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A personal website is your chance to share your creativity and skills with the world.
Your personal site is like an extension of your personality, allowing you to create a space that reflects who you are as a creative professional. It showcases your portfolio, highlights your skill set, and describes your professional experience to potential clients, helping you land more gigs doing what you love.
There are no limitations to building a personal website — this hub is what you make of it. Read on for personal website examples to get you started.
Why do you need a personal website?
Having profiles on LinkedIn, Behance, and Dribbble is important, but a personal website is a one-stop shop where you can establish and control your professional online presence.
Here are a few reasons why you should have one:
- Curation — A personal site is a curated gallery of your skills, projects, and social proof, allowing you to display your best work in an organized and professional manner.
- Customizability — Unlike social media platforms and third-party portfolio websites, you gain full control over how you present your work and brand.
- Visibility — This site is your dedicated space on the web, meaning more clients, employers, and collaborators can find you through search engines.
- Reach and accessibility — Ideally, a website is accessible 24/7. This availability lets you expand your reach and allows people from different time zones to view your work.
- Direct communication — Your site will likely include contact forms, an email address, and links to social media so people can reach out.
14 unique personal website and portfolio examples
Here are 14 compelling personal websites and portfolios showcasing multiple design styles.
1. Jey Austen
Senior product designer and illustrator Jey Austin primarily uses white text and simple graphics on a black background for their personal site. While it may initially sound plain, vibrant colors like teal and orange pop in the thumbnails of different sections, with each 2D element taking on a 3D-like appearance when hovered over.
The gothic Pirata One font for the headers and unique imagery like crystals, swords, and butterflies add mystery to the website design and represent Jey’s personal style. With a picture and a short “Who is Jey?” bio, the website informs visitors of its creator’s originality while providing an enjoyable, aesthetically pleasing browsing experience.
2. Arlen McCluskey
With moving color gradients sandwiching a primarily white layout, Arlen McCluskey’s personal website adopts a minimalist design approach. It sticks to a couple of fonts and is generous on whitespace, giving each project room to breathe and stand out.
Despite the streamlined mockups and colors, Arlen uses serif text, going against the typical minimal mindset of flat, clean designs. Arlen balances personality with professionalism with a Work section that boasts his designs and an About page that outlines everything from his superpowers to his favorite books.
3. Mack & Pouya Photography
Photography portfolios are typically image galleries showcasing previous work. There’s nothing wrong with this approach, but seeing a photography business putting a spin on the norm with a heavily branded site is refreshing.
U.S.-based wedding photography duo Mack and Pouya show their vibrant personalities through their website, with maximalist design, interactive buttons, and parallax effects. Loud color combinations and bold text make this website feel like a celebration in itself, reflecting the business’ line of work perfectly.
4. Aileen Shin
On the other end of the spectrum regarding design languages, Aileen Shin’s personal website portfolio fully embraces minimalism. Black text and square images adorn a white background, highlighting Aileen’s project work.
With ample whitespace and a focus on symmetry, Aileen’s website feels well-organized and spacious. It features a curated selection of thumbnails with muted background colors whose subjects enlarge when visitors hover over them, showing how to effectively combine docile designs with intentional interactivity.
5. Tamara Sredojevic
Tamara Sredojevic is a freelance UX designer specializing in accessibility-centric and neuro-inclusive design. Whitespace is a common theme on this list, and Tamara’s website is no different, with muted, pastel colors filling in the gaps.
At the same time, information doesn’t go amiss. Pink and pistachio-colored bars stand out on the page to highlight text, with a button to toggle between English and French. Subtle animations — like the heart-shaped frame for Tamara’s headshot — make for a laid-back, lightweight aesthetic that doesn’t overwhelm visitors.
6. Colin Moy
With cleverly animated eyes for Os in “Colin Moy” and a mustard background, Colin Moy’s website’s interactivity and color palette instantly draw you in.
But these aren’t just for show — the Os in About, Portfolio, and Contact are clickable elements that expand to offer additional information. Colin also includes links to Instagram and LinkedIn, giving potential customers a touchpoint to connect for hiring opportunities.
Colin’s design is cloneable — experiment with this layout, customizing it to your liking.
7. Thick and Thin
Bobby Rowe’s website Thick and Thin is a vividly colorful slideshow that doesn’t encourage you to click until the bottom of the page. Instead, Bobby’s personality shines through with stories of human experiences and emotions, establishing a personal connection before pitching his services.
Once you reach the footer, three pillars appear: an “About” section, a case studies section, and a space to get in touch. Clicking each provides unique animations, sliding open new menus or taking you to a dedicated contact page. Plus, a menu in the top-right corner helps you navigate to any section, no matter where you are on the site.
8. Alice Lee
Alice Lee’s website portfolio is a collection of visually striking projects spread throughout the page. It immerses you in a grid of color, with interactive illustrations, new products in her online store, and well-placed text to break up the imagery. And the scrollable header at the top of the page features a beautiful parallax drawing of a girl and her dog.
But alongside these colors and creations are effective calls-to-action (CTAs) encouraging visitors to get in touch, buy merchandise, or sign up for the Alice Lee Studio newsletter. This could have been a straightforward online resume with a few featured projects from high-profile clients. But every bit of screen real estate represents Alice’s unique personal style without compromising the pitch.
9. Matthew P Munger
Matthew P Munger’s website portfolio has a retro theme, giving you an idea of what a Webflow designer’s portfolio might look like if made in the ’90s. Matthew’s website is experimental, with an intentionally “low-tech,” attention-grabbing design.
The site tells us about Matthew, highlighting his love for Macintosh as he pays tribute to the classic MacOS — a clever way for Matthew to integrate his personal taste into the website. And despite the novelty layout, the site is highly usable and informative, with menus and icons guiding you through client projects, social media links, and games. Overall, it’s an inventive vintage approach to showcasing modern work.
10. Dan Machado
Product designer Dan Machado’s personal website is another take on minimalist design. The website opens with a concise, text-only heading and turns into a split-screen design as you scroll, with project descriptions on the left and images on the right.
But it’s not all work — the clientele section transitions into an “About me” space where Dan offers a small snippet about his life. Potential customers want to know there’s a cooperative, friendly human behind each online portfolio, ready to shake hands and get to work. And Dan’s site does that with the “About me” section followed by CTAs and social media links for contacting him.
11. Anna Sabatini
Anna Sabatini shows off her talents by merging digital design with a sketchbook style. From the opening page displaying a pencil-lined self-portrait to hand-drawn lettering and interactive text, Anna’s website includes organic, artistic textures throughout.
The traditional-modern crossover goes further with typewriter-styled typography and a slick scroll-triggered animation on the right sidebar that reveals a menu. Along with featured projects and tutorials, a “Diary” section doubles as a personal blog where Anna shares her thoughts and observations. The writings have a stream-of-consciousness feel, showing Anna’s personal side.
12. Vance Banks
When it comes to personal websites, showing off your unique personality works to your advantage. Vance Banks’ site greets visitors with a smiling photo, colorful background, waving emoji, and hello message.
Vance uses a one-page website with a well-organized layout, adequate whitespace, and a splash of colors on a white backdrop. It shows how a one-page design doesn’t mean skimping on the details.
And while the homepage — which includes home, work, about, and contact information — all share the same page, Vance links to separate landing pages for detailed case studies. For each, accompanying images show what goes into his design process.
13. Kyle Craven
Like Dan Machado’s portfolio, with the light gray background and tasteful typography, Webflow Professional Partner Kyle Craven’s personal website is another minimalist layout, showing a growing design trend many established creatives adopt.
And similar to Vance Banks’ site, Kyle uses a one-page layout to showcase a short bio, selected projects, social media links, and a brief yet noticeable CTA at the bottom of the page. That said, there isn’t a lack of interactivity — the contact button in the top-right corner reverses in color as you hover over it, and the project thumbnails have a flipbook-style animation.
14. Pierre-Louis Labonne
Pierre-Louis Labonne uses gamification elements for their personal website, encouraging you to click every item on the site to reveal information. The site has a grid-style layout that separates different sections while making navigation straightforward so people can quickly find what they need. Placing “Browse my portfolio” in the middle of the design immediately draws attention, which is crucial for engaging potential employers or clients.
The site has a dark gray background with a blue panel and an animated floating head of its creator in the top-left that you can customize by clicking colored buttons at the bottom of the screen. Plus, the color palette helps make other elements, like the “Contact me” and “Side projects” buttons, stand out.
How to design a compelling personal website
Now that you have an idea of what an effective personal website includes, here are a few tips to consider when building your own:
- Clear and engaging design — A well-organized, engaging web design ensures your site is user-friendly and visually appealing. It makes a solid first impression and encourages visitors to explore your content. When designing, use a consistent color scheme and typography and organize content into logical sections. Include a navigation bar or menu so people can quickly find what they want.
- Compelling content — Your site’s content tells your story and highlights your skills and achievements. Convey your value proposition to stand out as a worthy hire for potential clients. Provide concise and relevant information while balancing text with visuals. Include a portfolio of your best work with detailed case studies to show your process and results.
- Responsive and mobile-friendly — Responsive designs make your site adaptable to multiple screen sizes. Use a website builder with built-in responsive features, like flexible grids and scalable images, to ensure your website appears and performs consistently on any device.
- Search engine optimization (SEO) — SEO increases site visibility in search engine results pages, driving more organic traffic to your site. Include relevant keywords in your content and follow SEO best practices for a fast-loading, secure portfolio.
- Regular updates — Routinely update your site with new content, clientele, projects, and relevant information (like changes in contact page details) to keep it current and engaging for return visitors. These updates reflect your commitment to personal growth and improve SEO by showing search engines your site is active.
Grow your personal brand with Webflow
As a creative professional, you need a portfolio to show off your work, connect with like-minded people, and land new clients. A personal website goes a step further and communicates who you are not only as a professional but also as a human being.
Webflow is a visual-first web development environment that streamlines your site creation process. Start with a Made in Webflow template or build your own in the Designer.
But first, get inspired by our list of unique web design portfolios before creating your website with Webflow.
If Webflow is of interest and you'd like more information, please do make contact or take a look in more detail here.
Credit: Original article published here.