Responses by Jon Way, designer/developer.

Background: The purpose of this site is to promote my brand as an independent creator and collaborative brand partner. The target audience is creative directors and C-level execs at small- to mid-sized businesses looking for a creative brand partner, fellow creators to collaborate with, and the general public who might be interested in some of my products and creations.

Design core: A lot of the anchor linking around the site might be the main feature, giving a guided experience through the content while providing context through some longer scrolling pages. In general, I tried to walk the line of being progressive when I could and practical when I should.

Favorite details: Creating a site that feels on brand for me and has room to evolve over time. Designing for myself and being content with the result has been a struggle, something I’m sure a lot of designers can relate to.

Challenges: Thinking of how to convey my offerings as an independent creative. I dabbled in a lot of different things, and there were a lot of iterations on how to convey what it is exactly that I do—and what I want to do.

Divergent paths: I could have been more efficient, but I don’t think I would have ended up where I did. Struggle and exploration are parts of the process and not something to be optimized or marginalized. I’m pretty content with the process on this one.

New lessons: Heedless optimism has no place in web development.

Navigation structure: The navigation is meant to be very flat and to enforce the broader narrative of how I want to be seen as a creative. The navigation between pages emulates a camera pulling focus. I’ve made an effort for my photography and my design to influence each other: I design my photos, and I bring cinematic and atmospheric characteristics into my personal design. This seemed like a subtle way to reinforce this.

Technology: I built my site entirely on Webflow, relying on its built-in CMS to populate and manage most of the content on my site. There’s some additional custom CSS and JavaScript added in, but it’s pretty nominal, all things considered.