’t know what has possessed so many to make their photographs look like flags or other bits of cloth flapping in the wind, but here we are. Combined with a dead-simple modern layout, the effect make this site stand out in a big way, and that’s never a bad thing. 

AW&CO

brings more minimalism, more asymmetry. There’s a more elegant/​fashionable feel to it, though, which seems appropriate, given their clientele. 

E‑TYPES

bnrings us yet more minimalism, and more asymmetry, but this time, it’s spiced up with motion in tthe form of background videos implemented with HTML5. 

Oblik

is one of those portfolio sites that likes to put their navigation all around the page. In this case, though, it makes sense. The navigation text on the upper left brings up a modal screen about the studio itself, and the ones on the bottom navigate through the projects. See? Make a lot more sense than putting ​“About us”, ​“Work”, and ​“Contact” in three different corners. 

Lionel Durimel

also makes use of some fairly original navigation. Use your mouse wheel to horizontally scroll through three rows of project names, and hover over one for a preview. The rest of the page layouts largely stick to convention, which is good for the usability. 

Mozell

shows off their work in an interface that is more app/​Powerpoint than site. For their content, though, it works. 

Brave

is a design studio that focuses on working with nonprofits and charities.They don’t do anything out of the ordinary in the layout department, but trheir chosen imagery (and background videos) are spot-on, and well-though-out. 

13 Bytes

uses the hand-drawn look to impressive effect in showing off their own work. It’s not overdone, though. There’s just the right amount of sketchy illustrations and ​“hand-wrtten” text to offset the more normal sans-serif typography. 

.DOT

is a master class in integrating vibrant branding into every part of a website without overwhelming and outshining the content. 

The Hideout

is highly minimalist, but not post-modern. It’s just… regular modern, and all the more refreshing for it. The inclusion of subtle illustrated wood patterns is a very nice touch. 

Brittany Chiang

is an excellent example of how high-resolution full-screen layouts should be done. The timeline section is pretty great too. 

Jascha Goltermann

combines that monochrome-with-neon-accents look with some subtle animation to spice things up even further. Once you get away from the flashy effects, the design itself is delightfully minimalist. I appreciate a design that only pulls out all the stops when it actually needs to.