So this being my first post on the new site please bear with me as far as grammar, punctuation, and overall coherency.
As a freelance designer, I think it’s super important to keep your portfolio and work you’re proud of up to date and presented as it’s own “project”. That’s kind of how I looked at this new site. Presenting who I am effectively is a project in it of its self. I’ve been in the digital marketing space (more specifically SEO) for over 5 years and have learned a wealth of knowledge, best practices, and more importantly, bad practices. From how to properly construct a site’s navigation for optimal usability, to making sure all code, css, and javascript is minified properly to ensure a site is performing at warp speed, and everything in between.
These are ready made solutions for business to crush it online that weren’t necessarily even on my radar as I graduated from design school and begin building sites pro-bono for non profit foundations like the Cody Barrasse and Jude Zayac Foundations, respectively. Those were two of my first real projects and knew I had to showcase my skills to the masses before I became a true, professional designer.
But design is so much more than simply making things “look good”. It’s about presenting information in an easy to use format that engages and informs a user of a product, business, or service. In the holy grail of UI/UX usability books, “Don’t Make Me Think” author Steve Krug says a user ” should be able to “get it’ -what it is and how to use it-without expending any effort thinking about it”. I try to apply this methodology with all of the sites I design and develop. I shouldn’t have to tell visitors to “look here because x,y, and z’, the visual hierarchy, or presentation of elements in a way that implies importance, should be self explanatory.
So with that being said, hopefully navigating my new site and checking out my is as seamless and intuitive as it should be. I’d love to team up on a project in 2020 and be your go-to design and digital marketing partner.
And please, I sincerely mean this, if you have any issues or reasons for concern, please reach out to me at my personal email, patmineo815@gmail.com, and let me know your thoughts. I consider all my work wet clay and would appreciate the constructive feedback.