Back to WorkPortfolio design / Local creative services
Ward Studio
- Role
- Designer / Developer
- Discipline
- Portfolio design / Local creative services
Project imagery
Focus
- Portfolio design
- Local creative services
- Template productization
Visual direction
- Dark interface
- terminal inspired interactions
Outcome
- Early studio/business experiment that later gave way to larger product work
01 / Studio direction
How could a portfolio feel more like a small creative business?
Ward Studio was a more serious attempt to turn my design and development skills into a small local creative business while also building a stronger portfolio for myself. I wanted the site to feel more intentional than a traditional freelancer portfolio, so I designed it around a dark, modern interface with a tooltip visual motif.
One of the small interaction ideas I liked was giving project images extra personality. When users hovered over certain visuals, the site would reveal a short insight, comment, or quirky line instead of only showing a project title. I wanted the portfolio to feel like it had a little character without becoming difficult to navigate.
Desktop and mobile portfolio surfaces
02 / Business direction
What did the studio teach me?
The broader idea was for Ward Studio to become more than a portfolio. I planned to use it to offer design and development services locally, sell reusable website templates based on projects I had already completed, and to eventually distribute tools like InkBot through the same site.
Not long after building it, I decided to put more of my attention toward college and larger product work, so Ward Studio stopped developing into a full business. Even though it became a short lived project, it was useful for learning how to present my work as a service, and designing a portfolio around a stronger personal identity.
Product detail interaction
