20 Best New Portfolios, August 2019

Default avatar.
August 05, 2019
Every month we roundup the best portfolios launched by agencies, freelance designers, and other creative professionals, into one easy-to-digest collection.
20 Best New Portfolios, August 2019.
It’s August, which means the rain is finally slowing down, and I have a chance to get my roof fixed. While I wait here under a literal tarp-fort that I hung up in my office, I thought I might as well compile some of the best recent portfolios for you all to look at. We have a mix of sites this month, both colorful and, shall we say, color-minimalist. We’ve got more than a few specimens of one-column layouts, and some superb CSS Grid-based affairs. Enjoy. Note: I’m judging these sites by how good they look to me. If they’re creative and original, or classic but really well-done, it’s all good to me. Sometimes, UX and accessibility suffer. For example, many of these sites depend on JavaScript to display their content at all; this is a Bad Idea™, kids. If you find an idea you like and want to adapt to your own site, remember to implement it responsibly.

Mike Harrison

Mike Harrison’s portfolio is all about “big”: big text, big pictures, and a great big “M” that all fill up big screens (and yes, the small ones too). It’s dead simple, eye-catching, and might have a little bit of a blue thing going on. (It’s subtle, but it’s there [/sarcasm]) I sure would like it if the logo mark in the header took you back to the home page, like most sites do, but otherwise we have a solid (blue) first site for this list. Platform: WordPress 01-mike

Rules Creative

Who needs a power-point-style site when there’s actual 3D graphics to be had? Rules Creative uses both 3D and pseudo-3D effects combined with some light brutalism(?) to create a brash, but lovely-looking site. And it’s the first site this month to use yellow effectively, so it gets bonus points from me. They could use a bit more contrast for the navigation menu at the bottom, perhaps, but it’s otherwise great. Platform: Contentful 02-rules

PWNK Digital

PWNK Digital brings more 3D WebGL graphics, a whole lot of pink, and a cyberpunk aesthetic, which makes their logotype alone very clever. The rest of the site is brilliantly atmospheric, whether you’re browsing through their work or their social feeds. It’s a great showcase of what can be achieved with WebGL and 3D graphics on the web in general. Platform: Static Site (I think) 03-pwnk

Caleb Barclay

Caleb Barclay’s site has that monospaced-type and thin borders look that was everywhere for a while. Combined with the pastels and grays, along with some light animation, the whole things is pleasant to browse through while listening to piano covers of ‘90s pop hits. I know that’s a bit specific, but it’s true. It’s also another great example of what the Webflow platform can do. I do still prefer custom coding my sites, but man, the drag and drop builders are getting better. Platform: Webflow 04-caleb

Zomorrodi Associates

The site for Zomorrodi Associates is a sleek, monochromatic design that makes excellent use of mild animation, for the most part, but hits you with a couple of big ones in just the right places. I kind of love the “broken” effect that they’re applied to a couple of elements, including their logo. Platform: WordPress 05-zomorrodi

Brightscout

Brightscout’s portfolio uses clean type, tons of futuristic vector illustrations, and a general aesthetic that I sort of remember seeing from the better designers on DeviantArt right as Web 2.0 was slowing down. Don’t get me wrong, I love it, and I love the way their using the green tones. If just using green made a company eco-friendly, these guys could have fixed the rainforest already. Platform: WordPress 06-brightscout

Rootsy

Rootsy has more pastels and grays to look at, but it’s mostly a brighter design. It’s also got a layout that works fantastically on larger screens, which I always like to see. As one-page portfolios go, this one feels downright elegant and sophisticated, while still managing to feel a bit techy. 07-rootsy Platform: Static Site

Kervin Tan

Kervin Tan’s portfolio has a lovely background animation, a good dark layout, and generally just looks pretty. Go look at the pretty thing. Platform: Static Site 08-kervin

Isaac Powell

By contrast, Isaac Powell’s website is a lot brighter, though also very pretty. Go look at the other pretty thing. Well, I’ll admit that their approach to case studies is also pretty solid. They still let the images do most of the talking, but there’s a enough text to give you a feel for how they approach problems. Platform: Statis Site 09-isaac

Ashley Sheekey

Ashley Sheekey’s portfolio looks less like a classic website, and more like a very elegant database. Nerd that I am, this does it for me. There’s something about that typography, grid-based organization, and the use of filters that just makes me happy. Besides, when you have as much work to show off as Ashley does, filters just make sense. Someone please hold me down and tell me my own site doesn’t need filters. Oh, and do click on the “About” page, because I wasn’t kidding about that typography. Platform: Static Site (I think) 10-ashley

Netbluez

Netbluez’ portfolio is modern, colorful, and it has lovely illustrations to boot. This one-pager keeps things mostly pretty simple, but then, I’m never going to get over how much my inner five-year-old likes space stuff. I love my minimalism, but I also like seeing designers go nuts with the illustration and graphics. Platform: Static Site 11-netbluez

Wesley van ’t Hart

This portfolio, well… I’ve seen a lot of minimalism in my admittedly limited time, but not many go for this much white space unless they have no content to speak of. Here, the white space is embraced, loved, and very well-used to frame a simple—but by no means empty—portfolio. Platform: Static Site 12-wesley

Guillame Colombel

Guillame Colombel’s portfolio goes for the slideshow on the home page as their primary method of showing off their work. In general, animation is used to show off the images, and keep things looking fancy. And well, it does look fancy. Platform: Static Site 13-guillame

EVERGIB

Want to see what CSS Grid can do for you? Look no further than the layout over at EVERGIB, with its print-like feel, and generally great use of white space. It’s a simple site, but simplicity is hard, and I get excited for the future of the web every time I see something this well-built. Platform: WordPress 14-evergib

Stereo

Stereo is a site with smooth animation, a beautiful palette, and gorgeous type. It is a bit odd though, to have the navigation menu on the home page scrolling across the screen marquee-style (you can drag it manually, too, to get the link you want). It’s not an approach I’d recommend to everyone, but it’s certainly striking… and usable enough for short menus. Plus, they managed to work memes into their actual website design in a way that made sense and amused me. I’m genuinely impressed with that. Platform: WordPress 15-stereo

Christian Coan

Christian Coan’s portfolio is another one that leans hard into the use of yellow, but the real star of the show is that typography. I’m not sure I would have put the actual work all the way at the bottom, myself, but this one-pager is just that pretty. Platform: Static Site 16-coan

Kev Adamson

Not gonna lie, I am in love with Kev Adamson’s site for nostalgia reasons. It’s a bit ’90s, a bit early 2000s, and all built with more modern development techniques. I’m never going to say that we should all go back to skeuomorphism, but maybe some of us could, sometimes. This Kev person certainly can, I think. Plus, they’re an illustrator. The aesthetic totally works. Platform: Custom CMS 17-kev

Cam Dales

Cam Dales’ portfolio is a fine example of both highly modern minimalism, and one-column layouts. It stands as a reminder that sometimes, when you’ve got very simple content, there’s no need to over complicate your design. Platform: Cargo Collective, Backdrop 18-cam

Studio 313

Studio 313 is coming in hot with a modern aesthetic, fantastic type, gradients, and A PUG WITH SUNGLASSES IT’S SO CUTE I WANT HIM BUT THEY HAVE SO MANY HEALTH PROBLEMS… and I have cats anyway. They’d go full Garfield on that poor thing. It could use a bit more text contrast in places, but overall this site has quirky personal touches all over it, while still maintaining a professional image. That’s an approach I can respect. Platform: WordPress 19-313

Kévin Chassagne

Kévin Chassagne’s portfolio is living (or at least functioning) proof that you can have and elegant, fancy website with great-looking animation, that also works without JavaScript. Sure, you don’t see the fancy ripples in the background, but everything important and functional still functions. Sure, it’s a one-page portfolio with links to external sites, but my point stands. Content can load without JS. Oh, and I should probably mention that the site has fairly sold typography, and that I adore the color scheme. In this age of digital screens, it’s literally easy on the eyes. Platform: Static Site 20-kevin And you know what? If I’m honest, a part of me will really miss this tarp fort when it’s gone. It’s a fort. In my grown up office. Everyone should have one.

Ezequiel Bruni

Ezequiel Bruni is a web/UX designer, blogger, and aspiring photographer living in Mexico. When he’s not up to his finely-chiselled ears in wire-frames and front-end code, or ranting about the same, he indulges in beer, pizza, fantasy novels, and stand-up comedy.

Read Next

10+ Best Resources & Tools for Web Designers (2024 update)

Is searching for the best web design tools to suit your needs akin to having a recurring bad dream? Does each…

3 Essential Design Trends, April 2024

Ready to jump into some amazing new design ideas for Spring? Our roundup has everything from UX to color trends…

How to Plan Your First Successful Website

Planning a new website can be exciting and — if you’re anything like me — a little daunting. Whether you’re an…

15 Best New Fonts, March 2024

Welcome to March’s edition of our roundup of the best new fonts for designers. This month’s compilation includes…

LimeWire Developer APIs Herald a New Era of AI Integration

Generative AI is a fascinating technology. Far from the design killer some people feared, it is an empowering and…

20 Best New Websites, March 2024

Welcome to our pick of sites for March. This month’s collection tends towards the simple and clean, which goes to show…

Exciting New Tools for Designers, March 2024

The fast-paced world of design never stops turning, and staying ahead of the curve is essential for creatives. As…

Web Tech Trends to Watch in 2024 and Beyond

It hardly seems possible given the radical transformations we’ve seen over the last few decades, but the web design…

6 Best AI Productivity Apps in 2024

There’s no escaping it: if you want to be successful, you need to be productive. The more you work, the more you…

3 Essential Design Trends, February 2024

From atypical typefaces to neutral colors to unusual user patterns, there are plenty of new website design trends to…

Surviving the Leap from College to Real-World Design

So, you’ve finished college and are ready to showcase your design skills to the world. This is a pivotal moment that…

20 Mind-Bending Illusions That Will Make You Question Reality

Mind-bending videos. Divisive Images. Eye-straining visuals. This list of optical illusions has it all. Join us as we…